Indian Epigraphy c10.s5.1

c10.s5.1

Copper-plate grants were very valuable documents for the donees and their descendants, since their loss or destruction rendered the revenue-free holdings, created by them, ordinary rent-paying lands unless fresh charters were issued in the place of the old ones. There are instances of charters written on plam leaves or engraved on copper plates being destroyed by fire and the re-issue of copper-plate grants by the later rulers of the territories in question.² The donees therefore preserved the documents received from the donors generally with special care.