Larger Leiden plates
Also called: Leiden copper plates · Topic: Southern Dynasties: Chalukyas, Pallavas, Cholas · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Larger Leiden plates are a set of Chola copper plates, from the early 11th century. A copper plate is a metal sheet on which a royal land grant was written. These plates record a gift of a village to a Buddhist monastery at the port of Nagapattinam. They are called "Leiden" plates because they are now kept in Leiden, in the Netherlands. They show that the Cholas, though mostly worshippers of Shiva, supported other faiths too.
Example
The plates record that Rajaraja Chola gave a village to the Chudamani Vihara at Nagapattinam. The charter itself was issued under his son Rajendra Chola I. The vihara (Buddhist monastery) was built by the Shailendra king of Srivijaya (Sumatra), and Rajaraja made it easier for him to build it. Like many Chola grants, the plates have a Sanskrit part praising the king and a Tamil part giving the details of the grant.
Don't confuse with
- Nalanda copper plate: records a Srivijaya ruler getting land from a Pala king for a monastery at Nalanda in Bihar. The Leiden plates are about Nagapattinam on the Tamil coast.
Related concepts
- Rajaraja Chola I
- Brihadishvara temple
- Chudamani Vihara
- Rajendra Chola I
- Gangaikondacholapuram
- Shrivijaya
- Chola naval expedition to Shrivijaya
- Kulottunga I