Tamil copper-plate inscriptions

Tamil copper-plate inscriptions are copper-plate (Tamil: செப்பேடு) records of grants of villages, plots of cultivable lands or other privileges to private individuals or public institutions by the members of the various South Indian royal dynasties. The study of these inscriptions has been especially important in reconstructing the history of Tamil Nadu. The grants range in date from the 10th century C.E. to the mid-19th century C.E. A large number of them belong to the pandyas, the Cholas . 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. For example, the Leyden grant (so called as they are preserved in the Museum of Leyden in Holland) of Parantaka Chola and those of Parakesari Uttama Chola are among the most important, although the most useful part, i.e., the genealogical section, of the latter's plates seems to have been lost.

Most of the Tamil country inscriptions were written in Tamil, but beginning in the 6th century, both stone and copper-plate inscriptions were written in Sanskrit as well, some being bilingual. Indian archaeologists have discovered hundreds of inscriptions during the last 120 years. Professor E. Hultzsch began collecting South Indian inscriptions systematically from the latter part of 1886 when he was appointed Epigraphist to the Government of Madras.

The earliest of the extant copperplate inscriptions date from the 10th century C.E. Of these, the Leyden plates, the Tiruvalangadu grant of Rajendra Chola I, the Anbil plates of Sundara Chola and the Kanyakumari inscription of Virarajendra Chola are the only epigraphical records discovered and published so far that give genealogical lists of Chola kings.

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