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TAMIL HERITAGE...
the Tamils are an ancient people
Sangam Age Tamil
Coins
courtesy: R.Krishnamurthy
Monograph available from Garnet
Publications,
34, Second Main Road, Raja Annamalaipuram,
Chennai 600 028, India
see also R.
Krishnamurthy. Non-Roman Ancient Foreign Coins
from Karur in India
There are a few benchmarks in our
knowledge of the ancient Tamil speaking people of
South India, popularly referred to as the "Sangam
Age" of the Tamils and approximately spanning the
period between 300 B.C to 300 A.D.
They are the discovery of the
literature of this age ; the reading of the names of
some kings of this period in the Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions ; the
identification of some coins assignable to this age ;
the definite attribution of a coin with the legend
Peru-valuthi embossed in
Tamil-Brahmi script to the Pandya King of the Sangam
Age by R.Krishnamurthy, the
author of this monograph .
This book is the result of his
painstaking effort over a decade to collect, classify
and understand the coins of this age and bring out in
English a comprehensive study in a single volume and
attempt to present enough material to substantiate
the view that the coinage of the ancient Tamil land
was fairly well developed and the State was strong
enough to contribute to this development process,
probably due to its trans-Indian and trans-Oceanic
trade contracts.
Illustrated with
line drawings and attractive multicolour
photographs of coins, the monograph is likely
to remain as a standard reference work to historians,
numismatics,coin collectors, and the general readers
interested in the Sangam Age of the
Tamils and their coins in particular.
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'Makkotai' Silver coin
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'Kuttuvan kotai' silver coin
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'Peru-valuthi' Pandya coin
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Pandya coin
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Chola coin
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