Repousse Punch Pagoda - Dileepa Irivanolamba Nolamba Feudatories of Gajapatis

The Nolamba chiefs who issued these pieces occupied an awkward political position — nominally subordinate to the Ganga Gajapatis but effectively autonomous across the upland tracts between the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan plateau. Dileepa Irivanolamba's reign falls within a period when Nolamba authority was being steadily compressed by Chola expansion from the south and Rashtrakuta pressure from the west. That a gold coinage was maintained at all under those conditions says something about the residual extractive wealth of the region.

The repousse technique — hammering sheet gold over a die rather than striking a cast blank — produces the characteristic domed surface and diffuse detail seen on these pieces.