SETHUPATI COINS. 
7 
and their significance has been a matter of much conjecture. 
The five, in symbolism, may refer to Indra who was the 
regent of that number of the eight points of the compass, and 
may be used to indicate that the country lay to the eastward ; 
or the five may refer to the five regions which were allied to 
one another as the parts of Dravida, and in which these 
coins were current, viz., Chola, Pandya, Sethupati, Lanka 
and Malayalam ; or the five may refer to the five known 
products of the hill country (LD^euQun-Q^Q^&r ^jb^)^ allusion 
thus being made to the hilly nature of Ceylon, just as the 
lamp, also used on all these coins, is an emblem for bright- 
ness and therefore stands for Lanka, the name of the island 
and meaning " bright " or " shinrag." Again the five may 
be an allusion to the Pancha Pandavar or five Pandava 
brothers to whom mythology attributes the earliest settle- 
ment of Southern India : or, finally, and this theory seems 
to me as probable as any, it may be merely ornamental and 
devoid of any hidden meaning ; it may mean none of the 
foregoing at all, nor indeed anything of special or hidden 
import. 
This is the first of the two coins referred to above, as 
first published by Sir W. Elliot. 
No. 3.— Copper. Weight 58 grs. (fig. 2). 
Obverse and Reverse. — Same as in No. 2, of which it is a 
half-sized copy. The specimen in my own cabinet is much 
worn. There is a copy in the collection of £1. C. P. Bell, 
Esq. 
No. 4. — Copper. 
Obverse. — Couchant bull to left : above, the sun and moon ; 
and below, the Tamil letters (S<9=^ (Setu). Border, of dots 
between double lines. Five triplets of dots filling the open 
spaces. 
Reverse. — Standing figure, face to left, with club in right 
hand, and lamp in left. Border as in obverse. This coin 
has been figured, in turn, by Princep, Ehys Davids and Sir 
