^ SETHUPATI COINS. 3 
the old 'family in the person of Sadaiayaka Tevar Udaiyar 
Sethupati. Mr. Sewell has summarized what is known of 
the family since then, and mentions the fact that they had a 
coinage of their own. The summary needs authentification, 
and the coinage will, I am afraid, throw but little new light 
upon the subject, since the extant specimens are at their 
best very limited in their variety and number, and in the 
amount of historical information which they convey ; yet, it is 
quite admissible, as Nelson points out, for the family to claim 
high antiquity as a royal line,^ " seeing that Ramespuram 
has been resorted to annually, for centuries, by large bodies of 
pilgrims, and that this would have been simply impossible 
unless some strong-handed prince or princes were ruling over 
the country in its neighbourhood. I think it may be pretty 
safely concluded that the principality of Ramnad has been 
in existence many centuries." 
The shrine at Ramespuram was undoubtedly one of wide 
renown from very early times, and possibly had been famous 
for centuries before these invasions and counter-invasions 
of Chola and Sinhalese rulers took place, but there seems to 
be nothing in local tradition to indicate that the Sethupati 
had any special concern with, or responsibility for, the 
shrine. 
The coins divide themselves into an earlier and a later 
series, which are quite distinct from one another. The 
earlier series of coins present specimens wliich are usually 
larger, and better executed, and correspond in weight and 
appearance very nearly to the well-known coins of the 
Sinhalese series, together with which they are often found. 
Rhys Davids says * " these coins are probably the very ones 
referred to as having been struck by Parakrama's general 
Lankdpura at G^^^." 
Madura Manual, III, p. 110. 
Numi$. Orien., VI, p. 63. 
