Fig. 6. Kanarese Script: Mayili kāsu ippatu, “A token of 20 cash.”
The difficulties of the historian in tracing the fortunes of the numerous clans and dynasties which contended for sovereignty in the south from the third to the fourteenth century have been enumerated by Vincent Smith in his Oxford History of India. Even fewer guide-posts mark the path of the numismatist. Legends on South Indian coins are rare, and, when they occur are short, giving simply the ruler’s name or title: dates are rarer still. As in the early coinage of the Greeks, the heraldic symbol or cognizance serves as the stamp of authority; the fish, for example, is so used by the rulers of the Pāṇḍya dynasty. But in India we receive little help from contemporary records; and the habit, which conquerors indulged, of incorporating on their issues the cognizance of vanquished peoples, and the extensive imitation of popular and well-established types, worse confounds the confusion. In assigning coins to dynasties reliance has often to be placed upon the evidence of find-spots, a dubious method at all times, but least unsatisfactory for copper, which seldom circulates freely beyond the country of its origin. Again, the isolation of the southern peninsula is as marked in the development of the coinage as in political history. With the sole exception of the elephant pagodas of the Gajapati dynasty, imitated by Harsha-deva of Kashmīr, there is no certain point of contact between the south and the north after the third century A.D. Finally, the currency of the south has not received that attention from scholars which has been bestowed upon the more attractive money of the north. A careful systematic study, in conjunction with the historical material now available, would doubtless throw considerable light upon it and its strikers.
Certain marked characteristics belong to the coinage of the south, which, in spite of foreign irruptions and their consequent innovations, have persisted until recent times. Gold and copper were the metals used almost exclusively; of the former there were two denominations, the hūn, varāha or pagoda[37] (50 to 60 grains) and the fanam (five to six grains), based respectively on the weights of two seeds, the kaḷanju or molucca bean (Cæsalpina bonduc) and the mañjāḍi (Adenathera pavonina). Copper coins were called kāsu, of which the English corruption is “cash,” while the rare silver coins appear to have followed the gold standard. The Travancore silver chakram was equal in weight to the fanam. The gold coin had an independent development in the south, the various stages of which can be marked. The earliest specimens—the age of these is doubtful—are spherules of plain gold with a minute punch-mark on one side (Pl. VII, 1); these developed into the cup-shaped “padma-ṭaṅkas,” stamped with punches, first on one side only, later on both obverse and reverse. Finally came die-struck pieces, of which the small thick Vijayanagar pagodas are the typical southern form. Another characteristic is the preference for tiny coins: this is particularly evident from about the sixteenth century, when copper coins tend to decrease in size, and the fanam acquired a wide popularity; the silver tārēs of Kalikat (Calicut), which weigh only one or two grains, must be the smallest known currency.[38] A great variety of devices and symbols, usually Hindu gods and emblems, also characterizes the copper currency, especially after the fifteenth century, and this feature adds considerably to the difficulty of correct attribution.
The dynasties of the south may be divided into two territorial groups—(1) the kingdoms of the Deccan—all the country between the river Narbadā on the north and the Kṛishṇa and Tuṅgabhadrā on the south—and the Mysore country; Telugu was the language of the former, Kanarese of the latter. (1) The remainder of the peninsula, where Tamil and its cognate dialects were spoken, the country of the Pāṇḍyas, Cheras, Choḷas, Pallavas and their successors.
During the first two centuries of the Christian era, and even after the disappearance of the silver punch-marked coins, perhaps about A.D. 200, the currency of the south consisted chiefly of imported Roman gold[39] along with the spherules already mentioned. A certain quantity of Roman silver must also have been in circulation, while the small copper pieces bearing Roman devices and legends—one of them seems to give the name of the Emperor Theodosius (A.D. 393)—were probably local productions.
