Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Gadhaiya Paisa - Chittaraja Silaharas of Kokan
| Issuer | Chittaraja Silaharas of Konkan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1024-1034 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.11 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse displays a highly stylized fire altar motif derived from the Indo-Sasanian prototype, rendered in a schematic, degenerate form characteristic of the Gadhaiya Paisa tradition. Flanking the central altar device are the remnants of attendant figures, reduced through generations of die copying to abstract linear and curvilinear elements. The Brahmi legend is disposed across the field in two lines, reading 'Shri Chhitta / Rajasya', identifying the issuing ruler Chittaraja of the Silahara dynasty of Konkan. The overall composition fills the irregular flan with bold, deeply struck relief typical of hammered medieval Indian silver coinage. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | श्री च्छित्त राजस्य |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Silaharas of Konkan were feudatories operating under shifting allegiances — first Rashtrakuta, then Chalukya of Kalyani — and Chittaraja's decade-long rule fell squarely within the period when the dynasty was consolidating its coastal holdings against the backdrop of Chalukya pressure from the Deccan. The Gadhaiya Paisa tradition itself descended from degraded imitations of Gupta-era coinage that had been circulating and mutating through western India for centuries, each successive issuer inheriting an already abstracted design.
Maheshwari's figures 52 and 53 document the specific die progressions attributable to Chittaraja, making attribution here unusually precise for a provincial silver of this period.