Eastern Calykyan Coins in the Telangana State Museum, Hyderabad

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I examined a collection of 14,435 copper coins of the Eastern Calukyas obtained from the village of Dondapadu in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh and preserved in the A. P. Government Museum, Hyderabad, in May, 1961 and found them of very great importance to Indian numismatics. These coins were all partly rusted and the legends on them were partly visible. They were all cleaned at my suggestion and I re-examined them in May, 1962. Some of the coins have no legend and most of them are copies containing the same legend either completely or in part. I selected 205 of these coins and included them in the subjoined classified and descriptive Catalogue.

A few Eastern Calukyan coins have been published previously. Three gold coins of the following description were obtained from Arakan in Burma :-

Obverse Varaha facing left with a lamp stand before and behind, ma symbol before the legs and a chatra and two chauries above. Sri Calukyacandrasya, The Korumilli grant of Rajaraja mentions his father, Vimaladitya, with the title Calukyacandra. These coins have therefore been correctly attributed to the Eastern Calukyan king, Vimaladitya. Another coin of the same description bearing the legend S'ri Calukyavallabha, has been published by Elliott. Two gold coins of the following description obtained from Gudur, near Masulipatam, in the Krishna district, have been published by Hultzsch Obverse Varaha facing left with a lamp stand before and behind and ankusa, chatra, the moon, sun and two cuaries above. Sri Rajarajasya sa 34.

Obverse Description and legend same as on above but the year is 37 These coins have been attributed to the famous Eastern Calukyan king, Rajaraja, the patron of the Andhra Mahabharata (1022-43 A.D.) But these are gold coins and bear the figures of the Varaha on the obverse. This Varaha was the lanchana of the Calukyas.

A collection of 71 copper coins of the following description have been obtained from Yelamanchili in the Visakhapatnam district.

Obverse Lion facing left with the legend Visamasiddhi above it inside a dotted border.

Reverse-A double trident surmounted by crescent and flanked by a lamp stand on each side inside a border of rays.