Jewish copper plates of Cochin


Jewish copper plates of Cochin, also known as Cochin plates of Bhaskara Ravi-varman, is a royal charter issued by the Chera/Perumal king of Kerala, south India to Joseph Rabban, a Jewish merchant magnate of Kodungallur. The charter shows the status and importance of the Jewish colony in Kodungallur near Cochin.
It is engraved in Vattezhuthu with Grantha letters in Malayalam language. Although the traditional date according to the Cochin Jews is 379 CE, the presently accepted date of this charter is c. 1000 CE. The plate is dated in the 38th "A-series" regnal year of king Bhaskara Ravi Manukuladitya. The current accepted date of the plates was determined by historian M. G. S. Narayanan.
The charter records a grant by king Bhaskara Ravi Varma to Joseph/Yusuf Rabban of the rights of merchant guild anjuman along with several other rights and privileges. Rabban is exempted from all payments made by other settlers in the city of Muyirikkode. These rights and privileges are given perpetuity to all his descendants. The document is attested by a number of chieftains from southern and northern Kerala. Anjuvannam, the old Malayalam form of hanjamana/anjuman was a south Indian merchant guild organised by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic merchants from West Asian countries.
The grant is or was cherished by both "Black Jews" and the "White Jews" of Cochin as a historical document and their original settlement deed. It is carefully preserved in an iron box, known as the Pandeal, within the Paradesi Synagogue at Mattancherry.
During the visit of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India in 2003, the then provincial tourism minister K. V. Thomas presented him with a replica of the copper plates. Similar replicas were also gifted by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a state visit to Israel in 2017.

Text

The plate is engraved in early form of Malayalam using the Vattezhuthu script with Grantha letters. The charter ends with a list of witnesses to the deed which includes several chieftains of southern and northern Kerala, the Commander of the Eastern Forces, and the Officer who takes down Oral Messages.