Conjecture has assigned the earliest coins connected with a local dynasty to the Kurumbas, a pastoral tribe inhabiting the present Arcot district. One type of these copper pieces with a two-masted ship on the obverse is evidently derived from the similar Andhra issues struck for the Coromandel coast, and so may belong to the third century A.D.
The first great dynasty to dominate Southern India was that of the Chālukyas (a foreign tribe probably of Hūṇa-Gurjara origin), founded by Pulakeśin I in the middle of the sixth century, whose capital was at Bādāmī in the Bījāpūr district. His grandson, Pulakeśin II (A.D. 608-642), became paramount in the Deccan, but the kingdom was overthrown by the Rāshṭrakūṭas in 753. In 973, however, a Chālukya prince, Tailapa, retrieved the fortunes of his family and founded the Western Chālukya kingdom with its capital at Kalyāṇi, and this lasted till 1190, after which the Chālukyas of the west, overthrown by the Hoysaḷas, became petty chiefs. Meanwhile, in the middle of the seventh century another dynasty, known as the Eastern Chālukyas, had been established by Vishṇuvardhana, brother of the great Pulakeśin II, in Kaliṅga with its capital at Veṅgī, which lasted till the eleventh century, when it was overthrown by the Choḷas.
The earliest coin assignable to a Chālukya prince is a base silver piece of Vishṇuvardhana (615-633), with a lion device and the king’s title in Telugu, Vishamasiddhi, “Successful in scaling the inaccessible places,” on the obverse, and a trident flanked by two lamps on the reverse. Certain pagodas, fanams and copper coins, perhaps of an earlier date, from the appearance on them of the boar, the cognizance of the Chālukyas, have been conjectured to belong to that dynasty. To the Eastern Chālukya princes, Śaktivarman (1000-1012) and Rājarāja (1012-1062), belong large flat gold pieces, also depicting the boar symbol, but with blank reverses (Pl. VII, 4).
The curious cup-shaped “padma-ṭaṅkas” (lotus ṭaṅkas) were possibly first struck by the Kadambas (Pl. VII, 2), inhabiting Mysore and Kanara. Similar coins, but with a lion or a temple in place of the lotus and legends in old Kanarese, were struck by the Western Chālukya kings, Jayasiṁha, Jagadekamalla and Trailokyamalla, of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In 1913, 16,586 of these cup-shaped coins were unearthed at Kodur in the Nellore district, and this find shows that the type was subsequently adopted by the Telugu-Choḷa chiefs of the Nellore district in the thirteenth century.
The Hoysaḷa chiefs, who rose to paramount power under Ballāḷa II on the ruins of the Western Chālukya kingdom, had for their cognizance a maned lion. Some heavy gold coins with old Kanarese legends, which bear that emblem, have, therefore, with probability been assigned to them. On one of these appears the interesting inscription, Śrī Taḷakāḍa gonda, “He who took the glorious Taḷkāḍ,” the capital of the old Koṅgu-Chera kingdom.
There are numerous South Indian coins belonging to the twelfth century which afford no certain clue to their strikers. Among these the following have been tentatively assigned to petty dynasties who succeeded to the territories of the Chālukyas: to the Kākatīya or Gaṇapati dynasty of Waraṅgal (1110-1323), pagodas, fanams and copper coins with a couchant bull on the obverse and incomplete Nāgarī legends on the reverse; to Someśvara, one of the Kalachuri chiefs of Kalyāṇa (1162-1175), pagodas and fanams with the king’s titles in old Kanarese on the reverse, and on the obverse a figure advancing to the right; to the Yādavas of Devagiri (1187-1311), a pagoda and a silver coin, bearing a kneeling figure of Garuḍa on the obverse.
