The Nagapattinam Buddhist Viharas: What Rajaraja’s Leiden Plates Really Say

For three centuries, a set of 21 copper plates bound by a bronze ring lay in the vaults of Leiden University in the Netherlands, known to scholars but hidden from the Tamil people who had created them. Weighing nearly 30 kilograms and inscribed in both Sanskrit and Tamil, these plates—known as the Anaimangalam Copper Plates or Leiden Plates—carry a message that has transformed our understanding of the Chola Empire.

The plates record a remarkable act: Rajaraja Chola I, the great Saivite emperor who built the Brihadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur, granting revenues from an entire village to support a Buddhist monastery. Not a Saivite temple. A Buddhist vihara. Built not by a Tamil king, but by a foreign ruler from Southeast Asia.

This is the story of what the Leiden Plates really say—about religious tolerance, maritime diplomacy, and the forgotten Buddhist heritage of Tamil Nadu.

The Return: A Homecoming After Three Centuries

In May 2026, the Netherlands formally returned the Anaimangalam Copper Plates to India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to The Hague. The restitution marked the culmination of a 14-year diplomatic effort that began in 2012, gained momentum in 2023 when India raised the issue before UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property, and finally succeeded in 2026 .

The plates had left India around 1700, acquired by a Dutch missionary named Florentius Camper during the period of sadras-the-dutch-in-tamil-nadu/" class="sial-auto-link">Dutch East India Company control over Nagapattinam. The Dutch had made this ancient Chola port their headquarters on the Coromandel Coast. The plates eventually entered the collections of Leiden University, where they remained for more than three centuries, studied by epigraphists but rarely seen by the public .

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The handover ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Modi and his Dutch counterpart Rob Jetten. “A joyous moment for every Indian!” Modi posted on social media after the ceremony .

The plates are more than artefacts. They are a fragment of Tamil civilisation preserved abroad and now returned home.

The Physical Object: A King’s Words in Copper

The Anaimangalam Copper Plates consist of 21 large copper sheets bound together by a massive bronze ring. The ring bears the royal seal of Emperor Rajendra Chola I, featuring the iconic Chola tiger emblem. A smaller ring secures three additional plates. The entire set weighs approximately 30 kilograms .

The inscription is bilingual. The first plates are in Sanskrit, written in the Grantha script. They trace the genealogy of the Chola rulers, linking them to mythological figures and establishing the dynasty’s divine legitimacy. This was standard royal practice—connecting earthly power to celestial origins.

The remaining and more extensive portion is in Tamil, written in the Tamil script. This section records the administrative details of the grant: the boundaries of the donated land, the tax exemptions granted, the responsibilities of the donee, and the procedures for implementation .

The plates were issued during the 21st regnal year of Rajaraja Chola I, which corresponds to approximately 1006 CE. However, an interesting detail emerges from the inscription: while the original grant was made orally by Rajaraja Chola I and initially recorded on palm leaves, it was his son and successor, Rajendra Chola I, who ordered the decree to be engraved on copper for permanence. The bronze seal fastening the plates bears Rajendra’s emblem, not his father’s .

This detail speaks to a son’s devotion—Rajendra ensuring that his father’s act of generosity would be remembered forever.

The Grant: A Saivite Emperor Patronising a Buddhist Monastery

The Tamil section of the Leiden Plates records that Rajaraja Chola I granted the revenues of the village of Anaimangalam, near Nagapattinam, to support a Buddhist vihara called the Chulamanivarma Vihara .

The monastery had been constructed by Sri Mara Vijayottunggavarman, a ruler of the Srivijaya Empire from the Malay Archipelago—present-day Indonesia and Malaysia. The Srivijaya king built the vihara in the name of his father, and the monastery came to be known by his father’s name: Chulamanivarma Vihara .

This was not a small gesture. Anaimangalam was not a single building but an entire village—its lands, its agricultural produce, its labour. The grant transferred all of this to the Buddhist monastery, ensuring that the monks would have a steady income to maintain their worship, their library, and their hospitality to travellers.

