The new Kailān plate of Śrīdharaṇa Rāta

Summary

A newly discovered copper‑plate inscription from Kailān, engraved on behalf of the previously obscure ruler Śrīdharaṇa Rāta, forms the subject of this paper. After introducing earlier plates of the Rāta chiefs and discussing their find‑spots, the author presents a detailed transcript and translation of the new record. The inscription opens with invocations to Hindu deities and proceeds to set out the genealogy of Śrīdharaṇa Rāta, linking him to earlier members of the line and praising their virtues. It records that in the twelfth regnal year of the king, he granted a parcel of land in the village of Kailān to a Brahman learned in the three Vedas, specifying the boundaries of the donated field and detailing the rights conferred. The plate thus confirms the extent of Rāta authority in the region around the Mahanadi and provides valuable onomastic and chronological evidence. In analysing the document, the author compares its formulas with those in earlier Rāta charters and with the records of neighbouring dynasties. The palaeography and orthography point to a late eighth‑ or early ninth‑century date. The genealogical section helps to refine the chronology of the dynasty and suggests that Śrīdharaṇa’s realm lay in southern Orissa rather than Bengal, as earlier scholars had proposed. By noting the names of rivers, settlements and officials mentioned in the text, the paper reconstructs aspects of local administration, the tax‑paying community, and land tenure practices. It also discusses the religious landscape implied by the donor’s declarations, suggesting a milieu in which Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava traditions coexisted. The study therefore not only edits a primary inscription but uses it to illuminate the political and cultural history of an understudied region.