There remain to be noticed the coins of three dynasties. The original home of the Gajapatis, “Elephant-Lords,” was Koṅgudesa—Western Mysore with the modern districts of Coimbatore and Salem. About the ninth century these Chera kings fled before the invading Choḷas to Orissa, and there were coined the famous “Elephant pagodas” (Pl. VII, 5) and fanams, which Harsha-deva of Kashmīr (A.D. 1089) copied. The scroll device on the reverse also appears on some of the anonymous boar pagodas attributed to the Chālukyas. To Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga, a member of that branch of the Gaṅga dynasty of Mysore who settled in Kaliṅga (Orissa), and ruled there from the sixth to the eleventh century, are assigned fanams with a recumbent bull, conch and crescent on the obverse, and Telugu regnal dates on the reverse. The gold coins of two of the later Kādamba chiefs of Goa, Vishṇu Chittadeva (circ. 1147) and Jayakeśin III (circ. 1187), are also known; these bear the special Kādamba symbol, the lion passant on the obverse, and a Nāgarī legend on the reverse. One interesting inscription of the latter runs as follows: “The brave Jayakeśideva, the destroyer of the Mālavas who obtained boons from the holy Saptakoṭīsa (i.e. Śiva).”
The Tamil states of the far south first became wealthy owing to their foreign sea-borne trade. Tradition has defined with some exactness the territories held by the three principal races in ancient times; the Pāṇḍyas inhabited the modern Madura and Tinnevelly districts, the Choḷas the Coromandel Coast (Choḷamandalam), and the Chera or Keraḷa country comprised the district of Malabar together with the states of Cochin and Travancore. Although their frontiers varied considerably at different periods, this distribution is sufficiently accurate for a study of their coin types.
Nevertheless history affords but few glimpses in early times of these peoples: the Pallavas, as is evident from inscriptions, a native pastoral tribe akin to the Kurumbas, were the first dominant power in the extreme south. At first Buddhists, but later converted to Brahmanical Hinduism, during the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries they extended their territories from their capital, Kāñchī, the modern Conjeeveram, until these included even Ceylon; but they suffered considerably from wars with the Chālukyas, and were overwhelmed in the ninth century by the Choḷas and Pāṇḍyas. It was under the patronage of the Pallavas that South Indian architecture and sculpture began in the sixth century. The earlier Pallava coins, a legacy from the Andhras, are indistinguishable from those of the Kurumbas; later pagodas and fanams bear the Pallava emblem, the maned lion, either on obverse or reverse (Pl. VII, 8),[40] but the legends remain undeciphered.
The Pāṇḍyas had a chequered career: at first independent, then subject to the Pallavas, they emerge in the ninth century to fall once more during the eleventh and twelfth centuries under the domination of the Choḷas. In the thirteenth century they were the leading Tamil state, but gradually sank into local chieftains. The earliest Pāṇḍya coins retain the ancient square form, but are die-struck, with an elephant on the obverse and a blank reverse; later coins have a peculiar angular device on the reverse; others of a still later period display a diversity of emblems, such as wheels, scrolls and crosses. The Pāṇḍya coins, assigned to a period from the seventh to the tenth century, are gold and copper, and all bear the fish emblem adopted by the later chiefs (Pl. VII, 3): the innovation is supposed to mark a change in religion from Buddhism to Brahmanism. The fish appears sometimes singly, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes, especially on the later copper coins, in conjunction with other symbols, particularly the Choḷa standing figure and the Chālukyan boar. The inscriptions on these, such as Soṇāḍu koṇḍāṇ, “He who conquered the Choḷa country,” and Ellān-talaiy-āṇāṇ, “He who is chief of the world,” are in Tamil, but the intermingling of the symbols, evident marks of conquest, makes any certain attribution difficult.
Madura, the later capital of the Pāṇḍyas, was captured by ’Alāu-d-dīn in 1311, and an independent Muhammadan dynasty ruled there from 1334 to 1377, after which it was added to the Vijayanagar kingdom.
