Correction - it appears to be Malayalam. Didn't need the Mrs (Miss Direction?) for this one...
The string after the date appears to spell out "Janavari," which, according to my wife, is a (phonetic) Malayali adaptation of "January," thereby reading, "January 1888."
Any Malayalis in the forum to confirm?
ETA: It is interesting to see the shared similarities among Dravidian languages, just as you see similarities among European languages, Sanskrit-based languages, or any other branching path of a respective language tree.