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The Kadambas of Banavasi were the first Kannadiga family to rule in Karnataka and the first to use the Kannada script on their inscriptions. Their coins, which also use Kannada letters, were unknown until a find was made in 2006. These coins have been definitively attributed to the Kadambas because they not only have various Kadamba symbols, such as conches and chakras, but one of the epithets on the coins, sri dosharashi, (see image below for legends), is known from inscriptions to have been used by the Kadamba king Krishnavarma II (ruled 516-540). More coins and some more background can be seen at the Kadambas of Banavasi page on the CoinIndia website.
Besides the coins with the legend dosharashi, there was only one other legend found on the coins: sri manarashi.Girijapathy and Subrahmanya (Numismatic Digest, 31, 2007) read this legend as srimad ravi and attributed the coins to Ravivarma II, but this reading does not seem to be correct. As yet, the king to whom this epithet applies has not been discovered. Many of the hoard coins arrived with perforations, like on this coin. |