Indian Epigraphy c11.t4.1

c11.t4.1

There are various kinds of copper-plate records. Sometimes they contain official orders or the record of the construction of a monastery, etc. The *yantras* of the Jains and the Brāhmaṇas are also engraved on copper plates of various sizes—big, small or medium, and triangular, rectangular or round.¹ But the most important among copper-plate records are those issued by kings in respect of the grants they made for the purpose of attaining religious merit. These also greatly vary in size and shape. As regards shape, the plates were usually rectangular though some of them resemble squarish blocks of stone, or stone stelae.² Among rectangular plates, there are some which are somewhat longer or broader in the middle than at the ends or at the ends than in the middle.³ They have either rounded or angular corners. In rare cases, royal charters were written on peculiarly shaped lumps of copper such as an axe-head, as we have seen above.