Jewish Copper Plate

The Jewish copper plate is a copper-plate charter issued by the Chera king of Cranganore, Bhaskara Ravi Varma (named as Parkaran Iravivanmar), granting land to a Jewish trader, Joseph Rabban of Cochin. Although the traditional date according to the Cochin Jews is 379 CE, the presently accepted date of this inscription is 1000 CE. It is the earliest evidence of a Jewish community settling in India, although local tradition has it that a previous settlement in Malabar dates to the early centuries CE.

During the visit of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India in 2003, the then provincial tourism minister KV Thomas presented him with a replica of the copper plates. Similar replicas were also gifted by Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a state visit to Israel in 2017.

The document records a royal grant to the Jewish chief Joseph Rabban of the rights of Ancuvannam along with the 72 proprietary rights enjoyed by high-ranking nobles of Chera kingdom. It is engraved on two small, rectangular copper-plates. The second side of the second plate is blank. A hole for the ring on which the plates must have been strung, is visible on the impression of each plate. The inscriptions on the plates are in archaic Tamil written using the vatteluttu alphabet.Grantha letters are used in a number of Sanskṛit words and for the foreign word "Issuppu".

The grant is cherished by the "White Jews" of Cochin as a historical document and their original settlement deed. It is carefully preserved in an iron box, known as the Pandeal, within the White Jews’ Synagogue at Mattancheri.

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