[INDOLOGY] Persian (?) seal on spurious Chola plates

[Manu Francis]

Dear Colleagues,

I am presently studying a set of spurious Chola copper plates (in Tamil and
Telugu) in the Chennai Government Museum from available descriptions and
translations (no illustrations, unfortunately).
Sources mention that the plates bear a Persian seal.
In the catalogue of copper-plates of the Museum Srinivasa Ayyangar (1918,
p. 15) writes:

“This and the subjoined eleven grants are more or less similar in
character. Two of them are exactly alike, while the rest differ in minor
details. These bear a seal at the top of the plates, in which is inscribed,
in *Persian*, ‘*Rāhēlilla*’ which means *dharma or charity* and another
seal at the end of the inscription, in which is inscribed, in Telugu,
‘yekkōl Appājī’.”

Could anybody kindly enlighten me on ‘Rāhēlilla’? Is it Persian? Arabic?
Both? What does it mean precisely? Are other examples known?

A subsidiary question concerns ‘yekkōl Appājī’? What does it mean? Note
that Burgess & Naṭēśa Śāstrī (1886, pp. 137ff.), who edited and translated
some of these plates, record variant readings of “Yekkōl Appājī” on some of
the plates:
“Yekōl Appājī”, “Ekkōlu Appājī”.
There is also a Telugu seal reading “Yajva Appājī”.

Burgess, J. & S.M. Naṭēśa Śāstrī (1886). Tamil and Sanskrit Inscriptions
with Notes on Village Antiquities Collected chiefly in the South of Madras
Presidency by Jas. Burgess. With Translations by Naṭēśa Śāstrī. Madras:
Government Press (Archaeological Survey of Southern India; 4).
Srinivasa Ayyangar, R. (1918). Catalogue of Copper-plate Grants in the
Government Museum, Madras. Madras: Printed by the Superintendent,
Government Press.

With very best wishes.

--
Emmanuel Francis
Chargé de recherche CNRS, Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud
(UMR 8564, EHESS-CNRS, Paris)
http://ceias.ehess.fr/
http://ceias.ehess.fr/index.php?1725
http://rcsi.hypotheses.org/
Associate member, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Culture (SFB 950,
Universität Hamburg)
http://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/index_e.html
https://cnrs.academia.edu/emmanuelfrancis


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