40 
HINTS TO COIN-COLLECTORS 
duing them, and invading them, a fierce battle was fought 
in front of the Pural fort, in which the Curumbar king's 
troops fought and fell with bravery ; and two-thirds of 
Adondai's army was cut up. He retreated to a distance 
overwhelmed with grief ; and the place where he halted 
is still called Cholan-pedu. "While thinking of returning 
to Tan j ore, Siva that night appeared to him in a dream, 
and promised him victory over the Curumbars, guai^an- 
teed by a sign. The sign occurred ; and the Curumba 
troops were the same day routed with great slaughter ; the 
king was taken, the Pural fort was thrown down, and its 
brazen (or bell-metal) gate was fised in front of the shiine 
at Tanjore." Sewell (in his account of the dynasties of 
Southern India) considers some of the figures carved round 
the base of a pillar in the Kachalesvarasvami temple to be 
portraits of Curumbars, and describes them as there repre- 
sented as being " woodsmen with peculiar high caps, short 
swords (?) and water-gourds slung over their shoulders. 
The features, " he addsj " are highly characteristic and are 
utterly unlike those of any other sculptured figures I have 
seen in Southern India." The occnrrence on their coins, 
as also occasionally on those of the Andhras, of a " d'boni" 
or native boat, seems to prove that they were a maritime 
people carrying on a commerce by sea. 
We must now pass to a short consideration of the marks 
which distinguished the coins of the three large d^Tiasties 
which at one time held sway in Southern India generally, 
viz., the Cholas, Paudyans, and Cheras. Tradition has it 
that in prehistoric times the whole of this part of the 
country was ruled by three brothers of the names of Cholan, 
Pandayan, and Cheran, and from these sprang the thi-ee 
powerful dynasties which took their names. The power 
of the Cheras never seems to have been very great, though 
their nominal sovereignty extended from the coimtrv round 
their capital, Salem, away to the hills of Travancore and 
