Copper in Ancient India c8.s6.1

c8.s6.1

Another use of copper in ancient India was in the preparation of copper plates usually for the purpose of making land grants by kings to Brahmins and others. These copper plates, as is well-known, together with ancient coins, are the most authentic sources of the all-but-forgotten history of ancient Hindu India. The author has seen many of these copper plates which are generally made of pure copper, some of them weighing several pounds. One of the earliest copper plate is the Sohgaura plate discovered in the village of Sohgaura, district Gorakhpur in the United Provinces, the inscription being in Maurya Brāhmi characters of 320-230 B.C. The metal of the plate, however, seems to be an alloy of copper. The Sue Vihar inscription of Kanishka (first century A.D.) and the Taxila plates are also amongst the earliest of copper plates discovered in Northern India.¹ Sometimes the inscriptions are engraved on several plates or sheets of copper and Mr. Vincent A. Smith writes "the length of individual inscriptions is illustrated by the fact that an important record recently brought to light (in Southern India) is engraved on *thirtyone sheets of copper fastened together on a massive ring.*"² These copper plates appear to have been in general use amongst kings up to the thirteenth century in Northern India; but several copper plates dated so late as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries appear in the collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.