Kamatchi during the cleaning process found two copper plates inside the box with inscriptions in some old script. He took the plates to the Ramalinga Vilasam palace to show it to the curator Sakthivel, who deciphered the script and informed the Archaelogical Department. “The copper plates were gifted to the family of Vanni Muthuan, a resident of Vilankudi village and the temple priest, by Ramanathapuram king Regunatha Thevar alias Thirumalai Sethupathy in 1638 and 1645. Muthuan used to preside over the poojas at the Kamatchi Amman temple,” an archaeology department source said.

The plates came in an ornate box, which was passed on from generation to generation. Later, it assumed a divine value and they began taking it out in procession during temple fests.

Elaborating on the inscriptions on the plates, Sakthivel said, “The king in the inscriptions commands each farmer in 20 counties to donate one padi (one-and-a-half kg) paddy to the temple priest once a year.”

“Farmers donating paddy as per the royal command would incur benefits equalling that of establishing 1,000 lingams in a temple or sinking 1,000 water tanks. However, those shunning the command would incur sins equalling that of killing their own mothers or a Brahmin or cow,” the curator said, adding that the inscriptions were engraved on the plates by a carpenter of Yeluvarkottai village.

A source in the archeological department told Express that Kamatchi was allowed to retain the plates, as those were family heirlooms. “The plates are precious, but the family has been preserving it for centuries,” the source said.

www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / July 10th, 2014