46 
HINTS TO C01N-C0LI,ECT0K,S 
Another coin, bearing the same name, I also figure 
g as being very unlike the usual type of 
Pandyan issues. Whether the figure is 
standing, or sitting on a two-legged stool in the attitude 
of a J ain figure, I am unable to say, but incline to the former 
opinion, though the latter may be possible, as, though 
usually Sivaites, there appears to have been at one time a 
tendency to Jain worship among the early Pandyans. And 
this leads me to speak of another type of coin which occurs 
in large numbers in and round Madura. These invariably 
bear the "'lingam " on one side, sometimes 
No. 16. . ° ' 
plain sometimes surrounded bj a row of 
dots, which may possibly be intended to represent a wreath 
of flowers, and sometimes in a " vimana " or shrine while 
the reverse has two standing figures. At other times again 
^ ^_ it appears perched on the back of a bull 
and occasionally on a bird, possibly in 
connection with Minakshi, Siva's wife, who was held in great 
reverence in Madura. In the absence of any legend, it is 
of course impossible to fix such coins with any degree of 
certainty ; but the fact of their being found in considerable 
numbers, and often in conjunction with Pandyan issues, at 
the old Pandyan head- quarters, and the certainty that this 
people were ardent worshippers of Siva in this foi-m, would 
seem to me fair circumstantial evidence on which to base this 
theory. 
About the middle of the sixteenth century the Pandyan 
dynasty gave place to the Nayakas. Having quarrelled 
among themselves and fallen a prey to the Cholas who 
invaded their country,^^ the Pandyan king sought assistance 
from the Raja of Vijayanagar, who sent au army first 
under a general of the name of Kotiya Nagama, and then to 
keep them in order a second under Nagama's son Visvauatha. 
'2 See Sewell's Areha?ological Survey of Southern India, Vol. II, p. 200. 
