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JANUARY, 1894.] INEDITED COINS OF THE KINGS OF VIJAYANAGARA.
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Rev.-The chank or conch shell with a sceptre to its left; above the sceptre partly
visible the Kanarese letter at the. The Kanarese letter stands for, or is part of, the full legend Thova Raya. Fig. 2Obv.-Standing bull, facing the left with a dagger in front; the Sun and Moon above; the
whole surrounded by a lined circle. Rev.-Nagari legend
Srt उत्तम
Uttama
Raya distributed in three uneven lines amidst other emblems that cannot be deciphered. Fig. 3— Obv.-The chank and chakram (the conch shell and the discus), the usual symbols of
Vaishnava worship, separated by a dagger; above the dagger the Moon and
below the Sun; the whole surrounded by a lined circle and ring of dots. Rev.-Nagari legend, same as No. 2, with, however, the legend distributed around a
dagger, the whole surrounded by a lined circle and ring of dots. Fig. 4Obv.-An elephant passant, to the left; a dagger in front thereo; the Sun and Moon
above; the whole within a lined circle and ring of dots. Rev.-The Någari legend Uttama Rays, as in figa. 2 and 3, in three lines, brit without
any emblems; lined circle and ring of dots as in the last. We have, with some besitation, assigned Nos. 2, 3 and 4 to Dêva Raya. They bear a strong resemblance to the coins of the First Dynasty, because it is on these latter, almost exclusively, that the elephant, the bull, the conch, and the discus figure. Of the princes of the First Dynasty the most famous was Dêva Raya, whose reign extended through nearly half a century, and who had issued coins of very various types, chiefly in copper. Though, no doubt, none of the inscriptions, that have been brought to light, allude to Uttama (which means 'best,' and is one of the thousand names of Vishạn) as one of the titles of Deva Raya, still it is not improbable that this prince had the name of Vishnu put ap on his coins, as he is known to have done that of 'Siva, viz., Nilakantha (blue-necked), on a coin figured as No. 23 in Dr. Hultzsch's list. Further there is nothing incongruous in the same prince adopting the titles of the presiding deities of two rival sects. The policy inaugurated by his father's learned minister Madhava, vix., that of composing the differences between the adherents of rival religious creeds, and in effect reviving the old simple Vedic theology, was in all probability pursued by Dêva Raya, and this must account for the otherwise inexplicable fact, that the coins of his reign bear emblems and figures poseessing both Saiva and Vaishnava attributes (as for instance the bull sacred to Siva, and the conch and the discus the emblems of Vaishnava faith).
Second Dynasty.
Krishna Raya. Fig. 5
Obo.- A bull recumbent, facing the left Rov.-Nagari legend in three lines
Brt F T (CT) Krishna (rd)
() The middle line alone appears on the coin in full, the rest appearing only in part, as if the coin was too small for the die.