The inscription includes details on land boundaries, tax exemptions, irrigation responsibilities, and administrative procedures. It is a legal document of extraordinary precision, designed to withstand any future challenge to the monastery’s ownership .

The plates also incorporate an element of celestial sanction. One portion declares that the god Vishnu himself, in his role as guardian of the Chola dynasty, protects the boundaries of the donated lands. Anyone who dares to violate the grant will commit a sin equivalent to killing a thousand Brahmins .

The Monastery: Chudamani Vihara, the Buddhist Gem

The monastery supported by Rajaraja’s grant was known as the Chudamani Vihara—literally, the “Jewel-Crest Monastery.” It was constructed in 1006 CE by the Srivijayan king Sri Vijaya Maravijayattungavarman with the patronage of Rajaraja Chola I.The choice of Nagapattinam was deliberate. The port city was the Chola empire’s primary gateway to the Indian Ocean. Ships from Srivijaya—carrying spices, gold, and Buddhist monks—docked at its piers. A Buddhist monastery in Nagapattinam would serve Srivijayan merchants and monks travelling to and from Southeast Asia.

The Chudamani Vihara survived for centuries. According to historical records, the building remained standing in dilapidated condition until 1867, when Jesuit missionaries demolished it . By that time, the Buddhist community that had sustained it for eight centuries had long since disappeared.

But the monastery’s legacy survived underground. Since 1856, approximately 350 Buddha bronzes have been found at Nagapattinam, dating from the 11th to the 16th century . These statues—some small, some life-sized—were buried by Buddhist monks fleeing persecution or simply abandoned when the monastery fell into disuse.

One statue, now at the John D. Rockefeller Collection of Asian Art in New York, carries a remarkable inscription. The inscription, translated by the scholar Vidya Dehejia, records that this particular Buddha image was created to be carried in a procession during the temple’s sacred festival. It mentions “the perum-palli (great place of worship) of the metalworkers” and “the perum-palli of Rajendra Chola” .

The reference to Rajendra Chola suggests that the monastery continued to receive Chola patronage long after Rajaraja’s original grant. The Cholas did not merely tolerate Buddhism—they actively supported it.

Before the Cholas: A Thousand Years of Buddhism at Nagapattinam

The Chudamani Vihara was not the first Buddhist monastery at Nagapattinam. The site’s Buddhist heritage stretches back more than a millennium before Rajaraja.

According to Burmese historical texts, the emperor Ashoka built a Buddha vihara at Nagapattinam in the 3rd century BCE. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who travelled through India in the 7th century CE, mentioned the vihara in his travels. The ancient Buddhist literature refers to Nagapattinam as Padarithitha .

The Anaimangalam Copperplate of Kulothunga Chola I mentions that a Buddhist monk named Kasiba Thera renovated the shrine in the 6th century CE with the help of monks from “Naganadu”—Nagapattinam .

The Pallava king Rajasimha (690–728 CE) permitted a Chinese king to build a Buddha vihara in Nagapattinam. Pallava inscriptions record grants to Buddhist institutions alongside grants to Hindu temples. Religious pluralism was not a Chola innovation—it was a Tamil tradition that stretched back centuries .

When Rajaraja Chola I ascended the throne in 985 CE, he inherited a port city where Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus had coexisted for a thousand years. His grant to the Chudamani Vihara was not an exception to his rule. It was a continuation of Tamil tradition.

The Srivijaya Connection: Why a Malay King Built a Monastery in Tamil Nadu

The Chudamani Vihara was built by a king who did not rule Tamil Nadu. Sri Mara Vijayottunggavarman was the Maharaja of Srivijaya, a maritime empire based on the island of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia.

Srivijaya controlled the Malacca Strait and the Sunda Strait—the two narrow passages through which all trade between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea had to pass. Any vessel sailing from India to China had to pay tribute to Srivijaya or face plunder.

The relationship between the Cholas and Srivijaya was initially friendly. The two maritime powers recognised each other’s strengths and found it profitable to cooperate rather than compete. The Chudamani Vihara was a product of this friendship—a diplomatic gesture from a Southeast Asian king to his Tamil counterpart.

