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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. XIX. THE KINGDOM OF MUTFILI
359
of St. Thomas, etc., and this was long accepted. The cross seemed to have been long forgotten, when lately Mr. Burnell turned his attention to these and other like
relics in Southern India. He has shown the inscription to be Pehlvi, and probably
of the 7th or 8th century. Mr. Fergusson considers the architectural character to be of the 9th. The interpretations of the Inscription as yet given are tentative and
somewhat discrepant. Thus Mr. Burnell reads : " In punishment (?) by the cross
(was) the suffering to this (one) : (He) who is the true Christ and God above, and Guide for ever pure." Professor Haug : " Whoever believes in the Messiah, and in
God above, and also in the Holy Ghost, is in the grace of Ilim who bore the pain
of the Cross." Mr. Thomas reads the central part, between two small crosses, " In
the Name of Messiah -1-." See Kircher, China Illustrata, p. 55 sego. ; De Couto, u. s. (both of these have inaccurate representations of the cross) ; Academy, vol. v. (1874), p. 145, etc. ; and Mr. Burnell's pamphlet " On some Pahlavi Inscriptions in South India." To his kindness I am indebted for the illustration (p. 351).
E" E na quelle parte da tranqueira alem, do ryo de Malaca, em hum citio de Raya Mudiliar, que depois possuyo Dona Helena Vessiva, entre os Mangueiraes cavando
ao fundo quasi 2 braças, descobriráo hua 4. floreada de sobre pouco carcomydo, da
forma como de cavaleyro de Calatrava de 3 palmos de largo, e comprido sobre hua pedra de marmor, quadrada de largura e comprimento da ditta -;- , entra huas
ruynas de hua caza sobterranea de tijolos como Ermida, e parece ser a -;- de algum christAo de Meliapor, que veo em companhia de mercadores de Choromandel a Malaca." (Godinho de Eredia, foL 15.)—MS. Note.—H. Y.]
The etymology of the name Mayiláppír, popular among the native Christians, is " Peacock-Town," and the peafowl are prominent in the old legend of St. Thomas.
Polo gives it no name ; Marignolli (circa 1350) calls itkirapolis, the Catalan Map (1375) Mirapor ; Conti (circa 144o) Malepor; Joseph of Cranganore (1500) Milapar (or Milapor) ; De Barros and Couto, Meliapor. Mr. Burnell thinks it was probably • Matai-ppuram, " Mount-Town " ; and the same as the Malifatan of the Mahomedan writers ; the last point needs further enquiry.
NOTE 5.—Dr. Caldwell, speaking of the devil-worship of the Shanars of Tinnevelly (an important part of Ma'bar), says : " Where they erect an image in imitation of their Brahman neighbours, the devil is generally of Brahmanical lineage. Such images generally accord with those monstrous figures with which all over India orthodox Hindus depict the enemies of their gods, or the terrific forms of Siva or Durga. They are generally made of earthenware, and painted white to look Horrible in Hindu eyes." (The Tinnevelly Shanars, Madras, 1849, p. i8.)
NOTE 6.—The use of the Yak's tail as a military ornament had nothing to do with the sanctity of the Brahmani ox, but is one of the Pan-Asiatic usages, of which there are so many. A vivid account of the extravagant profusion with which swaggering heroes in South India used those ornaments will be found in P. della Valle,
II. 662.
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF MUTFILI.
WHEN you leave Maabar and go about I,000 miles in a
northerly direction you come to the kingdom of MUTFILI.
This was formerly under the rule of a King, and since his
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