Bukkaraya I ruled as the second sovereign of the Vijayanagara Empire during a period of sustained military pressure from the Bahmani Sultanate to the north, a rivalry that would define the empire's politics for the next two centuries. The pagoda denomination itself — derived from the Sanskrit term for temple — was the primary gold unit of the Deccan and southern India throughout this period, circulating widely enough to appear in the account books of foreign traders along the Malabar coast.
KM#156 attributions for this type remain contested among specialists; Vijayanagara gold is notoriously difficult to assign to specific reigns due to conservative die-cutting practices and the absence of regnal dating.
Bukkaraya I ruled as the second sovereign of the Vijayanagara Empire during a period of sustained military pressure from the Bahmani Sultanate to the north, a rivalry that would define the empire's politics for the next two centuries. The pagoda denomination itself — derived from the Sanskrit term for temple — was the primary gold unit of the Deccan and southern India throughout this period, circulating widely enough to appear in the account books of foreign traders along the Malabar coast.
KM#156 attributions for this type remain contested among specialists; Vijayanagara gold is notoriously difficult to assign to specific reigns due to conservative die-cutting practices and the absence of regnal dating.