50 
[No. 1, 
G. Bidie —The Pagoda or Varaha coins. 
one of these rajahs that the English East India Company purchased, in the 
year 1620, the spot of ground on which stood the old fort and factory of 
Madras, now enclosed within the works of Fort Saint George, together with 
the privilege of coining money, under the stipulation that the English 
should not fail to preserve on their coinage the representation of that deity 
who was the favourite object of his worship.” Unfortunately the latter 
portion of this statement cannot now be verified, as the document under 
which the Rajah made a grant of the site of Madras to the Company 
appears to have been lost or destroyed when the French had possession of 
Fort Saint George, in 1746. The Company, however, for many years 
adhered to this type in their issues of the pagoda 
Oh. Three rude standing figures of Venkatesvara and his two wives, 
Pev. Convex granulated. 
Weight:— 52 7625 gr. 
„ 53-525 „ 
„ 52-53 „ 
„ 53 62 ,, 
PI. II, Fig. 20. Of the two specimens of this coin in the Museum one 
was received from. Bellary under the name of “ Carmamutty Pagoda” struck 
at Masulipatam, Coconada &c., by a Nizam of the Dakhan The other 
came from the Mysore Treasury under the name of “ Imam Oodeen” pago¬ 
da. Newbold in his paper on the Ceded Districts* says, “ a number of 
gold pagodas were introduced by the Asaph Jah or Hyderabad chiefs, among 
which was the Karkmodi coined at Karkmod, Masulipatam &c.” Where 
Ivarkmod is I have been unable to discover, probably it is an obsolete name 
of some town or village Marsden in PI. 48, fig. 1083 gives a figure of 
this coin and says, this him is named by Sonnerat “ pagoda ancienne d* 
Arcate” and “ has three figures on the obverse like those of Porto Novo 
and some of Chandrageri.” It appears probable therefore that the obverse 
of the pagoda was copied from a Chandrageri coin, first by Abdullah Kutb 
Shah of Golkonda who captured Chandrageri in 1646, and latterly by 
Nawabs of the Carnatic. The symbol on the reverse is said by Marsden 
to represent the Arabic letter ^ the initial of Muhammad Ali Nawab, as it 
was of Abdulla Kutb Shah.f We have thus a clear line of descent for the 
obverse of this coin, the device having been first adopted by the ex-Raya 
of Vijayanagar when living at Chandrageri, next by the kings of Golkonda 
during their tenure of the fortress, thirdly by the Nawabs of the Carnatic 
who wrested Chandrageri from the Golkonda chiefs, and finally by the 
East India Company. 
* “ Madras Journ. of Literat. and Science,” Yol. 10, p. 131. 
t As -will be seen hereafter Haidar put his initial on the reverse of his coinage o i 
the lkkeri pagoda. 
