________________
NOVEMBER, 1892.]
SOUTH-INDIAN COPPER COINS.
II. CHOLA COIN.
No. 7. M.
(Elliot, No. 152).
The obverse and reverse are identical. In the centre is a scated tiger,-the emblem of the Chola king,-facing the right, with two fishes,-symbols of the Pândya king,-in front, and a how, the emblem of the Chèra king,- behind. The whole group is flanked by two lamps and surmounted by a parasol and two chauris. Underneath is the legend :
Obv. and Rev. { गंगैकोण्ड
sites:
GamgaikondaChôla[b].
Rev.
(Tamil.)
This coin is republished, because Mr. Thomas has misread it (Elliot, p. 132, note 1). The name or surname Gangaikonda-Chôla, "the Chôla (king) who conquered the Ganga." survives to the present day in Gangaikonda-Solapuram, the name of a ruined city in the Udaiyarpalaiyam talukâ of the Trichinopoly district. The earliest reference to this city is in a Tañjâvûr inscription of the 19th year of the reign of Parakêsarivarman, alias RajendraCholadova. As this king claims to have conquered the Ganga, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he bore the surname Gangaikonda-Chola (I.), and that both the foundation of the city and the issue of the coin are due to him. A proof for the correctness of this supposition may perhaps be derived from the unpublished inscriptions on the walls of the ruined Brihadisvara temple at Gangaikonda-'Solapuram. This temple is called Gangaikonda. Cholêsvara in four Pândya inscriptions, while a mutilated inscription of Kulôttunga-Chôladêva I. refers to a temple named Rajendra-Sola-Îsvara. If, what is very probable, this temple has to be taken as identical with the first, it would follow that the founder of the Isvara (Siva) temple at Gangaikonda-'Solapuram bore the two names Gangaikonda-Chôla and Rajendra-Chôla. Further, the surname Gangaikonda-Chôla is applied to the maternal grandfather of Kulôttunga I. in the Kalingattu-Parani (x. 5). Though the same poem (x. 3) gives the real name of Kulôttunga's grandfather as Rajaraja, there is no doubt that, as Dr. Fleet (ante, Vol. XX. p. 279 f.) points out, this is a mistake or an inaccurate expression for RâjêndraChôla, who, as we know from the Chellûr grant, was the father of Ammangadêvî, the mother of Kulôttunga I. A coin which resembles the one under notice, but bears the Nagari legend Sri-Rajendraḥ (Elliot, No. 153), may be attributed to Parakêsarivarman, alias Rajendradeva. An unpublished inscription of this king at Manimangalam in the Chingleput district mentions a Gangaikonda-Chola (II.) who was the uncle of, and received the title Irumaḍi-Chôla from, the reigning king. Subsequent to the time of Rêjêndra-Chôla, the next mention of GangaikondaSolapuram is in an unpublished inscription of Rajakêsarivarman, alias Vira-Rajendradeva, at Karuvar in the Coimbatore district. This inscription also refers to a son of the king, whose name was Gangaikonda-Chola (III.), and on whom the title Chôla-Pandya and the Bovereignty over the Pandya country were conferred by his father. According to the Kalingattu-Parani,10 Gangapuri, i.e. Gangaikonda-Solapuram, continued to be the royal residence in the time of Kulottunga-Chôladêva I. (A.D. 1063 to 1112). In Bilbaṇa's Vikramánkadévacharita (iv. 21, and vi. 21) the city is mentioned under the name Ganga. kundapura, which the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. is said to have taken twice.
III. MADURA COINS.
No. 8. MH. Obv. Two fishes.
323
-
Śrî-Avanipaśêgaran
golaga.
South-Indian Inscriptions, Vol. II. p. 105.
ibid. p. 109, and Vol. I. p. 99.
A third coin of similar type (No. 154) has Uttama-Cholaḥ in Nagarf, and a fourth (No. 151) Uttama- Cholan in Grantha characters.
• Not Sundara-Pandya-Chôla, as stated in Dr. Burnell's South-Indian Paleography, 2nd edition, p. 45, note 1. 10 ante, Vol. XIX. p. 389.
