i 



78 J. Gibbs— iVb/r o7i Bamtinlcis. [April, 



1880, exhibited by General Pearce, is not a Ramtinki at all, but is, I believe, 

 one of the medals made for giving to rich pilgrims when leaving the tem- 

 ple of Tripati in the Madras Presidency: they are quite modern. I have 

 a variety of this sort which I exhibit. 



The result of my inquiries leads me to the conclusion that the oldest, 

 and perhaps the only really genuine, are those of the palest gold, while the 

 more pure gold specimens are modern. I do not think any of the a class 

 are less than 000 years old, except No. 5, which I believe to be about 100 : 

 all the others are subsequent to that ; No. 10 was known to have been in 

 one family in Mysore for more than 50 years when the exigencies of the 

 famine obliged them to sell it to a travelling Borah, from whom it was 

 purchased for me ; another, No. 7, was also a family relic for many years in 

 another family. 



The story on them all, illustrated to a greater or less degree, is that 

 of Rama and Sita, on their reconciliation and her proving her purity after 

 being seized and taken off to Lanka by Havana, taken from the Rama- 

 yana. The rows of figures are composed of men and monkeys, the latter 

 forming part of the army of Hanuman by whose means Sita was rescued. 

 In all the large ones, Hanuman is represented in the centre of the 2 rows 

 below Ram and Sita holding up a flower to them : in the smaller, he alone 

 sits just below Ram and his consort. Sita in some is represented on Rama's 

 lap, in others seated by him on the gadi; the attendents have chouries and 

 the umbrella. There are three figured in Marsden, PI. XLVIII : these are 

 now with his collection in the British Museum. 



I am anxious to prepare a paper in greater detail and to get a plate 

 made of some of the specimens, and shall therefore be exceedingly grateful 

 for any information that those to whom this No. of the Proceedings may 

 be sent can afford me. 



The question of the age of these pieces is one on which I have failed to 

 get any satisfactory information. One learned Pandit informed me they 

 were 27 lacs of years old; another modified this, bringing it down to the 

 more moderate figure of about 8^ lacs. Another set the age at 3,500 years, 

 while Marsden merely says they are believed in southern India to have 

 been the money of the demi-god or hero Ramachandra and coined at the 

 Island of Ramesseram, but attempts no date. 



The 3 pale gold coins which are certainly the oldest, viz., the whole 

 and the two quarter-Ramtinkis have a history. The great Sankaracharya 

 the reformer of the Shiva sect, who flourished in the 9th century A. D., esta- 

 blished branch "maths" or hermitages in various places: one was at Koodal- 

 ji in the Mysore State. In the course of years the Swami in charge of the 

 math, having become poor, about the time of the famine mortgaged the 

 relics, among which were these 3 Ramtinkis, and on his failing to redeem 



