2017-04-03 Mon

Portraying any deity on coins shows the religious inclination of the ruler or dynasty. Indian Kings were very fond of depicting gods and goddesses on their coins.

The Nayaks came into power after the downfall of the mighty Vijayanagar Empire. They ruled in the various regions of South India.

Vishwanath Nayak (1529- 11563 CE) was one of the powerful rulers of Madurai Nayaks. The coin in the given picture is his Copper coin where a Krishna is shown seated in the royal ease pose (Rajalila pose) surrounded by Prabha (aura). The reverse bears Nagari legend Sri Vi / S(w)a… in three lines and middle letter flanked by sun and moon symbols. This tiny specimen weighing around 3.20 grams got sold for INR 20,000 at Classical Numismatics Gallery (Ahmadabad).

Now we come to our fun fact! Krishna is the key character in the Bhagavad Gita, but do you know that Bhagavad Gita is part of Mahabharata?

The Mahabharata is the longest epic poem in the world… with more than 220000 (100000 shloka or couplets) verses and about 1.8 million words in total.

Hmm…Quite interesting isn’t it?

You can read our previous articles on Krishna on Coins- Part I and Krishna on Coins- Part II.

Stay tuned to know more!