AV Kahavanu - Vijaya Bahu I

Vijaya Bahu I's reign began with a 27-year military campaign to expel the Chola occupiers from Sri Lanka, finally succeeding in 1070 after one of the longest wars of reconquest in South Asian medieval history. The kahavanu coinage he issued drew directly from the South Indian gold fanam tradition — a deliberate absorption of the monetary conventions of the very power he had just defeated. The Chola kahavanu type had circulated so widely across the island during the occupation that Vijaya Bahu had little choice but to maintain continuity of form if the coinage was to function at all.