Leiden plates
Abstract
The Leiden plates are coming home! Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be getting them from Netherlands during his upcoming visit there!
Wait – what are these Leiden copper plates? And why should we be excited by this news?
We talk of two sets of copper plates – the larger Leiden copper plates a set of 21 plates consisting of Sanskrit and Tamil inscriptions, and the smaller Leiden copper plates a set of 3 plates with Tamil inscriptions. Being housed at the Leiden University Museum in Netherlands for all these years, we now celebrate their homecoming.
These inscriptions of the Leiden copper plates shed light and present us an opportunity to dive into one of the most fascinating chapters of Indian history – the political, the religious, the economic, and the civilizational perspectives of the maritime silk route. In short, the inscriptions are from the 11th century, and record the grant of villages by the then Chola emperors for the upkeep of a Buddhist Vihāra at Nāgapaṭṭinam on the request of the then Śrīvijayan emperors.
Who were the Cholas and who were the Srivijayans? Where was Nāgapaṭṭinam? What is the significance of this Vihāra? Let us embark on a small tour along the 11th century maritime silk route.
Much of this essay is inspired from and directly borrows from the excellent book on this subject ‘Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia’
