The Hague, May 16 (PTI) The Netherlands on Saturday handed back 11th-century Chola dynasty copper plates to India, in an event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signifying the strengthening of ties between the two countries.
PM Modi arrived in the Netherlands on Friday – after a brief stopover in the UAE – on the second leg of his five-nation tour that also includes Sweden, Norway and Italy.
India has been pursuing the return of the Anaimangalam Copper Plates, known in the Netherlands as the Leiden Plates, since 2012.
The 21 copper plates are considered the most significant surviving records of the Chola dynasty and are among the important artefacts of Tamil heritage held anywhere outside India. The copper plates, belonging to the times of Rajaraja Chola I, weigh approximately 30 kilograms and are bound together by a bronze ring bearing the royal seal of the Chola dynasty.
The plates are divided into two sections: one has texts in Sanskrit, the other in Tamil. Rajaraja Chola I was a Hindu emperor who provided revenue endowments for a Buddhist monastery. While Rajaraja Chola I gave the original verbal order, which was recorded on palm leaves, it was his son, Rajendra Chola I, who had the grant amount etched on durable copper plates to preserve it. The bronze ring that binds the plates bears Rajendra Chola’s seal.
The plates were brought to the Netherlands in the 1700s by Florentius Camper, who was in India as part of a Christian missionary in the period when Nagapattinam – the city mentioned in the plates – was under Dutch control. The 24th session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Return and Restitution found that India’s claim as the nation of origin for the plates was valid. The committee encouraged the Netherlands to engage in constructive bilateral dialogue with India regarding the return of the plates.
The Netherlands decided to hand over the plates during the Prime Minister’s visit. PTI RD ABD RD RD
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