Some Aspects of Early Historic Archaeology and Numismatics of Karnataka (Prof. T. Balakrishnan Nayar Endowment Lectures, 1987-88) An Old and Rare Book

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It gives us great pleasure in publishing these three Lectures delivered by Dr. A. V. Narasimha Murthy under the auspices of Prof. T. Balakrishnan Nayar Endowment Lectures for the year 1987-88. Dr A. V. Narasimha Murthy who is a Professor in the Postgraduate Department of Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Mysore is well known to the scholars of Indian archaeology and numismatics. He started his career in the Archaeological Survey of India in the Exploration branch in 1957 and later joined the Andhra University as a Lecturer in Archaeology. Then he joined the Mysore University as a Reader and rose to be the Professor and Head of the Department. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University in the Department of Anthropology. He has visited many countries like USA, UK, Japan, Thailand, and Phillippines. Numismatics is his special forte. He was the Chairman, General Secretary and Editor of the Numismatic Society of India, Varanasi. Currently, he is the Editor of Studies in South Indian Coins and the Journal of Archaeological Studies. Dr.A.V. Narasimha Murthy is the author of many books, of which the following are noteworthy: The Sevunas of Devagiri (1971), The Coins of Karnataka (1975). Archaeology of Karnataka (Ed.) (1978), and Coins of Vijayanagara (1991). He is also the co-editor of Rangavalli (1983) and Giridharasri (1987). He has also written a number of books in Kannada of which the one on Kannada Palaeography has fetched him the Sahitya Academy award (1968).

In these lectures Dr. A. V. Narasimha Murthy has presented the results of the latest researches. In the first lecture he has gone into the various aspects of the early historic culture with special reference to South India taking examples from Tamilnadu and comparing the data with those from Karnataka.

The following pages embody the three lectures delivered by me at the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology. University of Madras on 17th, 19th and 20th April 1989, as Prof. T. Balakrishnan Nayar Endowment Lectures, 1987-88. 1 had the privilege of knowing him intimately. He was a great scholar in Archaeology and Numismatics and when the offer came to me to deliver these lectures, I immediately accepted it so that I could pay my tribute to this great savant and choose the topics in which he himself had done excellent work.

In the first lecture, I have examined the early historic culture of Karnataka under the background of South India. The second lecture is devoted to an examination of the latest researches in the field of the coins of Karnataka. The last lecture is devoted to a comparatively new line of research involving epigraphical and literary data on numismatics. It is hoped that these would be welcomed both by the students of archaeology and the general readers.

Now it is my pleasant duty to thank the authorities of the University of Madras for inviting me to deliver these lectures. I must express my gratefulness to Dr. K. V. Raman, Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Madras for suggesting the topics for these lectures and arranging them in his Department and providing all facilities. I also thank Dr. P. Shanmugam, Reader in the same Department for helping me in the proof correction and the Arulvel Achagam for printing these lectures.

Dr. A. Sundara kindly provided me the illustrations of structures at Vadagaon Madhavpur; the line drawings of Banegas apsidal structures are re-copied from Archaeological Studies Vol. IV Brahmagiri apsidal structure from Ancient India No. 4. I thank all these organisations.