Cast CU Unit - Vidarbha Kingdom Post-Mauryan, Deccan

The Vidarbha Kingdom occupied the eastern Deccan region corresponding roughly to modern Maharashtra's Nagpur and Amravati districts — a zone that sat at the crossroads of northern and peninsular trade networks. Post-Mauryan fragmentation after Ashoka's death in 232 BC created a proliferation of regional copper coinage as former imperial territories asserted local authority through their own monetary issues. Cast rather than struck, this unit reflects a manufacturing tradition that persisted in the Deccan well after the northwestern regions had adopted die-struck methods.

Pieper's documentation of this type remains the primary reference, the catalog being compiled largely from private collection material rather than excavation contexts.