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1 Pagoda - Hari Hara II
| Issuer | Empire of Vijayanagara (Indian Hindu Dynasties) |
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| Year | 1377-1404 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.41 g |
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| Obverse description | Stylised figural composition in low relief depicting the divine couple Vishnu and Lakshmi seated facing, rendered in the characteristic bold, schematic idiom of Vijayanagara hammered coinage. Vishnu is shown holding the chakra (discus) and the shankha (conch shell), his principal iconographic attributes symbolising cosmic order and primordial sound respectively. The figures are set within a boldly incuse rectangular panel framed by raised linear borders, with subsidiary decorative elements occupying the surrounding field. The design is executed in the angular, abstracted style typical of 14th-century Sangama dynasty pagodas, with the irregular flan reflecting hand-hammered production. |
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| Reverse script | Kannada |
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| Additional information |
Hari Hara II presided over a significant expansion of Vijayanagara power in the Deccan, consolidating territory taken from the Bahmani Sultanate and extending influence into coastal Andhra. The gold pagoda — known locally as the varaha — functioned as the empire's primary high-value trade denomination, circulating across networks that reached Portuguese and Arab merchants well before either group established permanent footholds on the Malabar coast.
Fr#349 is among the earlier attributed pagoda types in the Friedberg gold listings for South India, reflecting the relative numismatic youth of Vijayanagara studies compared to Mughal or Sultanate coinage scholarship.