Indian Epigraphy c9.t9: 4. Copper

Indian Epigraphy c9.t9

Language: English

4. Copper

c9.t9.1

Among metals, copper was the most popular writing material in ancient and medieval India.

Official charters, especially grants made by kings and subordinate rulers (called tāmra-patra, tāmra-śāsana, tāmra, etc.) were generally engraved on copper plates which served the donees as title-deeds. Fa-hien's statement⁵ that, about 400 A.D., Buddhist monasteries in India possessed copper-plate grants some of which dated from the Buddha's time may not be trustworthy; but the practice of issuing copper-plate grants is certainly very old.⁶

c9.t9.3

⁵ Beal, Si-yu-ki, Vol. I, p. xxxviii.

c9.t9.4

⁶ The Sohgaura plate is really a bronze plaque cast from a mould. For details of copper-plate grants, see below.

c9.t9.5

Many North Indian royal families incised their charters on one or both sides of single copper plates while most of the royal families of South India engraved their charters on a number of plates held together by a copper ring passing through holes made in the left or upper margin of the plates. Certain West Indian royal families incised their documents on the inner side of two plates strung often on two rings. Some North Indian royal families like the Bhauma-Nārakas of Assam had their grants engraved on many plates.¹ Royal grants were sometimes engraved on peculiar objects of copper.²

c9.t9.6

¹ See Bhāskaravarman's charters from Nidhanpur and Dubi both engraved on no less than six plates (P. N. Bhattacharya, *Kāmarūpaśāsanāvalī*, pp. 1 ff. ; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXX, pp. 287 ff.).

c9.t9.7

² Cf. the Balasore copper axe-head grant of Gajapati Puruṣottama (Bhandarkar's List, No. 1753).

c9.t9.8

The plates, which were small, medium or big in size, were generally oblong in shape. The royal seal, previously fashioned from a mould, was usually fixed to the upper or left margin of single plates and on the joint of the ring holding several plates together. The seals were generally of bronze and were so cast from moulds that the emblems and legends on them appeared on a counter-sunk surface. On plates having the seal fixed at the top, the lines were incised breadthwise, while those having the seal at the left margin had the lines engraved lengthwise. Similarly, the writing on multiplate charters is lengthwise or breadthwise according as the ring holding them passes through holes made in the left or top margin of the plates.

c9.t9.9

When the holes were made in the upper margin, it was often in the upper margin of the obverse of the plates and in the lower margin on their reverse. When two rings were used to hold the plates together, they generally passed through holes in the upper margin of the plates. For the protection of the writing, the rims of the plates were sometimes thickened or raised and generally the outer sides of the first and last plates of a set were kept blank.

c9.t9.10

³ According to Bāṇa's *Harṣacarita* (Nirnaysagar Press ed., p. 227), the state seal of king Harṣa was made of gold. The royal seals on cheaper material like bronze or clay were prepared for various purposes. The moulds were probably of metal or burnt clay.

c9.t9.11

The engraving was done sometimes from a draft. Often the text was written on the plates with ink or was scratched with a needle and the letters were cut according to their shapes thus drawn by means of a chisel. Sometimes, especially in certain South Indian records, the engraving looks like scratching and it is possible that, in such cases, the surface of the plate was covered with a layer of a substance like mud and the writing was done, when it was in a semi-dried condition, by means of a graver. The engraving of the letters in some early epigraphs like the Kalwan plate¹ is done by dots instead of continuous strokes.

c9.t9.12

¹ *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXI, p. 259 and Plate.

c9.t9.13

Mistakes in the grants engraved were generally left uncorrected. But, in certain cases, the wrong letters were rubbed off or beaten in by hammering and the correct letters were re-engraved on the erasures. In some of the medieval copper-plate grants, the corrections were engraved in the margins of a plate occasionally with indications of the omission or correction.

c9.t9.14

Occasionally old or rejected copper plates were utilized for engraving fresh charters. Although they were often thoroughly refashioned, in some cases the old writing was beaten in by hammering and the new text was re-engraved. In the latter case, traces of the older writing are often still noticeable. We have a number of such palimsests.²

c9.t9.15

² See, e.g., ibid., Vol. XXV, Plate facing p. 191.

c9.t9.16

The plates of copper were fashioned with hammer by the brazier and some of them still exhibit traces of hammering. A number of the plates are small, thin and light while others are big, thick and heavy. The Taxila plate of Patika is so thin that it was found bent double and it weighs only 3½ ounces. The size of a plate depended on factors like the length of the writing to be engraved (i.e. the nature of the draft used in a particular area), the size of the letters in the copy prepared by the clerk, etc. The smiths made the plates according to the size of the clerks' drafts received by them. When the drafts were written on palmyra leaves, the plates were narrow and long, while, for copying drafts on birch bark, the plates required to be much broader, sometimes almost square. The plates used by the Vijayanagara kings were shaped like stone stelae. The copper-plate grants of the kings of the Maitraka dynasty of Valabhī clearly show how the size of the documents increased with the increase in the length of the eulogies. The eulogies in the records of the later members of the family had to mention a much larger number of predecessors.

c9.t9.17

Some inscriptions engraved on copper plates are not grants. A few such records are the *yantras* of the Brāhmaṇas and Jains, engraved on copper plates of various shapes and sizes. The practice of engraving books on copper plates is also known. According to a tradition recorded by Hiuen-tsang, Kaniṣka caused the Buddhist religious texts to be engraved on copper plates.¹ There is also a story that Sāyaṇa’s commentary on the Vedas was engraved on copper plates.² Whether these traditions are genuine or not, we have actually the Tāllapākaṁvari works in Telugu engraved on many copper plates preserved at Tirupati.³

c9.t9.18

¹ See Beal, *Si-yu-ki*, Vol. I, p. 155; Watters, *On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India*, Vol. I, p. 271. Cf. the Kasia copper plate containing the *Nidānasūtra* in Sanskrit and deposited by a person in the local *Nirvāṇacaitya* (Bhandarkar’s List, No. 1754).

c9.t9.19

² Cf. Burnell, *Elements of South Indian Palaeography*, p. 86.

c9.t9.20

³ *A. R. Ep.*, 1912, No. 568.

c9.t9.21

We have a number of copper statues bearing inscriptions on their bases. Objects of general use made of copper were often inscribed⁴ and the custom is still prevalent. Such inscriptions were usually either votive or indicative of the ownership of the objects. There are also small Buddhist texts engraved on copper plaques or seals.⁵

c9.t9.22

⁴ See the Taxila copper vase and ladle inscriptions (*CII*, Vol. II, Part i, pp. 87 ff.), the Jamalgarhi lamp inscription (ibid., p. 116), the Wardak (Khawat) vase inscription (ibid., pp. 165 ff.), etc. For an inscribed copper cauldron, see *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XVI, p. 15.

c9.t9.23

⁵ See *Indian Archaeology*, 1954-55, Plate XLIX. ; *A. R. Ep.*, 1956, No. B120.

Linked texts (2)

Nidānasūtra — Patañjali (grammarian), Sanskrit
Harṣacarita — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit