30 
G. Bidie —The Pagoda or Vara ha coins. 
[No. 1, 
4 Pice == 1 Fanam 
42 Fanams = 1 Pagoda. 
The East India Company and other European merchants kept “ their 
accounts at 12 Fanams the Rupee, and 42 Fanams or Rupees the 
Star pagoda, but the natives reckoned “ the Rupee at 12 Fanams, 60 cash, 
and the Star pagoda at 44 fanams, 50 cash.”* * * § 
The present paper does not include all the forms of the pagoda that 
have been in circulation in Southern India, but only those of which there 
are specimens in the Madras Museum, together with a few others which 
have been deemed necessary to illustrate the subject, or to render the mo¬ 
nograph more complete. In describing'Hhe coins they will be grouped as 
far as possible according to djmasties, and the groups arranged in chrono¬ 
logical order. In treating of coins concerning which so little has been 
recorded, and which are intrinsically so difficult, it is hardly to be expected 
that all my conclusions will invariably be accepted, but I shall be glad if 
they excite discussion and elicit further reliable information. 
Buddhist Coins. —The Buddhist religion was introduced into South¬ 
ern India in the time of the great Asoka. In the 17th year of his reign, 
246 B. C., the third Buddhist Council was held, after which Missionaries 
were sent to propagate the faith in Mysore, Kanara and the Dakhan.f 
Of the success of this propagandism we have abundant evidence in archi¬ 
tectural remains, in inscriptions, and in the narrative of the Chinese pilgrim 
Huen Thsang, who came to India in the 7th century of our era, to see the 
shrines and learn the doctrines of Buddhism. It is also known that the 
early Pallava kings, who ruled the country throughout which the Telugu 
language is now spoken, were Buddhists,J and it is probable that, like 
Asoka, they made it the State religion. The well known remains of the 
tope at Amravati in the Guntoor district, “are perhaps the most beautiful 
and perfect Buddhist sculptures yet found in India.”§ This magnificent 
structure was erected in the 4th century of our era, and quite recently a 
more ancient tope, at Juggiapett on the opposite side of the Kistna, was 
brought to notice by Mr. R. Sewell, C. S., and explored by Dr. Burgess. 
There is also reason to believe, that the oldest temple at Conjeveram was 
originally a Buddhist shrine, and undoubted remains of similar structures 
at one time existed near Nagapatam, and in the Tinnevelly and Trichno- 
poly districts.|| A huge stone Buddha image was also some years ago dug 
* Kelly’s “Universal Cambist,” Vol. I, p. 90. 
f “ Cave Temples of India,” p. 17. 
J Rice’s “ Mysore Inscriptions,” Introduction, p. 88. 
§ “ Cave Temples of India,” p. 64. 
|| Elliot in Journal, Madras Literary Society, Yol, XIX for 1857-58, p. 226. 
