5 Rupees Perarignar Anna

Perarignar ("Great Scholar") was the honorific attached to C. N. Annadurai, founder of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Tamil Nadu's first Chief Minister, who died in office in 1969. This coin was issued on the centenary of his birth to mark a figure whose political movement permanently reshaped the balance between Delhi and the southern states. The DMK's rise directly produced the constitutional amendments that strengthened linguistic federalism in India.

Commemorative five-rupee pieces of this period were struck at multiple Indian mints, with output distributed primarily through bank counters rather than general circulation.