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Primary sourceDocument3rd century BCE

Sohgaura Copper Plate Inscription

3rd century BCE

An early Brahmi-script copper plate recording famine-relief storehouses, sometimes linked to Chandragupta Maurya's reign.

An early administrative document some scholars connect to Chandragupta's Mauryan administration.

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Photograph of an inscribed dark plate with light-colored carved symbols: at top, a sprouting plant, two domed structures with columns, a standing figure, and a gridded box. Below are four rows of unfamiliar angular script characters.
Sohgaura copper plate edict, early Brahmi script, 3rd century BCE.

About this source

What it is

This copper plate, inscribed in early Brahmi script, is one of the oldest surviving administrative documents from ancient India, dated to around the 3rd century BCE. It records an order about storehouses for famine relief. Scholars Jaychandra Vidyalankar and Kashiprasad Jaysaval studied and published on this plate, and some have connected it to the Mauryan administration under Chandragupta.

Why it matters

If linked to Chandragupta's reign, the plate would be rare physical evidence of how the Mauryan state organised relief and storage for its people, beyond what later texts and inscriptions claim. It shows the kind of practical government record that survives from this very early period of Indian writing.

Look closer

  • What does this object suggest about how the Mauryan state planned for hard times like famine?
  • Why is dating such an early object to a specific king so difficult?
  • What symbols can you identify on the plate, and what might they represent?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Chandragupta Maurya on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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