By building a Buddhist monastery in Nagapattinam, the Srivijayan king accomplished several goals. He provided a place of worship for Srivijayan merchants and monks travelling to Tamil country. He demonstrated his wealth and piety to the Chola court. And he cemented an alliance that protected Srivijayan shipping in the Bay of Bengal.

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The friendship did not last forever. In 1025 CE, Rajaraja’s son Rajendra Chola I launched a naval expedition against Srivijaya, sacking its capital and capturing its king. But the Chudamani Vihara survived the conflict. By then, it had become a Tamil institution—no longer merely a foreign monastery, but a part of Nagapattinam’s sacred landscape.

The Leiden Plates record that the Srivijayan king constructed the vihara “with the support of Rajaraja” . The phrase is significant. The monastery was not merely permitted by the Chola emperor—it was supported by him. Rajaraja did not tolerate the vihara. He patronised it.

The Archaeological Evidence: What Lies Beneath Nagapattinam

Today, the Chudamani Vihara exists only in inscriptions and memory. The building was demolished by Jesuit missionaries in 1867. Its granite blocks were likely recycled into colonial-era buildings across Nagapattinam.

But the site has not been forgotten. In 2025, the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department began a survey of the location where the monastery is believed to have stood—the District Court Complex in Nagapattinam. The department used Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), a remote sensing method, and deployed drones to assess the site .

The survey was conducted by a team led by R. Sivanantham, Joint Director of Archaeology, along with G. Muthusankar, Head of GIS Projects at the French Institute of Pondicherry. The state government has announced that actual excavation will commence after obtaining a licence from the Central Advisory Board on Archaeology .

The excavation is part of a larger initiative. The Tamil Nadu government’s Budget 2025-26 announced archaeological excavations at eight locations across the state, including Nagapattinam, Keezhadi, Thelunganur, Vellalur, Adichanur, Manikollai, Karivalamvanthanallur, and Pattanamarudur .

“Excavating the Chudamani Vihara at Nagapattinam, which dates back to the 11th century, could also shed light on the maritime trade networks of the Chola empire,” reported The Times of India, quoting Professor V. Selvakumar from the Department of Maritime Archaeology at Tamil University in Thanjavur .

Archaeologists hope to uncover the foundations of the monastery, along with additional Buddha bronzes, inscriptions, and evidence of the cosmopolitan life that once thrived in this Chola port city.

The 350 Buddha Bronzes: A Lost Heritage

The most tangible evidence of Nagapattinam’s Buddhist past is the collection of approximately 350 Buddha bronzes recovered from the site since 1856. These statues range in date from the 11th to the 16th century, indicating that Buddhist worship continued at Nagapattinam for five centuries after the Chudamani Vihara was built .

The bronzes are dispersed across the world. Some are in the British Museum. Some are in the National Museum in New Delhi. Some are in the Rockefeller Collection in New York. Many are lost, their whereabouts unknown.

One statue at the Rockefeller Collection carries an inscription that has been translated by Vidya Dehejia. It reads:

“Well-being and prosperity. The nayakar [Buddha], of all of the eighteen countries, of the metalworkers. The procession image, for the sacred festival of the alvar temple, which was caused to be taken in procession by the respected one endowed of the four gunas from Cirutavur; in the perum-palli (great place of worship or great vihara) of the metalworkers, in the perum-palli of Rajendra Chola.” 

The inscription is remarkable for several reasons. It mentions the “eighteen countries”—a phrase that suggests the monastery served an international community of Buddhist monks. It mentions “metalworkers,” indicating that the Buddha was commissioned by a guild of artisans. And it names the “perum-palli of Rajendra Chola,” confirming that the monastery continued to receive royal patronage under Rajaraja’s son.

These bronzes are not merely art objects. They are evidence of a living Buddhist tradition in Tamil Nadu—a tradition that survived for nearly two millennia before fading away.

