Bhairava on coin

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Bhujabalas
>or Bhujavalas (literally strong armed ones).  On this coin there is
>a legend in Kanarese/Telugu which reads :Bhairava". The question
>is if Bahirava is the name of the ruler who issued the coin
>or it suggest the name of deity of ruler's fancy. Alternately, do
>we know any Telugu Choda ruler whose name or title was Bhairava?

I'm not a numismatics expert, but is there concrete evidence to equate
the bhujabalas with the Telugu Codas? It's hard to say whether there was
a Bhairava among the Telugu Codas. In the 12th-13th c., there were names
like Nallasiddha, Tammusiddha, Vijayagandagopala, Rajagandagopala etc.
Still, they are a quite minor family, not very well studied, although
they claimed descent from karikAla cozha of cankam fame.

>there is a triangular motif which most likely represents temple or
crown
>mark with Ankush. This triangular motif was peculiar to Chalukyas of
>Kalayani. There are no other legends.

Wasn't the motif ever used by the Eastern Calukyas? They were, after
all, cousins of the Western Calukyas, being descended through
Vishnuvardhana, brother of Pulakesin II of Badami. And the Eastern
branch had a more continuous history than the Western branch. The latter
folks came under the sway of the Rashtrakutas for more than a century,
and had to abandon Badami and regroup in Kalyani.

I only find it hard to believe that the Telugu Codas in Nellore were
feudatories of the W. Calukyas, when there were other, stronger powers
in their own neighbourhood, who would have wanted to bring this region
under their sphere of control.

Vidyasankar

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