Nidhanpur copperplate inscription

Nidhanpur Inscription

The Nidhanpur Inscription of Bhaskaravarman
Material	Copper
Discovered	29 December 1912 Nidhanpur

The Nidhanpur copperplate inscription of the 7th-century king of Kamarupa, Bhaskaravarman gives a detailed account of land grants given Brahmins. The copper plates were found mostly in Panchakhanda pargana where historians opined that actual granted lands are located.

The inscriptions recorded by Bhaskaravarman in different parts of India provide a detailed account of his rule and associate events. It was customary among the kings of Kamarupa to issue seals for every major event related to the kingdom be they giving land grants to Brahmins or winning a war.

The copper plates were discovered on 29 December 1912, in the village of Nidhanpur in Panchakhanda near what is now Sylhet in Bangladesh. They were discovered by a Muslim cultivator during the process of building a buffalo shed. Thinking that they were a clue to the location of a hidden treasure, he took the plates to a local landholder who recognised them for what they were and brought them to the attention of authorities in Silchar in present-day Assam.

The following is the translation of the inscription by Padmanatha Bhattacharya Vidyavinoda:

Om. (Verse 1.) Having saluted the god who is lovely with the moon as head-gear. the wielder of the bow (pinaka), adorned with particles of ashes, I once again make clear (what was already) plain words (i.e. of the destroyed plates) for the benefit of the (spiritually) prosperous Brahmans.

(Line 2.) Hail. From the camp located at Karnasuvarna, with the appropriate epithet of victory owing to possession of splendid ships, elephants horses and foot-soldiers.

(V.2.)Victorious is the form of the great Lord (Mahadeva), never forsaken (in contemplation by the devotees), bedecked with its own splendour, that has a girdle made of the lord of snakes, (and) that destroyed the body of Kama (Cupid) at a mere glance.

(V.3.)Victorious is (also) Dharma (Religion), the sole friend of the creation, the cause of prosperity in both the worlds (this and the next), whose form is the good of others, unseen (yet) whose existence is inferred from the results.

(V.4.)Naraka, the chief of the rulers of the earth, was the son of the wielder of the Chakra (i.e. Vishnu), who with a view to lift up the Earth from (beneath) the Ocean, assumed the distinguished form of a boar.