Coins Of India - Indian Princely States

Here is a coin with bull facing right

@Finn235:)
Thanks for the post and your interest in Indian coins. South Indian coins are the "most toughest" to attribute among Indian coins.
The coin on the left in your post shows a bull with a crescent above. In front of the bull you got sangh shell right.On the other side your observation about the "octopus man" also is correct.
Regarding its attribution, T.Krishnamachari attributed this to Cholas. But his observation seems incorrect. SankaranRaman, a numismatist from Tamilnadu who specialises in Tamilnadu coins especially of Nayakas, says it is an issue of "Tirumala Nayak" of Madurai.(1623-1659.AD)


(I am sorry about the scan quality, but this is the max.I could do with that book).
He states its provenance is Thanjavur, in Tamilnadu.

There are some variants also to this coin that we come across at times.

Here you can see a Kannada letter "cho" above the bull. This is attributed to "Chokkanatha Naykar (1659-1682.AD)by the same author.

Coming to the coin on the right,there is a crescent above the bull to the right and the letter in front is "vee" written in nagari. This coin also is attributed to the Nayaka "Veerappa naykar"(1572-1595.AD)by SankaranRaman.




But some others attribute this to "Veera Pandya"(1335-1364 AD )of the later Pandya group.Please see this link
http://ancientcoinsofindiaaruns.blo...er-maha.html



Many SundaraPandya coins (having clear legend in Tamil script) have come to light with the "octopus man" symbol and the sitting figure that is often found on Chola coins around this period.









Thanks

@Finn235:)Thank you[ for the post.

Mallikarjuna




It is interesting to compare the coin of Devaraya-2 above with this coin.Devaraya coin has elephant to right with uplifted tail within circle of dots and Kanrarese "Aa" above and legend "Pratapa Devaraya" within circle of dots struck on the two sides.There is another object probably an animal struck below the right forelimb of the elephant.There is a head and its body clearly seen and faint traces of a tail (?) is also seen. That could be a baby elephant crudely represented or crushing some other animal. Mallikarjuna coin has elephant to left within circle of dots and legend "yamadi Devaraya" within circle of dots struck on the sides.