Sohgaura copper plate inscription

The Sohgaura copper plate inscription is an Indian copper plate inscription written in Prakrit in the Mauryan period Brahmi script.^[1] It was discovered in Sohgaura, a village on the banks of the Rapti River, about 20 km south-east of Gorakhpur, in the Gorakhpur District, Uttar Pradesh, India.^[2] The inscription describes the establishment of three granaries for the public during times of famine and scarcity. It discusses relief efforts undertaken by Chandragupta Maurya during a period of famine.^[3] Scholars agree that punchmarked coins featuring a three-arched crescent atop symbol known as Rajanka or Meru symbol, found at Kumrahar (Patna) also mentioned on the Sahgaura copper-plate, were issued during Chandragupta Maurya's reign.^[4]

Sohgaura copper plate inscription
The Sohgaura copper plate.
Material	Copper plate
Writing	Brahmi script
Created	3rd century BCE
Period/culture	3rd Century BCE
Discovered	26.57°N 83.48°E / 26.57; 83.48
Place	India
Present location	Sohgaura
Sohgaura

The inscription first one is a usual crescent on-hill symbol which is generally found on Mauryan silver punch marked coins, and also found on the base of a Kumhrar pillar and on many other antiquities. Jayaswal reads it as the monogram of Chandragupta Maurya. He takes the top crescent as Chandra and the remaining hill like combination for gutta; the upper loop for ga- ∩ and the two lower loops ∩∩ for double tta making it Chandragutta.^[5]

The plate, consisting of a line of symbolic drawings and four lines of text, is the result of a molding.^[6] The inscription is sometimes presented as pre-Ashokan, even pre-Mauryan, but the writing of the plate, especially the configuration of akshara would rather suggest a date after Ashoka.^[6] Archaeologist Raymond Allchin believes it to be from Ashoka's period, and considers it to be a precursor of the later copper-plate inscriptions.^[7]

Inscription

The text of the plate has been translated as follows. Its mentions the establishment of two grain depots (Kosthagara) to fight against famine.^[8]

Sāvatiyānam Mahāma(ttā)nam sāsane Mānavāsītika-
ḍasilimate Ussagāme va ete duve koṭṭhāgālāni
tina-yavāni maṃthulloca-chammā-dāma-bhālakān(i)va
laṃ kayiyati atiyāyikāya no gahi(ta)vvāya^[9]

• The order of the Mahamatras of Shravasti issued from the Manavasiti camp. Only to the tenants, only on the advent of drought, these (the) dravya store houses of Triveni, Mathura, Chanchu, Modama and Bhadra are to the distributed, in case of distress they are not to be withheld.
  —Translated by Jayaswal^[10]

• At the junction called Manawasi,
  these two storehouses are prepared,
  for the sheltering of loads of commodities,
  of Tiyavani, Mathura and Chanchu.
  — Translated by Fleet^[6]

This is the oldest Indian copper plate inscription known.^[7][8]

See also

• History portal
• India portal

• Indian epigraphy

References

1. Kapur, Kamlesh (2010). Portraits of a nation : history of ancient India. Internet Archive. New Delhi : Sterling Publishers Private Ltd. p. 418. ISBN 978-81-207-5212-2. One of the earliest copperplates, the Sahgaura plate, dates back to the Mauryan period.
2. THE SOHGAURA COPPER-PLATE REGISTRATION BM Barua Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute Vol. 11, No. 1 (1930), pp. 32-48
3. Upinder, Singh. History Of Ancient And Early Medieval India From The Stone Age To The 12th Century. p. 737. The Sohgaura inscription has been commented on by numerous scholars, who have variously assigned it a pre-Ashokan or post-Maurya date, the majority opinion currently favouring the latter. K. P. Jayaswal interpreted the crescent on the top as an emblem of the Maurya king Chandragupta and connected the contents of the inscription with the Jaina legend of a great famine during the reign of this king.
4. A Peep Into 70 Years Of Bihar 75, The Annual Session Of Numismatic Society Of India. The Bihar Research Society, Patna. 1987. p. 240.
5. Verma, Thakur Prasad (1971). The palaeography of Brahmi script in north India, from c. 236 B.C. to c. 200 A.D. Siddharth Prakashan, Varanasi. p. 39.
6. Sircar 1942 Select Inscriptions Vol 1 OCR p.85
7. F. R. Allchin (1995). The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States. Cambridge University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-521-37695-2.
8. 2000+ MCQs with Explanatory Notes For HISTORY by Disha Experts p.63
9. Barua, B. M. (1930). "THE SOHGAURA COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 11 (1): 48. JSTOR 41688160.
10. Mourya Samrajya Ka Itihas By Satyaketu Vidyalankar 1980 New Delhi Shri Saraswati Sadan. p. 455.