Industry Odisha Bureau, May 17: The Government of Netherlands has eventually returned India’s histrorically noteworthy 11th century artefacts – the ‘Chola Copper Plates’ – that reportedly lied there in a university for over 300 years.
The precious property was formally restored back to bona fide owner India yesterday at a formal ceremony graced by Netherlands Prime Minister Rob Jetten and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as evident from the latter’s post on his official social media X handle.
Reportedly, “weighing around 30 kg, the 21 copper plates belonging to the 11th Chola Dynasty, are bound together by a bronze ring bearing the royal seal of Rajendra Chola I (son of Rajaraja Chola), the then ruling dynasty of Thanjavur (also historically known as Tanjore or Thanjai in the Cauvery Delta region of Tamil Nadu in India). The inscriptions on the copper plates are in both Sanskrit and Tamil languages.”
As per media reports, “those historically significant Indian artefacts were under the custody of Netherlands-based Leiden University’s Asian section repository since 1700 AD”. Even though the veracity is yet to be ascertained, it is said that “a Christian missionary named Florentius Camper, who had been in the city of Nagapattinam that was then under the Dutch colonial rule, could somehow procure the set of 21 Chola Copper Plates.”
Reports further said that, “the intial effort to get them back to India was begun in 2012, while the Government of India formally put forth its request for including the artefacts in the agenda of the 24th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Properties (ICPRCP) to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation.”
Also reported that, “the formal request as well as the claim by the Government of India was not only found valid by the ICPRCP, but also got formally endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 2023 resulting in an agreement between both the countries.”
