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.