by Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore

Who has not heard of Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala at Tirupathi. Perhaps he has become the most popular Hindu deity in the whole world. Money-wise he is the richest god in India. He is so rich that he supports the entire town, its administration, colleges, guest houses, feeding thousands of devotees daily in an unprecedented manner. The Lord of Seven Hills has become international as can be seen with people from all over the world having darshan of the Lord, may be for two or three seconds.

For this glorious three seconds, pilgrims wait for hours together in the queue. These pilgrims offer gold, silver and cash into the hundi or offer box. These boxes get filled up almost daily. They are emptied, the coins are counted and stacked in treasury safely. Thus thousands of bags of gold and silver coins were stacked and kept in the T.T.D. Treasury. At that point of time, the authorities decided to get all these gold coins examined by ancient coin experts, generally referred to as numismatists. It was my good fortune that I was asked to be the leader of a team of experts to examine gold coins deposited in the ‘Srivari hundi.’ This was conveyed to me through a young epigraphist Dr. Muniratnam Reddy and we began the work. Soon I realised that one life is not sufficient to complete the work and as a pilot project selected about 1,200 gold coins for our study. They were photographed, studied, notes prepared and the first volume of these coins has been published. Subsequent volumes are in preparation.

It is interesting and puzzling to find that the earliest gold coin in this collection was a Roman coin minted by emperor Nero who ruled from 54 to 68 AD. The present gold coin of 7.6 gms in weight has a bust of Nero with writing in Roman script. The next coin from the chronological point of view belongs to Gangas of Talkad. These coins contain on the obverse (main side) a decorated elephant and a floral design on the reverse. The next issues belonged to the Hoysalas. The famous king Vishnuvardhana defeated the Nolambas and assumed the title ‘The conqueror of the Nolambas’ (Nolambavadigonda) and minted gold coins to commemorate this victory. These coins contain Goddess Chamundi on the main side and the writing Nolambavadigonda on the reverse. Such coins being found in Tirupathi hundi shows that devotees from Karnataka had visited Tirupathi at least 800 years ago. There is a single coin of the Alupa dynasty which ruled in South Kanara in the ancient times. It has a fish symbol and writing in Nagari.

The Vijayanagar Kings had very close relations with Tirumala from the beginning. This is reflected by the discovery of gold coins of Vijayanagar Kings like Harihara I, Harihara II, Devaraya I, Devaraya II, Krishnadevaraya, Achyutaraya, Sadashivaraya and Kings of the Aravidu dynasty such as Srirangaraya, Venkatapatiraya, etc. More than 350 gold coins of the Vijayanagara dynasty have been found in the hundi. The most interesting are those of Krishnadevaraya representing Balakrishna on the obverse. Coins of Achyutaraya have Gandabherunda on the obverse. Coins of King Sadashivaraya have seated Siva and Parvathi on the main side. The coins of Aravidu Kings are highly interesting. They contain Lord Venkateswara under an arch holding sankha, chakra and gada in his hands. They contain on the reverse the writing ‘Sri Venkateswarya namah’ (salutations to Lord Venkateswara). In fact Krishnadevaraya performed Kanakabhisheka to Venkateswara by minting special gold coins which contain the portrait of Lord Venkateswara on the main side. All these gold coins represent close relationship of these rulers with Tirumala.

Consequent on the downfall of the Vijayanagara empire, Nayakas of Keladi became important. Their capital Ikkeri assumed importance. Keladi rulers followed the Vijayanagara pattern in minting gold coins. Sadashiva Nayaka minted gold coins which became famous as Ikkeri Varahas. They contained on the obverse Siva and Parvathi seated; Siva holds a trident in his right hand and a deer in his left. The reverse has the writing Sadashiva in Nagari script.

Then we enter into the era of Mysore Wadiyars who ruled from 1399 AD till the modern period, when it was amalgamated into the independent union. Only one coin of Chikkadevaraja Wadiyar has been found which has dancing Balakrishna on the main side. All the remaining coins belong to Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. These coins have on the main side seated Siva and Parvathi while the reverse has the writing Sri Krishnaraja in Nagari. It is of interest to note that about 200 gold coins of this King have been found in the hundi showing that pilgrims from the Mysore State were visiting Tirumala in large numbers.

Princely States of Jaipur and Jodhpur are represented by three gold coins. Many Ramatonka gold coins (tokens) with Sri Rama, Sita, Lakshmana with Hanuman have been found in this collection. South Indian Kings minted small gold coins called panams or fanams. They are very tiny and contain one or two symbols. They are also referred to as Viraraya Panams. Such Panams minted at Coorg, Thanjavur and Travancore have been found in this hundi.

Many gold coins issued by Muslim dynasties arrest our attention. Eleven coins of Akbar have been found here which are circular and square in shapes. They contain good calligraphic writing and are very elegant. Aurangazeb is represented by three gold coins in this collection. They have writing ‘Badshah Aurangazeb Alamgir.’ They have writings on both sides. 84 gold coins of the Asaf Jahi dynasty belonging to different Sultans have been seen in this hundi. They represent dates from 1803 to 1915 AD. This includes the last Nizam of Hyderabad.

110 gold coins of Haidar Ali have been found in this collection. All of them belong to only one type; they contain on the obverse seated Siva and Parvathi while the reverse side has the Persian letter ‘he’ on a granular surface. Siva holds a trident in his right hand while the left hand holds a deer. The other hand is on the waist of Parvathi. It is worth noting that Haidar though a follower of Islam did not hesitate to mint gold coins in Hindu tradition which his son Tipu did not follow. 40 coins of Tipu are found in this collection which belong to Ahmadi, Sultani, Faruqui and fanam denominations. Arcot Nawabs are represented by two gold coins which have Lord Venkateswara on the main side.

Then we come to the early modern period represented by East India Company. They established mints at Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. To please the Hindus they minted pagodas with Lord Venkateswara with Sridevi and Bhudevi on either side. They became famous as Three Swamy Pagodas. Another type has Lord Venkateswara with a star at the reverse. Then came queen Victoria type of coins which contained the bust of the queen with her name on the main side and reverse showing a lion moving in front of a palm tree. Indo-Dutch coins contained Lord Venkateswara on the main side.

In addition to these local coins, the hundi contained, gold coins of foreign countries like Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Venice, Netherlands, Austro-Hungarian monarchs, USA, Iran and Turkey. It is amazing how these gold coins came to the Tirumala hundi. Perhaps Indians living in these foreign lands might have visited Tirumala as devotees and offered the currency of their countries to Lord Venkateswara. At any rate the gold coins are spectacular in Tirumala hundi. That is the greatness of Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala Tirupathi.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / August 24th,  2014