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.
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.