1837.] Specimens of Ceylon Coins. 301 



Fig. 4. Among the coins dug up at Montollee were several small ones 

 of the same prince. Sri Pardkrama bdhu fills the field of the reverse. 



Fig. 5. This coin, one of the new acquisitions, has the name *$t^!$f> 

 ^fysn^Tft ( ® r * R l V a Lildvati, another celebrated person in Singhalese 

 history. She was the widow of the Parakrama just named ; married 

 Kirti, the minister of one of his successors, not of the royal line, who 

 was put aside, and the kingdom governed in her name from A. D. 

 1202 until she was deposed by Sa'hasa Malla. She was twice after- 

 wards restored. 



Fig. 6, of Sri mat Sdhasa Malla, has already been described. The 

 date assigned to this prince in the table is 1205 A. D. or 1748 

 A. B. ; a date confirmed by a rock inscription at Pollonarowe, trans- 

 lated and published in the Ceylon Almanac for 1834, page 190. He 

 again was deposed by his minister- Nikanga, and was succeeded 

 in 1213 by 



Fig. 7, ^ft ^flrUT^^" Sri Dharma Asoka deva, a prince of a very 

 imposing Buddhistic name, who was placed on the throne at the age 

 of three months, but of whom nothing further is said. The portrait 

 would lead us to suppose him of mature age. 



Fig. 8. We here pass over a period of turbulence and continual inva- 

 sions from Chola, Pandia and Kalinga, and arrive at a coin of ^H'^T'sNf 

 "^T^ <Sn Bhawdneka bdhu, who seized the throne on his brother's as- 

 sassination by a minister in A. D. 1303. In his reign the Pandian 

 general, Ariya Chakravartti' took Yapahu, the capital, and carried 

 off the Dalada relic so much prized by the Buddhists of Ceylon. 



Fig. 9. We now come to a name of less certainty than the fore- 

 going, and possibly not belonging to the island, for it is one of a 

 large quantity of coins found by Col. Mackenzie at Dipaldinna or 

 Amardvati, on the continent of India, — a name so similar to the Damba- 

 dinia, where many of the Ceylon coins were discovered, that, seeing the 

 coins were identical, I supposed at first the places must be so likewise. 

 The uppermost letter is cut off. The next two below are decidedly 

 5T, and under the arm we find ^ and ?;r. The most legitimate con- 

 text would be ^t (1) ^T K\*H Sri Gaja Rdjd, (A. D. 1127,) but the JT 

 is hardly allowable. 



There are many small coins (10 and 11) from the same place, 

 reading like it the same indefinite title TT5T raja, to which no better 

 place can be assigned. 



Fig. 12. Here again is a common variety of the Dipaldinna series, 



which was thought utterly hopeless, until Mr. Turnour favored me 



with drawings of Mr. Lizar's collection. Two of these (figs. 13 and 



14) exhibit a new type of reverse, the Indian bull Nandi, which may 



2 R 



