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SEPTEMBER, 1891.]
COINS OF THE KINGS OF VIJAYANAGARA.
301
THE COINS OF THE KINGS OF VIJAYANAGARA.
BY E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.; BANGALORE. The subjoined list comprises such inscribed South Indian coins as, judging from their
1 legends, may be referred with some degree of probability to the princes of the last great Hindu kingdom of the South. A considerable number of coins with unintelligible, imperfect or debased legends are excluded. The desirability of attempting a list of Vijayanagara coins was first suggested to me by Captain R. H. C. Tufnell, M.S.C., who courteously placed his extensive collection at my disposal. The same was kindly done by Mr. R. Sewell, M.C.s., and Surgeon D. S. E. Bain, I.M.S. To Mr. E. Thurston I am indebted for the loan of some coins of the Government Central Museum, Madras. The collections, which I have used, are referred to in the list by the following abbreviations : -
B = Dr. Bain; M = Madras Museum; S = Mr. Sewell; T = Captain Tufnell ; H = self.
Mr. B. Santappah, Curator of the Mysore Government Museum at Bangalore, kindly andertook the preparation of the plaster casts, from which the accompanying Plates were prepared.
The following numismatical publications are quoted in the list by the simple names of their authors:
Surgeon-General G. Bidie, The Pagoda or Varáha Coins of Southern India ; Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. LI. Part I. 1883, pp. 33 ff.
Sir Walter Elliot, Coins of Southern India; London, 1886.
Lientenant (Colonel) H. P. Hawkes, A brief sketch of the Gold, Silver and Copper Coinage of Mysore; Bangalore, 1856.
William Marsden, Numismata Orientalia Illustrata, Part II. London, 1825. - Maior Edward Moor. Plates illustrating the Hindu Pantheon, reprinted from the work of; London and Edinburgh, 1861. The quotations refer to Plate 103.
H. H. Wilson, Description of Select Coins in the possession of the Asiatic Society; Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVII. 1832, pp. 559 ff.
A list of the first dynasty of Vijayanagara is found in my South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I. p. 161, and lists of the second and third dynasty, ante, Vol. XIII. p. 154 and p. 155, respectively.
Regarding the coinage of one of the kings of the first dynasty we possess & contemporary report by 'Abdu-r-razzâq, an ambassador of Saltan Shah Rukh of Samarkand, a son of the great Tîmûr. 'Abdu-r-razzâq stayed at Bijanagar (Vijayanagara), the capital of Deð Raf (Devaraya II.), from the close of Za-1-hijja, A. H. 846, = end of April, A. D. 1443, to the 12th Sha'bân, A. H. 847, = 5th December, A. D. 1443. He informs us that Dêvaraya II. issued the following coins :- 1. Gold: (1) varáha; (2) partáb = varáha ; (3) fanam = to partáb. II. Silver: tár = fanam. III. Copper : jital = tár. Pagodas or varáh as of Devaraya are described ander Nos. 4 and 5. The name partáb, which 'Abda-r-razzaq attributes to the half pagoda, is probably connected with the surname Pratápa, which occurs before the names of Vijayanagara kings both on coins and in inscriptions; this surname is also found on No. 6, a half pagoda of Dêvarêya. No fanam with Devaraya's name, nor any Vijayanagara silver coin, has been hitherto discovered. But there is a considerable number of varieties of the copper issues of Dêvarêya (Nos. 9 to 23). The name jital, which 'Abdu-r-razzaq attributes to these coins, is the Hindústå ni equivalent of the modern pice.'
180Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson, p. 349.