The Ponniyin Selvan Connection: Kalki’s Novel and the Leiden Plates

The Anaimangalam Copper Plates occupy a special place in Tamil cultural memory, thanks in part to Kalki Krishnamurthy’s celebrated historical novel Ponniyin Selvan.

The novel, serialised in the 1950s, is set during the early years of Rajaraja Chola I. Kalki weaves the Leiden Plates into his narrative, referencing them as evidence of the Chola Empire’s maritime reach and the friendship between Rajaraja and the Srivijayan king .

For generations of Tamil readers, Ponniyin Selvan was their first introduction to the Leiden Plates. The novel revived popular imagination around the Chola era and its maritime grandeur. When the plates were returned to India in 2026, many Tamils recalled Kalki’s description of them—a fictional account based on a historical reality.

The plates’ return was not merely a diplomatic victory. It was a homecoming of a fragment of Tamil civilisational memory, preserved in a European vault for three centuries but never forgotten in the land of its origin.

What the Leiden Plates Really Say

Now we return to the question posed by this article’s title: What do the Leiden Plates really say?

They say that Rajaraja Chola I, the great Saivite emperor who built the Brihadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur, granted an entire village to a Buddhist monastery built by a foreign king.

They say that the Chola Empire was not a monolithic Hindu state enforcing religious uniformity, but a cosmopolitan maritime power that welcomed Buddhist institutions and patronised them alongside Saivite temples.

They say that Tamil civilisation, at its height, was defined not by exclusion but by inclusion—by the ability to see the divine in multiple forms and to recognise that a Buddhist monk praying in Nagapattinam was serving the same truth as a Saivite priest performing abhishekam in Thanjavur.

The Leiden Plates also say that the Cholas understood the connection between commerce and diplomacy. By supporting a Srivijayan Buddhist monastery, Rajaraja strengthened trade ties with Southeast Asia, ensuring that Chola merchants could sail to China and back without fear of molestation.

And finally, the Leiden Plates say that religious tolerance is not a modern invention. It is a Tamil tradition, carved in copper a thousand years ago, waiting for us to remember.

The Future: Excavating Nagapattinam’s Buddhist Past

The return of the Leiden Plates to India has renewed interest in Nagapattinam’s Buddhist heritage. The planned excavation at the District Court Complex site could uncover the foundations of the Chudamani Vihara, along with additional inscriptions, sculptures, and evidence of the monastery’s daily life.

Archaeologists also hope to locate the remains of the earlier viharas at Nagapattinam—the Ashokan monastery, the Pallava-era vihara built for the Chinese king, and the renovated shrine mentioned in the Anaimangalam Copperplate of Kulothunga Chola I.

The excavation is part of a larger effort to recover Tamil Nadu’s Buddhist past. Sites like Keezhadi, Kaveripoompattinam, and Nagapattinam are revealing a Tamil civilisation that was far more diverse and globally connected than previously understood.

As the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department prepares to dig, the Leiden Plates have already told us what they might find: a monastery where Buddhist monks and Saivite priests once coexisted, where ships from Srivijaya docked alongside Tamil merchant vessels, and where a Saivite emperor proved that piety and tolerance could be the same thing.

Visiting Nagapattinam’s Buddhist Heritage

If you wish to walk where the Chudamani Vihara once stood, Nagapattinam is located approximately 300 kilometres south of Chennai, on the Bay of Bengal coast.

The site of the monastery is believed to be beneath the District Court Complex in the heart of the town. There is no monument to mark it—no plaque, no signboard, no tourist infrastructure. The 350 Buddha bronzes recovered from the site are scattered across museums in India and abroad.

But the tank where monks once bathed may still exist. The streets where Srivijayan merchants once walked are still there. And the sea that carried ships from Nagapattinam to Sumatra still washes the Tamil coast.

As you stand in Nagapattinam, remember the words engraved on the Leiden Plates: that a Saivite emperor, a thousand years ago, donated a village to a Buddhist monastery built by a foreign king.

That is what the Leiden Plates really say. And now, after three centuries, the plates have come home to tell us themselves.

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