212 J. Gibbs —A Paper 07i the Medals Imoivn as Pa^ntmhis. [No. 2, 
made of gold or silver—and part of the worship consisted in bathing 
the idols daily in milk, curds, ghi, sugar, honey, fruits, and then in water, 
after which they were bathed in gold, which is done by pouring over them 
handfuls of gold coins such as Hamtinkis, Huns and other Hindu coins ; 
these coins are kept specially for this use and are deemed to be sacred, 
and although as a favour they may be shown to Europeans, none can 
touch them but the priests. 
I do not know how it came about, but the later Swamis at Koodalji 
lost much of their property, and during the famine of 1876-77 disposed 
of the remainder of these treasures, and amongst other things mort¬ 
gaged three Ramtinkis—which according to tradition had been handed 
down from Swami to Swami from the foundation of the ‘ math ’ in the 
9th or 10th century A. D.—to a banker, with the stipulation that if not 
redeemed within six months they should become his property : the time 
elapsed, and a year or so after my old friend Rao Bahadur Trimulrao, 
who was connected by marriage with the banker, heard of them and pur¬ 
chased them for me. They are those numbered 2, 6, 7 in the above list. 
They have been much knocked about from temple use, the large one espe¬ 
cially ; they are highly alloyed with silver, and are in consequence very 
pale in colour. The largest is a whole Ramtinki and has rather the look 
of having been cast, not struck. Ros. 6 and 7 are quarters and one of 
them is almost exactly similar to the electrotype from the Mysore 
Museum, specimen Ho. 13. 
If we can trust the tradition above alluded to, these medals may be 
800 or 900 years old, and the similarity between Ho.* 6 and Ho. 13 would 
point to an early date also for the original of the latter. 
With regard to the other varieties, I can form no opinion as to their 
real age, but I am inclined to consider all but Ho. 8 modern, that is not 
over 100 to 150 years; one exactly resembling Ho. 6 was shown me by a 
Brahman in Poona, who said he knew it had been worshipped in his 
family for over 70 years, and might have been for a far longer time. 
The large double one Ho. 1 is of very coarse work, but of pretty fair 
gold, it is much rubbed and belongs to Mr. J. P. Watson in Bombay. 
I classify the medals I have met with in 3 descriptions : 
a. Those of very pale gold heavily alloyed with silver. 
jd. Those of pure gold or nearly so with very fine work. 
y. Those of pretty good gold and coarser work. 
Under a come Hos. 2, 4, 6, 7 
„ /? „ Hos. 3, 9, 
,, y ,, Hos. 15, 10, 11, 12 
Ho. 8 varies from all, l)eing of pale gold but fine work. 