The Choḷas were supreme in Southern India from the accession of Rājarāja the Great in 985 down to 1035, during which period they extended their conquests to the Deccan and subdued Ceylon. After some years of eclipse they rose again under Rājendra Kulottuṅga I (acc. 1074), who was related to the Eastern Chālukyas of Veṅgī. The Choḷa power declined in the thirteenth century. The earlier coins of the dynasty, before 985, are gold and silver pieces, portraying a tiger seated under a canopy along with the Pāṇḍya fish (Pl. VII, 6); the names inscribed on them have not been satisfactorily explained. The later class of Choḷa coins, all copper, have a standing figure on the obverse and a seated figure on the reverse, with the name Rāja Rāja in Nāgarī. This type spread with the Choḷa power, and was slavishly copied by the kings of Ceylon (1153-1296; cf. Pl. VII, 7), and its influence is also noticeable on the earlier issues of the Nāyaka princes of Madura and Tinnevelly.
Only one coin has been attributed to a Chera dynasty. A silver piece in the British Museum, with Nāgarī legends on both sides (Pl. VII, 9), belongs to the Keraḷa country, the extreme southern portion of the western coast, and has been assigned to the eleventh or twelfth century.
The great mediæval kingdom of Vijayanagar was founded in 1336 by five brothers as a bulwark against Muhammadan conquest, and continued to flourish under three successive dynasties until the battle of Tālikota, 1565; the members of a fourth dynasty ruled as minor chiefs at Chandragiri until the end of the seventeenth century.
The small, dumpy pagodas of Vijayanagar, with their half and quarter divisions, set a fashion which has lasted to the present age. Coins, gold or copper, of more than twelve rulers are known: on these appear a number of devices, the commonest being the bull, the elephant, various Hindu deities, and the fabulous “gaṇḍabheruṇḍa,” a double eagle holding an elephant in each beak and claw. A pagoda on which a god and goddess appear sitting side by side (Pl. VII, 12) was struck both by Harihara I (acc. 1336) and Devarāya.[41] The great Kṛishṇarāya, during whose reign (1509-1529) the Empire was at its height, was evidently a devotee of Vishṇu. He struck the popular “Durgi pagoda,”[42] on which that god is portrayed holding the discus and conch (Pl. VII, 11). Other coins of the dynasty which acquired fame were the “Gandikata pagoda” of Rāmarāya (d. 1565), which had a figure of Vishṇu standing under a canopy on the obverse; and the “Veṅkaṭapati pagoda,” struck by one of the Rājas, named Veṅkaṭa, of the fourth dynasty. On the obverse of this coin Vishṇu is standing under an arch, and on the reverse is the Nāgarī legend, Śrī Veṅkaṭeśvarāya namaḥ, “Adoration to the blessed Veṅkaṭeśvara,” Veṅkaṭeśvara being the deity of Veṅkaṭādri, a sacred hill near Chandragiri. The so-called “three swami pagoda,” introduced by Tirumalarāya (circ. 1570), displays three figures, the central one standing, the other two seated. These are said to be either Lakshmana with Rāma and Sītā, or Veṅkaṭeśvara with his two wives. The legends on Vijayanagar coins are either in Kanarese or Nāgarī; the latter is most commonly used, by the later kings exclusively.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Nāyaka princes of Tanjore, Madura and Tinnevelly and the Setupatis of Rāmnāḍ, originally in subjection to Vijayanagar, gradually assumed independence. The earlier coinage of the Madura Nāyakas bears the names of the chiefs on the reverse in Tamil, but their later coins were struck in the name of Veṅkaṭa, the “pageant” sovereign of Vijayanagar. Somewhat later, probably, begin series of copper coins both of Madura and Tinnevelly, with the Telugu legend Śrī Vīra on the reverse and a multitude of varying devices on the obverse; these include the gods Hanumān and Ganesh, human figures, the elephant, bull, lion, a star, the sun and moon, etc. A similar copper series, with double or single crossed lines on the reverse, are found in large quantities in Mysore. Yet another series with the same reverse, also found in Mysore, bears on the obverse the Kanarese numerals from 1 to 31.