Larger Leiden plates of Rajaraja I

The Larger Leiden plates are a Chola copper-plate grant now kept at Leiden, in the Netherlands.¹ They record a gift by Rajaraja I to a Buddhist monastery at Nagapattinam.² For the Telugu country they matter because they list Rajaraja’s conquests, including Vengai-nadu and Kalingam.³⁴

The plates

There are twenty-one copper plates on a ring, with the Chola seal.¹ They are kept in the museum of the University of Leiden.¹ James Burgess and Natesa Sastri first edited them in 1886, without any record of where they were found.¹⁵ K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer edited them again in Epigraphia Indica XXII (1933–34).⁵

The seal shows two fish, a tiger, a parasol and a bow.¹ The first part, 111 lines, is in Sanskrit in the Grantha letters.⁶ The Tamil part is much longer, 332 lines.⁶

What the grant records

In Subrahmanya Aiyer’s reading, Rajaraja I gave the village of Anaimangalam in his 21st year to a Buddhist monastery at Nagapattinam.² He dated that year to 1005.⁷ The monastery had been built by the Sailendra king of Srivijaya and Kataha.² Rajaraja’s son Rajendra I had the grant written down after his father’s death.² See Rajendra I.

E. Hultzsch used the plates in 1890.⁸ They say that Rajaraja “conquered Satyasraya”, whom he took to be the Western Chalukya king.⁸ This helped him identify this Rajaraja with the father of Kundava, queen of the Eastern Chalukya Vimaladitya.⁸ See Kundavadevi.

Vengai-nadu and Kalingam

The Tamil introduction lists Rajaraja’s conquests, among them Vengai-nadu and Kalingam.³ Subrahmanya Aiyer explained Vengai-nadu as the country of the Eastern Chalukyas.⁴ He dated its first mention in Rajaraja’s records to his 12th to 14th years, about 997–98.⁴

He also wrote about the twenty-seven years in which, the Eastern Chalukya grants say, Vengi had no ruler.⁷ He thought other members of the Eastern Chalukya family ruled in that gap.⁷ In his view Rajaraja invaded Vengi on behalf of the line of Danarnava, to put Saktivarman I on the throne.⁷ See the Eastern Chalukyas.

Footnotes

1. K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “The Larger Leiden Plates (of Rajaraja I)”, Epigraphia Indica XXII (1933–34, publ. 1938), p. 213 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “Larger Leiden Plates”, Epigraphia Indica XXII, pp. 222–224 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “Larger Leiden Plates”, Epigraphia Indica XXII, p. 259, translation of the Tamil portion (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

4. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “Larger Leiden Plates”, Epigraphia Indica XXII, pp. 224–225 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “Larger Leiden Plates”, Epigraphia Indica XXII, p. 214 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

6. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “Larger Leiden Plates”, Epigraphia Indica XXII, pp. 215–216 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

7. Subrahmanya Aiyer, “Larger Leiden Plates”, Epigraphia Indica XXII, pp. 227–228 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. E. Hultzsch, South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I (1890), p. 51 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³