New Delhi: The Netherlands on Friday formally returned the 11th-century Anaimangalam Copper Plates, among the most significant surviving records of the Chola dynasty, to India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the European nation.
Also known as the Leiden Plates in the Netherlands, the copper inscriptions date back to the reign of Emperor Rajaraja Chola I between 985 and 1014 CE, according to an India Today report. Historians regard them as one of the most important pieces of Tamil heritage preserved outside India.
The repatriation followed years of diplomatic engagement involving India, the Dutch government and Leiden University, where the artefacts had remained for more than a century.
The copper plates document grants of land revenues and taxes made to the Chudamani Vihara, a Buddhist monastery in Nagapattinam built by Sri Mara Vijayotunga Varman, ruler of the
Srivijaya kingdom in present-day Indonesia. The inscriptions reportedly offer rare insight into maritime trade, religious coexistence and cultural exchanges between South India and Southeast Asia during the height of Chola power.
The artefacts consist of 21 large and three small copper sheets weighing nearly 30 kilograms and bound together by a circular copper ring with the royal Chola seal. While Rajaraja Chola I issued the original grant, his son Rajendra Chola I later ordered the inscription to be engraved on copper plates for permanent preservation.
According to historians, the plates were taken to the Netherlands during Dutch colonial rule on the Coromandel Coast in the 18th century. They later entered the collection of Leiden University in 1862 and remained part of the university library’s Asian collections.
India had intensified efforts for the return of the artefacts in recent years, including raising the issue at international cultural forums. The breakthrough reportedly came after the Netherlands adopted a restitution policy for colonial-era artefacts in 2022, following provenance research conducted by Dutch authorities and Leiden University. The return of the Chola-era artefacts has been hailed as a major milestone in India-Netherlands cultural cooperation.