50 
HINTS TO COIN-COLLECTORS 
to the State of Puducottah, and regarding it Mr. Seshiah 
Sastri, C.S.I., tlie present enlightened Dewan of the Tondiman 
Rajah, in a recent letter, informs me — 
"On the reverse is the figure of Brahadamha eots^ the 
family deity of the Tondiman. This figure gives the name to 
the coin, which is current only within this State" (Puduootta). 
" It is coined locally in a rough way, and its greatest circulation 
is during 'Navarathri' or ' Dusserah,' when it is issued (4 to 
each) along with the rice dole every day during the nine days. 
It seems that in Madura a similar coin was in circulation with 
a similar figure, but in a standing posture " (this I figure as 
No. 24). " Here the sitting posture was adopted to distinguish 
it from the other, which up to that time used to circulate ia 
this State also." 
On the break up of the Vijayanagar power on the battle- 
field of Talikota, a thousand and one petty chieftains, who 
had sworn eternal fealty to them in the days of their 
greatness, declared themselves independent and started mints 
on their own account, but the coins they struck are ehai-ac- 
terised in most instances by being as puny in comparison 
with those of Vijayanagar as was their power with that of 
their former rulers. Some of them appear merelj^ to have 
copied the issues of their predecessors while others coined 
minute gold pieces known as " fanams," a teiTa which 
later came to be used as an item in the EngKsh monetary 
system in South India. All of those that I have come 
across have been figured by me in a recent issue of the 
Journal of the Asiatic Society and I therefore pass them 
N '25 ^"^ unnoticed here,^^ merely picturing one 
as an example of the series. This small 
piece of money was coined by Kanthirava Ars, who fi-om 1638 
to 1658 A. D. ruled the province of Mysore, and whose 
>8 Journal As. Soc, Bengal, Vol. LV, Part. I, 18S6. 
Since writing this I have been lucky enough to meet with a hitherto 
unpublished coin of this size struck by a Chola king, notice of which I 
reserve for a futui'e number of this joui'iial. 
