Indian copper plate inscriptions

[1] As instruments of state expansion, the durability and easy retrievability of the copper plates was crucial to consolidating newly settled lands.

[6] The Taxila and the Kalawan copper-plate inscriptions (c. 1st century CE or earlier) are among the earliest known instances of true copper plates being used for writing in the Indian subcontinent.

[7] The oldest known copper-plate charter from the Indian subcontinent is the Patagandigudem inscription of the 3rd century CE Andhra Ikshvaku king Ehuvala Chamtamula.

The oldest known copper-plate charter from northern India is probably the Kalachala grant of Ishvararata, dated to the late fourth century on palaeographic basis.

Although the profusion of complimentary language can be misleading, the discovery of copper plate inscriptions have provided a wealth of material for historians.

[10][11][12][13] Tirumala Venkateswara Temple have a unique collection of about 3000 copper plates on which the Telugu Sankirtans of Tallapaka Annamacharya and his descendants are inscribed.

These plates are valuable epigraphically as they give us an insight into the social conditions of medieval South India; they also help us fill chronological gaps in the connected history of the ruling dynasties.

Literary works in India were preserved either in palm leaf manuscripts (implying repeated copying and recopying) or through oral transmission, making direct dating impossible.

[20][21][22] Epigraphic attestation of Tamil begins with rock inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE, written in Tamil-Brahmi, an adapted form of the Brahmi script.

Between the eighth and tenth centuries, rulers on the Malabar Coast awarded various rights and privileges to Nazranies (Saint Thomas Christians) on copper plates, known as Cheppeds, or Royal Grants or Sasanam.