I SETHUPATI COINS. 5 
period. It seems to me more probable that they belong to 
an earlier time of confusion and decline which lies between 
the period when Sinhalese re-ascendancy in Ceylon had, by 
breaking off any considerable intercourse between that island 
and the mainland, left the Sethupati and their followers 
free to return to their wild birthright and natural instinct 
for a lawless life, in which commerce and trade were less 
secure. 
There is also a small dumpy coin found in considerable 
numbers and frequently among undoubted Sethupati coins, 
which I mention with some hesitation, but which may possi- 
bly confirm a fact in the later history of this family. The 
legend on this coin has been read by Pandit Natesa Sastri 
as Sri Tondaman, and it is supposed to have been issued by 
the Tondaman family, which had its rise in Sethupati times 
and through Sethupati influence, though now a distinct line. 
It is possible that this coin, as an early and perhaps only 
issue of its kind, may have its place in this series. 
Another coin too which should be mentioned in this 
connection, though it is by no means certain that it is , a 
Sethupati coin has on the obverse a Graruda with Vishnu 
emblems and on the reverse what has been read " Vira 
Bahu " in Grrantha letters. Nothing however except its 
dumpy style, and its having been frequently found with 
Sethupati coins, could warrant our placing it in this series. 
The earliest aUusion to Sethupati coins in any published 
form was made by Princep who figured and described ^ the 
large bull coin. Examples of it are not uncommon and 
have been found in Northern Ceylon as well as in various 
parts of Southern India. The next published reference to 
these coins was that which appeared in the Numismata 
Orientalia by Ehys Davids.^ The coins there published will 
' Prineep's Essays, I, p. 423, pi. xxxv. 
^ Numis. Orien. " On tte Coins of Ceylon," by Rhys Davids, figs. 18 
and 19, pp. 30 and 31. 
