{"word_count": 572, "character_count": 4231}
The source of all the pictures of INDIEN 442 is BnFINDIEN 442 (ex-Tamoul 442) from the BnF is a bundle of 10 palm-leaf folios (800 x 20 mm) (Fig. 1).[caption id="attachment_50" align="alignnone" width="3816"] Fig. 1 --- BnF INDIEN 422, bundle, untied --- Courtesy of BnF[/caption]Fig. 2  is Cabaton's description of the manuscript in 1912.[caption id="attachment_33" align="aligncenter" width="870"] Fig. 2 --- Antoine CABATON, Catalogue sommaire des manuscrits Indiens, Indo-Chinois &#38; Malayo-Polynésiens, Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des manuscrits, Paris, Leroux, 1912, p. 60.[/caption]Putuccēritālūkkā (Fig. 3, upper line) is in fact the header of one of the three sections of INDIEN 442. There are two more sections, named Villavanallūrtālūkkā and Pākūrtālūkkā. Basically this document is a land register of three divisions or districts (tālukā) of the colonial Pondicherry: Putuccēri (Pondicherry), Villavanallūr (actual actual Villianour/Villiyaṉūr), and Pākūr (Bahour).The reading is facilitated by smearing the leaves with sooth or blacklamp.[caption id="attachment_17" align="aligncenter" width="3162"] Fig. 3 --- BnF INDIEN 422, folio 1, recto, header--- Courtesy of BnF[/caption]The manuscript is from the Ariel collection and cannot be later than 1850. It is dated most probably to the first half of the 19th century. No paratext is there to help us guessing a more precise date and finding the origin of the manuscript.This document will be of interest to the historian as it provides a list of more than 100 placenames in usage during the French colonial period.Each of the three sections begins with a kind of header and is further divided into numbered sections, each corresponding to columns in the lay-out and in names and status of villages and places, e.g. ayaṉkiṟāmam, "government land" (see Fig. 3, lower line, and Fig. 4, upper line).[caption id="attachment_42" align="aligncenter" width="3804"] Fig. 4 --- BnF INDIEN 422, folio 1, recto --- Courtesy of BnF[/caption]The text in Fig. 4 reads as follows:{முதல்}வது ((The curly brackets around முதல் indicate that an abbreviation is used for this word.))அயன்கிறாமம் - ஆலங்குப்பம்மதுறா சஞ்சீவிறாயன்பேட்டைmutalvatu [i.e. mutalāvatu]ayaṉkiṟāmam - ālaṅkuppammatuṟā cañcīviṟāyaṉpēṭṭai1st (sub-section of the section named Putuccēritālūkkā)Government land (ayaṉkiṟāmam): Alaṅkuppammatuṟā(kiṟāmam, which is another land category fo villages)[:] CañcīviṟāyaṉpēṭṭaiIn fact, for each territorial division (tālūkkā, that is, tālukā) is first provided a list of ayaṉkiṟāmam (Government land) and associated matuṟākiṟāmam (sweet land, that is, land free from saline impregnation ((See Wilson 1855, A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms (...) of British India, London, Allen &#38; Co, p. 315, s.v. Madhu, on the term madhurī, used with this meaning in the Cuttack region.)) or toddy land ((See the Madras Tamil Lexicon, s.v. maturai, "spirituous liquor".)) ?). The matuṟākiṟāmams are either named or given the status of {puṉcey} (land fit for dry cultivation only). For each tālūkkā, an individual total is given, making the distinction between amāṉi ayaṉkiṟāmam (government managed land) and koṅceciyakiṟāmam (leased land, from French “concession”?). Finally (f10v, c9–10) an overall total is given for the three tālūkkās concerned, making the distinction between ayaṉkiṟāmam (that is, amāṉi ayaṉkiṟāmam) and koṅceciyakiṟāmam.The manuscript moreover shows a nice variety of symbols/abbreviations.[caption id="attachment_1675" align="aligncenter" width="127"] {mutal}[/caption][caption id="attachment_1676" align="aligncenter" width="354"] {poṉ}[/caption][caption id="attachment_1677" align="aligncenter" width="353"] {Āka}[/caption][caption id="attachment_1678" align="aligncenter" width="352"] {puṉcey}[/caption]The symbol {poṉ} ("gold") is used in the left margin of the recto folios in the same function, it seems, as the piḷḷaiyār cuḻis, that are found sometimes instead in the same location (Fig. 5).[caption id="attachment_44" align="aligncenter" width="715"] Fig. 5 --- BnF INDIEN 422, left side of rectos of various folios --- Courtesy of BnF[/caption]BnF INDIEN 442 catalogue entry on BAM: HERE.BnF INDIEN 442 XML-TEI catalogue entry: in preparation.