The recent return of the 11th-century Anaimangalam copper plates from the Netherlands to India after nearly three centuries has put the spotlight on one of our important archival traditions: copper plate charters. The repatriation, completed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Netherlands, brought back a set of Chola-period records from Leiden University, where they had remained after being taken away during the colonial era.
Under powerful dynasties such as the Cholas, important royal orders were often engraved on copper sheets bound together by a metal ring and authenticated with a royal seal. Unlike palm-leaf manuscripts, which deteriorated over time, copper was durable, making it ideal for preserving permanent records. These charters functioned as legal title deeds, royal edicts and institutional records. Historians have relied heavily on these records.
All the major Chola copper plates such as Udayendiram, Velanjeri, Anbil, Anaimangalam, Tiruvalangadu and Esalam have Sanskrit and Tamil sections. They begin with the Sanskrit part, the prashasti, and open with an invocation to a deity, usually Vishnu or Siva. The Udayendiram copper plates (Parantaka Chola, 922 CE), for instance, start with a salutation to “Padmanabha Vishnu and Siva, the two poems set to two very distinct and beautiful Sanskrit metres, Vasantatilaka and Rathoddhata,” writes Prathik Murali, currently pursuing research in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. (Vasantatilaka may sound familiar to people, for the Venkatesa Suprabhatam is also composed in the same metre. The invocation in the Udayendiram copper plates predates it by nearly five centuries!). After the invocation, the copper plates trace the Chola line through Puranic ancestors such as Brahma, Marichi, Kashyapa, Surya, Manu and Ikshvaku. The Charala copper plates of Virarajendra Chola also mention Rama as their ancestor.
The prashasti then mentions celebrated early Cholas from the Tamil Sangam tradition such as Karikala, Kochchenganan and Perunarkilli and praises them in sonorous Sanskrit. The section later moves to historical genealogy. For instance, the Velanjeri plates name Ottriyuran as the father of Vijayalaya, the founder of the imperial line of the Cholas. Some plates also preserve the names of those involved in making the record; the Velanjeri and Anbil plates name him as Virachola Mahatacchan, note Ve Mahadevan and Ka Sankaranarayanan in the book Sozhar Cheppedugal.
The Tamil portion of the Chola copper plates, which begins with the auspicious phrase Svastisri, carries the legal and administrative substance. It gives the king’s title and regnal year, and then records the royal order. It has the ruler’s meikeerthi (from the Anaimangalam plates onwards). After this come the grant, beneficiaries, measurements, boundaries, exemptions and local arrangements. Officials who carried out the order are named, and signatures give further authority. The ombadaikkilavi at the end warns later rulers and officials not to disturb the grant.
The copper plates that contained the above details were not loose sheets. A hole was punched through each plate and the entire set was strung together with a copper ring. The ring was then secured with a royal seal. The seal typically bore the tiger, the Chola emblem, lording over the twin fish of the Pandyas, the bow of the Cheras and sometimes the boar of the Western Chalukyas, a visual proclamation of Chola supremacy.
With its imposing royal seal and detailed bilingual record, the Anaimangalam copper plates stand among the finest examples of Chola epigraphy. While their repatriation is cause for celebration, it must be noted that a number of copper plate records from India are still in museums abroad. These include the Pandya Velvikudi copper plates at the British Museum, London, Rajendra Chola seal at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), seven copper plates at the Edinburgh University Library in Scotland including the Mangalur and Uruvapalli plates of the Pallavas, and the 19th century Palani copper plates at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, says S Vijay Kumar, co-founder of the India Pride Project. Efforts are in progress to bring back the seven copper plate charters in Edinburgh, ASI Director (Epigraphy), Munirathnam Reddy has said. Regarding the stray seal at LACMA, author TS Krishnan points out that it only has the Rajendra sasana slokam with no further details. It is possibly part of an as yet unrecorded set of copper plates, he adds.
The Velvikudi copper plates, dating to the eighth century, narrate a story that stretches back to the Sangam age. According to the records, a land grant had originally been bestowed by the Sangam-era Pandya ruler Palyagasalai Muthukudumi Peruvazhuthi. The endowment was later revoked during the period of Kalabhra rule in Madurai. Following the restoration of Pandya authority, a descendant of the original beneficiary petitioned Pandya king Nedunchadaiyan for the return of the ancestral land. After examining the legitimacy of the claim, the ruler reinstated the grant through a royal order, which was formally recorded in the now-famous copper plates.
The Anbil copper plates, issued in 961 CE by Sundara Chola, the father of Raja Raja, are now missing. They were found “a few decades ago” by a person in the village of Anbil while digging the foundation of a portion of his house, writes archaeologist and epigraphist TA Gopinatha Rao around 1920. It was then given to a person who had come to repair the Siva temple in the village, who handed it over to U Ve Swaminatha Ayyar, he notes. U Ve Sa in turn gave it to Gopinatha Rao, who studied it, and published the details in Epigraphia Indica Volume XV. He then handed it over to the Anbil temple, says Krishnan. Another scholar says that it was later in the possession of the Government Museum, Chennai, before getting ‘misplaced’. But this could not be independently verified. According to reports, the director of the Chennai museum lodged a complaint with the TN Idol Wing in 2023, and its current whereabouts are not known.
The return of the Anaimangalam plates, therefore, should also serve as a reminder of the need to trace, document and protect our heritage that remains scattered, missing or forgotten.
Heavyweight from history
The floor of the front mandapa of the Kailasanatha temple in Tiruindalur near Mayiladuthurai was being dug up for renovation in May 2010 when a set of copper plates and a dozen bronze sculptures were found. These are the 11th century Tiruindalur copper plates containing royal orders of Rajadhiraja I and Rajendradeva, both sons of Rajendra Chola. Weighing 150 kg, “this is the lengthiest and heaviest copper-plate we have ever come across in Tamil Nadu and perhaps the whole of India,” says archaeologist N Marxiagandhi in Thiru Indalur Copper Plate: A Critical Study. In comparison, the recently returned Anaimangalam copper plates weigh a measly 30 kg. The Tiruindalur copper plates are now on display at the Government Museum, Egmore, Chennai, along with the Karandai and Tiruvalangadu plates
Weavers of Kanchi, temple servitors and more
The Uttama Chola copper plates, issued in 986 CE and preserved in the Government Museum, Chennai, offer a detailed glimpse into the administration of the Ulagalandha Perumal or Uraham (Trivikrama) temple in Kanchipuram, one of the oldest temples in the ancient Pallava capital. The five copper plates, written in Sanskrit and Tamil, record how temple revenues, daily worship, festivals, staffing and accounts were meticulously regulated. Temple income, drawn from taxes on commercial weighing and grain measures, temple-owned lands and loans extended to village assemblies, was carefully apportioned for worship, festivals and maintenance. The plates are particularly significant for what they reveal about Kanchi’s weavers and merchant quarters. The Sanskrit portion notes that residents of four ceris (quarters) in Kaccippedu were engaged in weaving cloth for the royal household, writes the doyen of South Indian archaeology and history R Nagaswamy in his Vishnu Temples of Kanchipuram. The weaving quarters were not merely occupational clusters but also key stakeholders in temple administration. Merchants from these localities were tasked with examining festival expenditure after celebrations, while the merchant guild appointed the temple administrator, watchman and accountant. The plates, in Nagaswamy’s telling, reveal “how thorough the Chola administration was”