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192
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ OCTOBER, 1927
will be seen later on, is identified as a Kakatiya coin which was current some twenty or thirty years before the period of Ambadêva Maharaja. Hence it may be possible to hold that these coins were issued by Ambadeva who had for his model the earlier coins of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani, or it may be that these legends were & second time impressed on the western Chaļukyan coins that existed before.
These are some of the possible theories which may be advanced as to the date and origin of these coins. But nothing definite can be said about them until fresh and more assuring evidence is obtained.
Class II. There is but one gold coin in this class. [No. 8 of the Plate.] It is almost round and has a diameter of 8l of an inch and weighs 56.25 grains. The metal is 16 carats fine. The symbol Sri is found on either end of the horizontal diameter. At the top of the vertical diameter there is a legend ('ka]ti' and at the bottom, 'Gana' in old Telugu script. The interspaces are filled by figures of what may either be a lion or tiger, with open mouth, raised paw and twisted tail, all these very crudely represented by dots and lines. The other side is blank.
There was a dynasty of Kakatiya kings very powerful in the twelfth century. Ganapati was the greatest of the kings of this dynasty. We read from Ganapeśvaram inscription, 16 that he conquered the entire country of Velanându, which extended from the borders of the Guntûr district to the modern Ellore. After subjugating the north he turned to the south and extended 1 his empire far into the interior of the Tamil country. This is evidenced by the factit that one of his Viceroys, Samanta Bhôja at Kanchi, granted the village of Kalattûr to Ekamranatha temple at Kanchi for the spiritual merit of his master. From the MÔtupalli inscription 18 it appears that he extended his conquests as far as the cast coast. Inscriptions of this king are found in the Podili and Darsi taluks of the Nellore district and Ongole taluk of the Guntur District. Inscriptions of Pratapa Rudra Dêva, another of the Kakatiya kings, are found in plenty in the taluks of Atmakûr, Kandukur and Nellore, all which abundantly prove that the Kakatiya empire embraced almost the whole of the modern Nellore district. Therefore the village of Kavaliyadavalli in which this coin was discovered was presumably within the Kakatiya kingdom.
It seems to be clear therefore that the '[ka]ti' of our legend is a contraction of Kakati and represents Kakatiya, and 'Gana,' Ganapati, the most powerful of the Kakatiya kings. The name Kakatiya is derived from 'Kakati,' the name of the goddess, whom they wor. shipped. This coin ought to be identified as the coin issued by Ganapati of the Kakatiya dynasty, and between the years of 1199 and 1260 A.D., as from inscriptions 181, 196, 213, 220, 194 and 196 of 1905 noted in the Madras report on Epigraphy we infer that wanapati reigned during that period.
Sir Walter Elliot in his History of South Indian coins says that in many of the seals of the grants and some coins of the Kakatiya dynasty he found a bull couchant between two candelabra with an umbrella above and a chowrie on each side. Unfortunately he does not mention the names of the kings whose seals and coins be had examined. We have uot come across any coins of the Kakatiya dynasty answering to his description. In the geals of grants of Ganapati we do not find any bull, candelabra or unbrella. Instead, in the seal attached to the grant 19 of the village of Kolavennu by Ganapati we find a boar with the sun and moon. In the copper-plate grant of the time of Ganapati noticed in page 122 of the Annual Report on Epigraphy (Madras) for 1917, there is a seal which bears the emblems of a boar and a cow. Verse 13 in the Ekamranatha inscription states that the mudra
16 Epigraphia Indica, vol. III, p. 82, 18 Mad. Epi. Rep. for 1910, p. 106. 17 Ind. Ant., vol. 21, p. 197.
18 Mad. Epi, Rep. for 1910, p. 107. 19 Catalogue of Copper-plategrants in the Madras Museum, p. 26.
