Damodarpur copper plates
Topic: Gupta Empire and the Classical Age · NCERT: Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"
Meaning
The Damodarpur copper plates are a set of Gupta-era records cut on copper sheets. They were found at Damodarpur in the Dinajpur area, in present-day Bangladesh. They mostly record sales of land. Some belong to the reign of Kumaragupta I, in the 5th century CE. They matter because they show that merchants and artisans had a seat in government at the district level.
Example
The plates show a district office with five members. They were the head district officer, the chief banker, the chief caravan trader (leader of travelling merchant groups), the chief artisan and the chief of revenue collection. Together, this board dealt with requests to buy land.
Don't confuse with
- Prayaga Prashasti: a praise-poem on a stone pillar about Samudragupta's wars. The Damodarpur plates are everyday administrative records on copper.
- Mandsaur inscription (473 CE): a stone record about a guild of silk weavers, not about a district office.