Copper plates that talk of Pandiyas now in museum

Madurai: Two 18th century copper plates, said to be the replicas of a copper plate dating back to the 14th century containing details on the exile of one of the famous Pandiya kings,

Maravarman Kulasekhara Pandiyan

, are now housed in the Madurai Government Museum.

Balasubramanian from Sakkampatti, Andipatti block in Theni district, had handed over the plates to the museum, curator of the museum A Periyasamy said. "He said that the two copper plates were handed down in his family. They were kept safe for many generations. Balasubramanian wanted to give them to the museum. We sought archaeologist A Narayanamoorthy's help to decipher the writings on the plates.

Narayanamoorthy

said that they are the copies of an old plate, by pointing out the numerous spelling mistakes. The original plate was inscribed on the 21st in the month of Aavani in the year 1342 AD by some people who dwelled in the Western Ghats," the curator told TOI.

"The inscriptions say that King Kulasekhara Pandiyan was exiled from Madurai due to Islamic invasion in the 28th year of his reign. His loyal minister Ponnin Thambiran, who was also the head of the Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, left with him. They constructed temples and dug tanks in many places during the exile. There is also a mention of a structure being constructed at the site where a tiger and its cub were buried after they killed them. Thambiran solved a long feud between two villages in the Western Ghats. He also appointed two persons to govern over the villages and render justice and also compensated them adequately," he added.

The plates handed over to the museum measure 23x8 cm in size and contain inscriptions in 154 lines. A lion's head is engraved at the top of the plates with conches on both sides.

They also provide some historical facts, including the invasion of Madurai by Tughlaq's man Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan. They also hail the king for having had his coronation in Madurai, where 64 celestial dramas of Lord Shiva were performed.