The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c5.s1.26

c5.s1.26

We do not derive much help from numismatics for the study of Pāṇdyan history. Coins definitely attributable to the early Pāṇdyas are very rare. A few gold specimens are known² and these bear only the Pāṇdyan figure of the fish. It is very interesting that the name Kūna known only to tradition and not to epigraphy is borne on a copper coin figured by Sir Walter Elliot (No. 140). It is well known that Roman coins belonging to different periods have been found in several places in South India and the abundance of Roman copper of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. in and near Madura has sometimes led to the supposition that a local mint issued these pieces for daily use in a settlement of foreign merchants. Many Roman coins of the Early Empire have been found in and near Madura.³ By far the largest number of coins belong to the mediæval Pāṇdyas and bear legends substantiated by inscriptions. These coins often show the influence of the Chola conquest by the presence of a tiger design or of Ceylonese influence indicated by the presence of ‘a rude human figure, standing on the obverse, and seated on the reverse’ (Elliot, p. 108). The earliest coins of the Ceylon type date from the eleventh century; ‘it came into use in Drāvida only, at the time the Chola-Pāṇdyan dynasty were masters of the whole of it’ (Elliot, p. 109). It should also be observed that ‘the constant warfare which raged between Chola and Pāndyan (rulers) not only renders it well nigh impossible at any particular time to fix the exact boundaries of their respective territories, but also causes considerable uncertainty in the identity of a large number of their coins.’¹