Sivaganga was established as a poligar state in 1730 and remained a thorn in British East India Company ambitions for decades. The raja Muthu Vaduganatha Thevar actively resisted Company encroachment, and his widow Velu Nachiyar — one of the first Indian rulers to wage organized armed resistance against the British — retook Sivaganga in 1780 with Hyder Ali's backing. These copper kasu circulated through that entire turbulent period, from the state's early consolidation through the eventual British absorption of the region after 1801.
Sivaganga was established as a poligar state in 1730 and remained a thorn in British East India Company ambitions for decades. The raja Muthu Vaduganatha Thevar actively resisted Company encroachment, and his widow Velu Nachiyar — one of the first Indian rulers to wage organized armed resistance against the British — retook Sivaganga in 1780 with Hyder Ali's backing. These copper kasu circulated through that entire turbulent period, from the state's early consolidation through the eventual British absorption of the region after 1801.