The first great dynasty to dominate Southern India was that of the
Chālukyas (a foreign tribe probably of Hūṇa-Gurjara origin), founded
by Pulakeśin I in the middle of the sixth century, whose capital
was at Bādāmī in the Bījāpūr district. His grandson, Pulakeśin II
(A.D. 608-642), became paramount in the Deccan, but the kingdom was
overthrown by the Rāshṭrakūṭas in 753. In 973, however, a Chālukya
prince, Tailapa, retrieved the fortunes of his family and founded
the Western Chālukya kingdom with its capital at Kalyāṇi, and this
lasted till 1190, after which the Chālukyas of the west, overthrown
by the Hoysaḷas, became petty chiefs. Meanwhile, in the middle of the
seventh century another dynasty, known as the Eastern Chālukyas, had
been established by Vishṇuvardhana, brother of the great Pulakeśin II,
in Kaliṅga with its capital at Veṅgī, which lasted till the eleventh
century, when it was overthrown by the Choḷas.
The earliest coin assignable to a Chālukya prince is a base silver
piece of Vishṇuvardhana (615-633), with a lion device and the
king’s title in Telugu, _Vishamasiddhi_, “Successful in scaling the
inaccessible places,” on the obverse, and a trident flanked by two
lamps on the reverse. Certain pagodas, fanams and copper coins, perhaps
of an earlier date, from the appearance on them of the boar, the
cognizance of the Chālukyas, have been conjectured to belong to that
dynasty. To the Eastern Chālukya princes, Śaktivarman (1000-1012) and
Rājarāja (1012-1062), belong large flat gold pieces, also depicting the
boar symbol, but with blank reverses (Pl. VII, 4).
The curious cup-shaped “padma-ṭaṅkas” (lotus ṭaṅkas) were possibly
first struck by the Kadambas (Pl. VII, 2), inhabiting Mysore and
Kanara. Similar coins, but with a lion or a temple in place of the
lotus and legends in old Kanarese, were struck by the Western Chālukya
kings, Jayasiṁha, Jagadekamalla and Trailokyamalla, of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. In 1913, 16,586 of these cup-shaped coins were
unearthed at Kodur in the Nellore district, and this find shows that
the type was subsequently adopted by the Telugu-Choḷa chiefs of the
Nellore district in the thirteenth century.
The Hoysaḷa chiefs, who rose to paramount power under Ballāḷa II on the
ruins of the Western Chālukya kingdom, had for their cognizance a maned
lion. Some heavy gold coins with old Kanarese legends, which bear that
emblem, have, therefore, with probability been assigned to them. On one
of these appears the interesting inscription, _Śrī Taḷakāḍa gonda_,
“He who took the glorious Taḷkāḍ,” the capital of the old Koṅgu-Chera
kingdom.
There are numerous South Indian coins belonging to the twelfth
century which afford no certain clue to their strikers. Among these
the following have been tentatively assigned to petty dynasties who
succeeded to the territories of the Chālukyas: to the Kākatīya or
Gaṇapati dynasty of Waraṅgal (1110-1323), pagodas, fanams and copper
coins with a couchant bull on the obverse and incomplete Nāgarī legends
on the reverse; to Someśvara, one of the Kalachuri chiefs of Kalyāṇa
(1162-1175), pagodas and fanams with the king’s titles in old Kanarese
on the reverse, and on the obverse a figure advancing to the right;
to the Yādavas of Devagiri (1187-1311), a pagoda and a silver coin,
bearing a kneeling figure of Garuḍa on the obverse.
There remain to be noticed the coins of three dynasties. The original
home of the Gajapatis, “Elephant-Lords,” was Koṅgudesa—Western Mysore
with the modern districts of Coimbatore and Salem. About the ninth
century these Chera kings fled before the invading Choḷas to Orissa,
and there were coined the famous “Elephant pagodas” (Pl. VII, 5) and
fanams, which Harsha-deva of Kashmīr (A.D. 1089) copied. The scroll
device on the reverse also appears on some of the anonymous boar
pagodas attributed to the Chālukyas. To Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga, a
member of that branch of the Gaṅga dynasty of Mysore who settled in
Kaliṅga (Orissa), and ruled there from the sixth to the eleventh
century, are assigned fanams with a recumbent bull, conch and crescent
on the obverse, and Telugu regnal dates on the reverse. The gold coins
of two of the later Kādamba chiefs of Goa, Vishṇu Chittadeva (circ.
1147) and Jayakeśin III (circ. 1187), are also known; these bear the
special Kādamba symbol, the lion passant on the obverse, and a Nāgarī
legend on the reverse. One interesting inscription of the latter runs
as follows: “The brave Jayakeśideva, the destroyer of the Mālavas who
obtained boons from the holy Saptakoṭīsa (_i.e._ Śiva).”