Tamil Bell

The Tamil Bell is a broken bronze bell discovered in approximately 1836 by missionary William Colenso. It was used as a pot to boil potatoes by Māori women near Whangarei in the Northland Region of New Zealand.

The bell is 13 cm long and 9 cm deep, and has an inscription. The inscription running around the rim of the bell has been identified as old Tamil. Translated, it says "Muhayideen Baksh’s ship’s bell". Some of the characters in the inscription are of an archaic form no longer seen in modern Tamil script, thus suggesting that the bell could be about 500 years old.

The bell has been dated by some historians to the Later Pandya period. Eminent Indologist, V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar states in his The Origin and Spread of the Tamils that ancient Tamil sea-farers might have had a knowledge of Australia and Polynesia. The discovery of the bell has led to speculation about a possible Tamil presence in New Zealand, but the bell 'is not in itself proof of early Tamil contact with New Zealand'. Seafarers from Trincomalee may have reached New Zealand during the period of increased trade between the Vanni country and South East Asia. Recent scientific studies have confirmed with genome-wide data substantiate Holocene gene flow from India to Australia about 4,300 years ago, while the implications of Trombetti’s work are that the "South Indian populations which migrated to Australia were Dravidian speakers".

The bell was bequeathed by William Colenso to the Dominion Museum - now the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.