Copper plates bring into focus Shilabhattarika and her poetry

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Last Updated02/05/2023

Researchers at the Pune-based Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) recently embarked on a mission after which they claim to have shed new light on Shilabhattarika
She is the celebrated Sanskrit poetess of ancient India
She has been established as daughter of the famed Chalukyan emperor Pulakeshin II of Badami (in modern Karnataka) by the institute

The copper plates contain more than 60 sentences in Sanskrit written in Brahmi script.
One of the copper plates mentions the donation of Chigateri village in the present-day Vijayanagara district of Karnataka to a scholar named Vishnu Sharma.
Mahendraverma, the son of Shilabhattarika and Dadiga, recommended the donation to the ruling king Vijayaditya Chalukya.

Following the decoding of inscriptions on copper plates earlier this month, noted Sanskrit scholar Dr. Shreenand Bapat said it was now reasonably certain that Shilabhattarika was a Chalukyan princess
She is possibly the daughter of Pulakeshin II
He ruled from 610-642 CE and had defeated Harshavardhan of Kanauj in a battle near the banks of the Narmada river in 618 CE.

The importance of this decipherment shed new light on Shilabhattarika
She stood out as a poetess in the male-dominated field of classical Sanskrit literature in ancient India.
The Sanskrit poet-critic Rajashekhara had praised Shilabhattarika for her elegant and beautiful compositions.
He lived in the 9th-10th century CE and was the court poet of the Gurjara-Pratiharas
Noted Marathi poetess Shanta Shelke too has drawn inspiration from Shilabhattarika’s verses to compose one of her most iconic songs- toch chandrama nabhat (it is the same moon in the sky).

The decoding of the copper plates marks a notable shift in the historiography of Badami Chalukyas by placing Shilabhattarika as having lived in the 7th century CE rather than the current theory which has her as the wife of the 8th Century Rashtrakuta ruler Dhruva.