DESCRIPTION OF SELECT COINS. 589 



Plate IV. 



The Coins contained in this plate may be referred to the dynasties of 

 the south of India, especially the princes of Vijayanagar, and are not 

 therefore of very high antiquity : several of them have been delineated by 

 Major Moor ; but we can scarcely admit his notion of them to be correct, 

 when he states that there can be little doubt of most of them having been 

 struck as early as the age of Vikramaditya. 



Plate IV. Figure 74. 



A Gold Coin. 



Obverse. — Concave, Rama crowned, Sita sits by him : 

 Lakshmana is on his right, and Bharata on his left : other 

 figures complete the groupe. There are characters below, 

 but they are of doubtful import, although they offer some 

 analogies to old forms of both Nagari and Grandham letters, 

 and may possibly form the words TrW^TT, the assembly of 

 Rama. It is possible that they have not been very carefully 

 copied in the drawing. 



Reverse.— Convex, a figure of HanumXn, with cha- 

 racters that may be read Sri Ramesivara. 



Coins of this description are of not very rare occurrence, apparently, 

 in the south of India, where they are called Rama Tanlcas, or Rama Mams. 

 The present drawing is copied from a drawing of a Coin belonging to the 

 late Colonel Mackenzie, which was obtained at Seringapatam, having 

 been, like that delineated by Major Moor, No. 10 of his plate 104, part 

 of a Collection that had belonged to Tipu Sultan. According to the 

 popular belief, these coins were struck by Ramachandra himself, but the 



ii 5 



