10th century Tamra Patra to unveil Jharkhand’s past

rare ancient Tampra- Patra belonging to 10th century A.D was discovered by archaeologist Harendra Sinha three days back at Jaint Garh, a small village near Chaibasa. Tamra-shasan or tamra-patra is a copper-plate grant representing engraved royal records of grants. Thus, these copper plates are being considered as a rare archaeological find.
According to Sinha who also served as the deputy director in the department of archaeology for 10 years, these copper plates have been one of the most important sources of history in the Indian subcontinent.
The copper plates were usually issued by the rulers or Zamindars of a particular area to an individual as a land grant. The tamra-patra includes the details of the land to be gifted, date of its issue, details of the ruler and his family, purpose of the grant along with the details of the beneficiary.
“I came to know about it a month back but it took me some time to locate it. The tamra patra contains a lot of historical information and it would help unveiling a lot of unknown history of the State. We would soon prepare our own thesis. The valuable article is with a villager there at present,” said Sinha.
The copper plate found weighs 1kilogram and 300 grams and measures 31X20 cm. On obverse it has a crescent at the top and a bull, looking left, below it which indicates the fact that that the issuer of the land grants was a Shaivite and a ruler of Chandravashi clan. Further below, the plate has a symbol inscribed which is embossed within a
rectangle, revealing the clan of the issuer.
Fascinatingly, the plate contains a 19 line inscription in proto Bengali script of 10th century on facade and a 10 line inscription on the reverse side. The copper plate being studied by Sinha at present and has been dated tentatively to 10th century, paleographically.
“We would very soon decipher the copper plate which would am sure give a lot of new information about the history of Jharkhand, bringing new facets of the culture to light,” asserted Sinha. Coincidently, a lot of brick structures and old mounds related to king myths have been found in the area nearby the same
village in excavations conducted by Archaeological Survey of India.
Sinha plans to get the antique on display at the State Museum soon. “It is at present with a person named Subhash who is the representative. We have spoken to him and he is ready to sell the artifact. I am going to write to Art and Culture Secretary for the purpose so that we can acquire it soon,” said Sinha.

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