utkarsh

🧵 Identifying the oldest copper plate grant from Northern India Here are some more interesting facts in light of this discovery. In his book Indian Epigraphy, published in 1998, the renowned epigraphist Richard Salomon mentioned that the earliest copper plate charter from North India is the Kalachala plate of Īśvararāta, also from Gujarat, assigned to the later part of the fourth century CE. The plate does not carry a date because it was part of a set of at least two plates, and only the first plate has been found. The remaining plate, which likely held the date, is missing. In 1983, a large hoard of copper plates was found in Bagh in Madhya Pradesh. It contained land grant charters issued by the Maharajas of Valkha. 1/4

Here is a little backstory behind the discovery of the plate. A farmer in Gujarat found it while tilling his field last year. He contacted an archaeologist friend of mine to ask about the plate, and that is how it came to my notice. The owner wished to remain anonymous and contacted me through a fake profile on Instagram. He revealed only that the record came from Northern Gujarat. He refused to give any further details of the discovery or its provenance, even after several requests. In the meantime, I deciphered the plate and found two place names. The first was Harśapura agrahāra and the other was Vaiśākhadevaka grāma, situated in that agrahāra. I went through older epigraphical publications and found that Harśapura was an important agrahāra until the time of the Paramaras of Gujarat, and that it was the older name of the town of Harsol in the Sabarkantha district of Northern Gujarat. Palaeographic comparison with other plates found in this locality showed that this plate was very similar, which strengthened my identification of the provenance as Harsol. I then asked the owner if he was from the area around Harsol or Sabarkantha, and he blocked me. He perhaps thought I had traced his location using technology, but a far more primitive method was at work.