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1 Kasu - Ganapathi Coin
| Issuer | Madurai, Kingdom of |
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| Year | 1601-1736 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Ganesha (Ganapathi) depicted seated facing in the field, rendered in a compact and stylized South Indian artistic tradition. The elephant-headed deity is shown in a frontal posture with characteristic iconographic attributes, including a rotund body and multiple arms, though fine detail is obscured by the crude hammered fabric typical of these Nayaka-period copper kasu. The design occupies the full flan, with the figure set against a plain, unadorned field. |
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| Reverse lettering | கணபதி |
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| Additional information |
The Madurai Nayaks ruled as nominal vassals of the Vijayanagara empire but functioned in practice as an independent dynasty following Vijayanagara's collapse after Talikota in 1565. Copper kasu of this type circulated through a regional economy built heavily on textile trade — Madurai was a major center of cotton production and pilgrimage revenue tied to the Meenakshi temple complex. The long attribution window of over a century reflects genuine difficulty in assigning specific kasu issues to individual Nayak rulers, as regnal die variation for copper remains poorly systematized in the scholarship.