India gives Jakarta's Nalanda Institute replica of 9th-century Nalanda copper plate

India's Ambassador to Indonesia, Sandeep Chakravorty, handed over a replica of the 9th-century Nalanda copper plate to the Nalanda Institute in Jakarta in mid-October 2026, according to a report on October 15 and a press release listed by the Embassy of India in Jakarta. The original copper plate is a Sanskrit inscription from about 860 CE that records how a king of Suvarnadvipa, the Srivijaya realm in present-day Indonesia, sought and received land to support a monastery at Nalanda, the great centre of learning in what is now Bihar. The embassy described the inscription as proof of ancient maritime links, cultural ties and shared heritage between India and Srivijaya.

Nalanda was one of the most important centres of learning in the ancient world. For centuries its monasteries drew students and teachers from across Asia to study Buddhist philosophy and other subjects. The Nalanda copper plate is one of the clearest documents showing that this exchange was not only about individual travellers: a ruler in South-East Asia was willing to fund a monastery so that monks from his land could live and study there.

For students of Indian knowledge systems, the inscription is valuable on several levels. As a text, it is an example of Sanskrit as a shared language of learning and statecraft across a wide region. As a historical source, it shows how scholarship was supported by grants of land and income, which paid for food, lodging, manuscripts and teachers. And as a record of diplomacy, it shows two courts, more than a thousand years ago, cooperating to support education.

The choice of recipient also matters. A Nalanda Institute in Jakarta carries the name of the ancient university into a modern Indonesian setting, and placing a replica of the plate there makes this history visible to students and visitors who may never travel to Delhi. It complements the earlier replica at Muarajambi, a major archaeological site associated with Buddhist learning in Sumatra.

Today's Nalanda University in Rajgir, set up to revive the tradition, and Indonesian scholars have been rebuilding academic links, and gestures like this one are part of how India presents its historical ties with South-East Asia as a basis for present-day cooperation in education and culture.

Short-term: The replica gives the Nalanda Institute in Jakarta a tangible teaching and display piece on the historical links between Indonesian Buddhism and Nalanda.

Long-term: Such cultural exchanges support academic collaboration between Indian and Indonesian institutions, and wider public interest in shared heritage across the Indian Ocean region.

Who is affected: Students and scholars of Buddhist studies, Sanskrit and South-East Asian history, Indonesian visitors to the institute, and cultural institutions in both countries.

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