After years of scouring eBay, VCoins, MA-Shops, and the inventories of countless online dealers and auction houses, I’ve finally acquired a Kulottunga coin. At first glance, it looks like any other Raja Raja copper kasu, but there’s one crucial difference: it bears the king’s name or part of it, in Tamil! While the Cholas were Tamil kings ruling over the Tamil region, it’s incredibly rare to find Tamil script on their coins. This was likely because their coins circulated widely across South India, Sri Lanka, and even Southeast Asia, making Nagari, a more commonly recognised script a practical choice. This sets the Cholas apart from their Pandya rivals, who also ruled Tamil regions but consistently used Tamil script on their coins. As far as I know, there isn’t a Pandya coin without Tamil. In contrast, Chola coins with Tamil inscriptions are extremely scarce, limited to a few rare copper, and extremely expensive and even rarer gold issues. This particular type is one of those rare examples. The king who issued this coin, Kulottunga, was a pivotal figure, on par with Diocletian or Constantine in Roman history. Like them, he was a powerful ruler and a great reformer who emerged at a critical moment when the empire was on the brink of collapse. If you want to learn more about his significance, this YouTube video explains it much better. Kulottunga's statue at the Chidambaram Nataraja temple, I don’t chase rare coins for the sake of rarity, after all, there’s nothing more common than a 'rare' ancient coin. But I needed this one. It’s like collecting Roman coins and needing a coin of Constantine, except that Constantine’s coins are as rare as those of Gordian I and II. Even when searching for Gordians, you’d find hundreds of results, but Kulottunga coins, maybe a couple. Over the past five years, I’ve seen fewer than 10, most of them recently listed on Zeno.ru by user quantgeek. These coins are simply scarce, even rare for Indian shops and auction houses that usually sell rare Chola coins. One possible reason Kulottunga's coins are so hard to come by, despite his decades-long rule, could be the sheer abundance of Raja Raja's coins already in circulation. Maybe this coin was part of a special issue? When this coin appeared on eBay, I knew I had to go all in. It ended up being my most expensive bronze coin, but I’m still glad I won. The underbidder was clearly just as determined to acquire it, so I think I paid a fair price for such a rare and historically significant piece! As a bonus, the coin comes from the collection of Robert Tye (sold by himself), a renowned expert in early weight standards and known as the user EWC3 on CoinTalk. Kulottunga Chola (1170 - 1220 AD) Obv: Seated king holding a conch, with Tamil legend below - Ku (கு) Rev: Standing king, with lamp on left and a degenerate coconut palm tree to the far left, and pellets on right (off-centre). 3.90g, 18mm. MCSI 345 EX Robert Tye Collection. Thanks for taking a look!
The Cholas I'd heard of... barely. Only very barely. Kulottunga, never. My knowledge of ancient civilizations has a heavy Western bias, unfortunately. I find myself really in the dark on stuff like this.
Even though I’m not usually one of that rarified group, I’m glad there are people out there exploring the niches. It helps our collective enlightenment.
PS- that YouTube vid was helpful. I'm still clueless, but it expanded my nearly-nonexistent knowledge of the Chola Empire somewhat. Kudos to the narrator for the pronunciations (I assume). I would have been afraid to try.
