96 



Numismatic Gleanings. [No. 7, NEW SERIES. 



(now Vridd'ha chalam) inscribed on six copper plates, and dated 

 S. S. 1522 or A. D. 1600, the second is incomplete, one of the 5 

 plates having been lost, but the remaining plates contain the king's 

 name and the date S. S. 1560 or A. D. 1638. The seal bears the 

 name Venkatara(ya) in Nagari characters, an unusual circumstance 

 in the seals of this dynasty. 



Fig. 7 is the seal of Ranga Raya, on a set of plates recording 

 the grant of a village named Kala-kurichi in the Tirupati Rajyam 

 in S. S. 1566 or A. D. 1644. This is one of the latest of the 

 series, after the family had retired to Chandragiri.* 



Fig. 9 is a copy of a picture of his family insignia or arms, sent 

 to me by Raja Kumari Perumal, the zamindar of Karvetinagaram 

 in the Chittoor district, commonly known as the Bomma Raja 

 Poligar. The sword is here depicted above, instead of in front, of 

 the boar, with the sun and moon on either side, the whole on a 

 circular scutcheon perhaps intended to represent a seal, or the 

 round, flat, vertical parasol called aftabcjir carried over persons of 

 rank, by special permission of the sovereignf and usually embla- 

 zoned with a family device. Above this, is a shield surmounted 

 by a falcon of the kind called salva or bahri (falco peregrinus) 

 flanked by swords, flags, bows and quivers, and spears. 



It appears from a local history of some merit that the ancient 

 possessors of the Nagaram districts were a family of Salva Reddis, 

 who migrated with their tribe from the neighbourhood of Pit'hapur 

 in the delta of the Godavery, to the country at the base of the 

 Nagari Hills about the 8th or 9th century. 



One of them named Salva Narasa. Reddi obtained the favor of 

 the Chalukya king, Vimaladitya, by his skill as' an athlete, and 

 was appointed chief of the country of 'Sesachalam or Tripati 

 (where he founded a town called Narasapuram) with permission to 

 use the royal seal and boar signet. This was in the year S. S. 

 852 (A. D. 930). During the troubles which followed Vimaladi- 



* Since this paper was sent to press I have bean favored with the loan of set 

 of copper plates conveying a grant in the Canarese language of ten villages to a 

 temple in Conjevaram by Krishna Deva Wadiyar Raja of Mysore in S. S. 1646 

 or A. D. 1743, the seal in which is a boar exactly resembling. fig. 7. 



f The vaulted horizontal umbrella was always reserved exclusively for royal- 

 ty, whence the imperial title ekach'hatra and ch'hatrapati the origin prybably of 

 the word satrap. 



