Bhairava on coin

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>I have a gold coin from southern India possibly minted in 11th to 13th
>century AD by a Telugu-Choda chief (called themselves Bhujababala) who
most
>likely was feaudatory of W. Chalukyas.

Do you mean E. Chalukyas of Vengi in Andhra Pradesh? Because -

1. The Telugu-Chodas, as the name indicates, were a branch of the
Tanjavur Colas, and they ruled around the Nellore region. It seems
improbable for them to have been feudatories of the Western Calukyas.
They must have been allied either to the Colas or to the Eastern
Calukyas. In any case, both these major dynasties were getting closely
allied through matrimonial relations.

2. The time period 11th to 13th c. is too vast. In the 10th and early
11th c., the Colas from Tanjavur were the biggest power in the south,
with kings like Rajaraja and Rajendra. Western Calukyas had been reduced
to the status of local chieftains by this time. The more important power
that was rising in the western region of south India was the Hoysala
dynasty. By the end of the 11th c., Kulottunga Cola had united the Cola
dynasty and the Eastern Calukya dynasty in his person. The Telugu Codas
were definitely vassals of Kulottunga, as long as he lived. They are
known to have rebelled in the time of his son, but were again subdued by
Vikrama Cola. In the 13th c., the Tanjavur Colas had been subdued by the
Madurai Pandyas in the south, who were allied militarily and
matrimonially with the Hoysalas from Karnataka. It was around this time
that the Telugu Codas became more independent and issued their own coins
and inscriptions.

Perhaps a narrower time frame can be obtained if you figure out the name
of the chieftain who issued the coin. Isn't there an x-gaNDagopAla or a
y-siddhi somewhere in it? These were frequent among the Telugu Codas. A
period can be fixed by identifying the prefixes.

Vidyasankar

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