{"id":103952,"date":"2026-05-18T16:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=103952"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:49:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:19:00","slug":"anaimangalam-copper-plates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/anaimangalam-copper-plates\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaimangalam Copper Plates"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Anaimangalam Copper Plates Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Netherlands returned the 11th-century Anaimangalam Copper Plates (Leiden Plates) to India during the Prime Minister\u2019s recent visit, restoring a monumental Chola-era record of maritime trade and religious pluralism. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Anaimangalam Copper Plates<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Anaimangalam Copper Plates, also known as the <\/span><b>Leiden Plates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are <\/span><b>11th-century inscriptions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> associated with the <\/span><b>Chola Empire.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plates are<\/span><b> 21 in number <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and weigh about 30 kg. They are <\/span><b>held together <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by a <\/span><b>bronze ring locked <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with the<\/span><b> royal seal of Rajendra Chola I.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The inscriptions on the copper plates<\/span><b> date to the reign of Emperor Rajaraja Chola I (985\u20131014 CE) and his son Rajendra.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plates are divided into <\/span><b>two sections:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> one has texts in<\/span><b> Sanskrit; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the other, in <\/span><b>Tamil.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">initial plates are in <\/span><b>Sanskrit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, offering a <\/span><b>detailed genealogy of the Chola rulers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and linking them to mythological figures.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>majority <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of plates are in <\/span><b>Tamil<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, documenting <\/span><b>administrative and grant details.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Tamil section <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">records <\/span><b>Rajaraja\u2019s grant of land revenues and taxes to the Chudamani Vihara,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a<\/span><b> Buddhist monastery<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Nagapattinam.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>monastery <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was <\/span><b>built by Sri Mara Vijayotunga Varman<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the ruler of the <\/span><b>Srivijaya kingdom<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in present-day <\/span><b>Indonesia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>land grant<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s were <\/span><b>originally issued by Rajaraja Chola I,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but <\/span><b>his son<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Emperor <\/span><b>Rajendra Chola I, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">later <\/span><b>had the order engraved onto the copper plates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to preserve it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The inscriptions provide a rare <\/span><b>insight into the maritime links,<\/b> <b>religious pluralism,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and cultural exchanges that existed <\/span><b>between South India and Southeast Asia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during the peak of the Chola period.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>plates\u2019 journey abroad began <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">around <\/span><b>1700<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when <\/span><b>Dutch missionary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Florentius Camper<\/span><b> acquired them during the Dutch East India Company\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s control of Nagapattinam.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They eventually <\/span><b>found their way to Leiden University Library, Netherlands,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where they have been studied by scholars but are largely inaccessible to the public. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wionews.com\/india-news\/netherlands-to-return-11th-century-chola-copper-plates-to-india-during-pm-modi-s-visit-1778916989016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>WION<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anaimangalam Copper Plates are 11th-century inscriptions associated with the Chola Empire. Read more about Anaimangalam Copper Plates, History, Importance, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":103916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7600],"class_list":{"0":"post-103952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-anaimangalam-copper-plates","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103952"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104033,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103952\/revisions\/104033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}