2017-05-12 Fri

The Western Gangas ruled over a large territory in Karnataka in south-western India. Despite this large area of territory, the kingdom itself was a relatively small one. The kingdom was known to the Gangas themselves as Gangavadi, and was centered around the modern Mysore.

We see different motifs and symbols on coins. But portraying Elephant on coins is one of the best things we can ever see. Lastly we wrote a blog on Elephants on Indian coins: An overview and history.

We see Elephant on Western Ganga coins too!

The given picture is the one of the Ganga gold Gajapati Pagoda which depicts caparisoned elephant to right chewing sugarcane, with a radiating sun symbol above the elephant’s back, a branch under its belly and a branch in front of the trunk. The reverse has scroll work. It weighs around 3.92 grams.