The Colas c31.5

c31.5

Exactly half of this *māḍai* was the Rājarājan *kāśu*,⁹ issued apparently by Rājarāja I. But the *kāśu* of this weight and fineness was certainly in use earlier than the time of Rājarāja I. A record¹⁰ of the fourth year of Āditya II mentions that twenty *kāśus* were equal to ten *kaḻañjus*. It was in vogue after Rājarāja also, as the same relation between the *kāśu* and *kaḻañju* re-appears in some of the later inscriptions.¹¹ In fact both the *māḍai* and the *kāśu*, the standard gold coins of the realm, were issued by each one of the Cōḷa kings of the period before 1070—the different issues being distinguished in epigraphy by the names of the kings being prefixed to those of the coins in question: thus we have expressions like the *māḍai* of Rājarāja,¹² the *māḍai* of Rājēndraśōḷan,¹³ a phrase which by the way makes it more likely that the *madhurāntakadēvan-māḍai* was issued by Rājarāja's predecessor, *anṟāḍu-naṟkāśu* meaning 'good current *kāśu*', and *paḻangāsu* ('old *kāśu*')¹⁴ and sometimes even *anṟāḍu*-(nar)-*paḻangāśu*, current (good) old *kāśu*, in later inscriptions.¹⁵