A Catalogue of Kotalingala Coins

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Kotalingala is an early historic site lying on the banks of River Godavari in the Karimnagar district of Telangana. The discovery of coins from Kotalingala in 1978 is considered as an important event in south Indian numismatics. Staggering variety of coins were found in the surface as well as in excavations conducted at this site. The coins included punch marked, uninscribed and inscribed coins. Punch marked coins belonged to Nanda and Maurya dynasties. Uninscribed coins belonged to local rulers. Inscribed coins belonged to both Pre-Satavahana local rulers namely Gobhada, Narana, Kamvayasa, Sirivayasa and Samagopa and early Satavahana kings Chimuka and Satakani etc. Chimuka was the founder of the Satavahana dynasty. There were also coins of the satraps or officials of that era. The book lists the coins found at Kotalingala and analyses their contribution to the history of Satavahana dynasty.

Deme Raja Reddy, is a well- known neurosurgeon and a numismatist. Reddy headed the departments of neurosurgery at Osmania medical college, Gandhi medical college and Nizam's institute of medical sciences in Hyderabad. With his medical background he brought in scientific and analytical approach to the study of ancient Indian coins. Reddy is an authority on coins of the Deccan and published more than twenty books on the subject. He wrote more than 100 articles on ancient coins in national and international journals. He was the past president of the south Indian numismatic society of Chennai and that of the numismatic society of India of Varanasi. He was also the past editor of the two journals published by these societies. He was the past president of the Telangana history congress and the president of ancient section of the Andhra Pradesh history congress. He was the recipient of Marremanda Rama Rao medal of the numismatic society of India and P.L. Gupta medal of the south Indian numismatic society.

Presently he is the chairman of the numismatic society of India.

The village named Kotalingala lying on the right bank of River Godavari in the Karimnagar district of Telangana first came to light in 1978 when a postal officer of the village named S. Narahari brought 100 copper coins which were collected by the villagers from mounds during agricultural operations (Parabrahma Sastry 1978 a). The village proper and its adjoining high mounds cover an area of about 100 acres, along the riverbank. A study of the coins from Kotalingala by Parabrahma Sastry (1978 b) revealed that all the coins were new, previously unknown in the history of Indian numismatics. These coins belonged to the early rulers of the Satavahanas and their predecessors such as Chimuka Satavahana, Gobhada, Samagopa, Satakarni etc. Gupta (1978) noted the significant discovery of the coins from Kotalingala and called it an outstanding event in the realm of Indian numismatic studies. Realising the significance of the discovery of these coins, Archaelogy department undertook the excavation of the site during the years 1979-1983 (Annual reports of the archaelogy department 1980-1981 and 1981-1982). The department also purchased 140 Kotalingala coins from Narahari on 27- 11-1978 (Annual report of the archaeology department 1978-1979). Except for a brief report about the excavations in the annual reports of the archaeology department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and description some of these coins by Parabrahma Sastry, a detailed report of the coins found on the surface and in excavations was never compiled except for a report by Ramachandra Murthy (2006). Hence this catalogue of the coins from Kotalingala are being published which excluded very worn out and encrustrated coins.

Satavahana was the first major dynasty to rule from Dakshinapath or Deccan in ancient India and Kotalingala on the banks of River Godavari in Karimnagar district of Telangana is acknowledged as its first capital. The coins were found in the surface as well as in the excavations conducted at the site between 1979 and 1983 AD.A total of 430 coins were found and out of these 157 were surface finds and 273 were found in trenches from excavations. In addition the archaeological department purchased 140 coins from Narahari through a committee on 9-1-1979.A hoard of 400 punch marked coins were found as a hoard during the first year of excavations. To summarize a staggering variety of coins were found at Kotalingala that included un-inscribed and inscribed issues. Un-inscribed coins belonged imperial type of punch marked coins of Nanda and Maurya dynasties and un-inscribed cast coins of local rulers.Majority of inscribed coins were those of Pre- Satavahana local rulers and early kings of Satavahana dynasty. Besides coins of satraps such as Mahatalavara, Maharathi, Mahasenapati and Sebaka were also found at Kotalingala. There were also few coins of later Satavahana rulers discovered at this site establishing the fact that this region was always under the Satavahana rule. The archaeological department brought out a report on excavations conducted at Kotalingala during the years 1979-1983 and the report contained a general description of 137 without illustrations of the coins. Surprisingly the report contained description of 20 punch marked coins though 421 were found during investigation.