03. My first Coin from Malhar

June 18, 2008 by paliakara

 As I had earlier stated, I started reading literature available with the Bilaspur Museum. It was believed that at the beginning of the Christian Era, Dakshina Kosala, was under the suzerainty of the Satavahanas. All inscriptions of that period are referred to as that of Satavahanas. The 2^nd Century rock inscription at Gunji (Barpali) near Sakti (now Janjgir district) is also attributed to Satavahana period. The inscription tells about distribution of 1000 cows to local Brahmins twice by Raja (King) Kumaravaradatta and a third time by his minister. Because of this hangover I largely read about the Satavahanas and their coinage. To cap it, a coin found at Balapur in the sands of the river Mahanadi is attributed to a king named Apilaka, who happens to be the 5^th in the Satavahana lineage.[ Now it has been established that the attribution was faulty. The name has been read as Rano Siva Siri Silalukasa by Dr. (Mrs.) Susmita Bose Majumdar in her monograph titled “a new series Coins of Malhar” wherein most of the coins covered are from my collection](IIRNS Publication available here).

 

If I am lucky, I could dig out Raja Kumaravaradatta, I thought. May be I could also bring out other Satavahana rulers who are not known by their coin issues. Cleaning of the coins was proving difficult. All the pieces had hardened mud coating. Finally I put them in Acetic Acid overnight and I could succeed in getting rid of the deposits using a tooth brush. Out of half a dozen pieces, one was a lead coin with inscription. Others were copper and highly corroded. However I was very happy and started trying to figure out the name of the King on the lead coin.

With my limited knowledge of Brahmi characters, I read the name as Maagha Sirisa. Immediately I referred to the list of Satavahana rulers and thrilled to find something matching. There was one Meghaswati listed there. I showed it to my friends in the Archaeological department. They encouraged me and suggested further readings. However, I could not resist myself from sending out a letter to Dr. Ajay Mitra Shastri at Nagpur reporting my findings. In turn he expressed his doubts and asked me to go through his book on “Kausambi Hoard of Magha Coins”.

 

Steadily my collection started growing with many more additions establishing  the real cradle of Maghas at Malhar.