1 Kasu - Sethupati

The Sethupathis of Ramanathapuram held authority over the Sethu — the crossing to Sri Lanka — and derived both their title and their revenue from controlling that passage. Their coinage, issued with minimal interference from either the Nayaks of Madurai or the early European trading powers, reflects a local fiscal autonomy that was increasingly rare on the Coromandel Coast by the mid-seventeenth century. The kasu denomination itself predates Mughal monetary influence in the far south and belongs to a Tamil copper tradition stretching back several centuries.