page_title: Indian copper plate inscriptions
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Indian copper plate inscriptions / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Soghaura inscription
context_page_description: Indian copper plate inscriptions are historical legal records engraved on copper plates.
  Donative inscriptions engraved on copper plates, often joined together by a ring with the seal of the donor, was the legal document registering the act of endowment. It was probably necessary to produce them when required to prove ownership/ the claim to the rights. The retrievability of the copper plates was perhaps crucial in the newly settled lands. Detailed information on land tenures and taxation available from these copper plate grants.
context_section_description: Indian copper plate inscriptions  (tamarashasana), usually record grants of land or lists of royal lineages carrying the royal seal, a profusion of which have been found in South India. Originally inscriptions were recorded on palm leaves, but when the records were legal documents such as  title-deeds they were etched on a cave or temple wall, or more commonly, on copper plates which were then secreted in a safe place such as within the walls or foundation of a temple, or hidden in stone caches in fields. Plates could be used more than once, as when a canceled grant was over-struck with a new inscription. These records were probably in use from the first millennium.
  Some of the oldest inscribed copper plates to be found in the Indian subcontinent date to the Mature Harappan era, consisting of up to 34 characters and thought to be used for copper plate printing.
  The so-called Sohgaura copper-plate inscription, inscribed in the Brahmi script, and possibly from the 3rd century BCE Maurya Empire, is a precursor to the later copper-plate inscriptions. However, it is actually written on a small plaque of bronze (a copper alloy). The Taxila and the Kalawan copper-plate inscriptions (c. 1st century CE or earlier) are among the earliest known instances of copper plates being used for writing in the Indian subcontinent. However, these are not proper charters, unlike the later copper-plate inscriptions.
  The oldest known copper-plate charter from the Indian subcontinent is the Patagandigudem inscription of the 3rd century Ikshvaku king Ehuvala Chamtamula. The oldest known copper-plate charter from northern India is probably the Kalachala grant of Ishvararata, dated to the late fourth century on palaeographic basis.
  Some of the earliest authenticated copper plates were issued by the Pallava dynasty kings in the 4th century, and are in Prakrit and Sanskrit. An example of early Sanskrit inscription in which Kannada words are used to describe land boundaries, are the Tumbula inscriptions of Western Ganga Dynasty, which have been dated to 444 according to a 2004 Indian newspaper report. Rare copper plates from the Gupta period have been found in North India. The use of copper plate inscriptions increased and for several centuries they remained the primary source of legal records.
  Most copper plate inscriptions record title-deeds of land-grants made to Brahmanas, individually or collectively. The inscriptions followed a standard formula of identifying the royal donor and his lineage, followed by lengthy honorifics of his history, heroic deeds, and his extraordinary personal traits. After this would follow the details of the grant, including the occasion, the recipient, and the penalties involved if the provisions were disregarded or violated. Although the profusion of complimentary language can be misleading, the discovery of copper plate inscriptions have provided a wealth of material for historians
  Tirumala Venkateswara Temple have a unique collection of about 3000 copper plates on which the Telugu Sankirtans of Tallapaka Annamacharya and his descendants are inscribed.
caption: The Sohgaura copper plate inscription, the earliest known of its kind, 3rd century BCE
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