French issued gold Pagoda for Southern India trade cast in Pondicherry 1705 1780

The pagoda, also called the hoon, was a unit of currency, a coin made of gold or half-gold minted by Indian dynasties as well as the British, the French and the Dutch. It was subdivided into 42

fanam Fanam was the currency used historically in major parts of South India, especially during the British Raj. Fanam is the an Anglo-Germanic sound shift (called Grimm's law Grimm's law, also known as the First Germanic Consonant Shift or First Germ ...

s. The pagoda was issued by various dynasties in medieval southern India, including the

Kadambas of Hangal The Kadambas of Hangal was a South Indian dynasty during the Late Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Hangal in Karnataka. Chatta Deva who reigned from 980–1031 CE founded the dynasty. He helped Wes ...

, the

Kadambas of Goa The Kadambas of Goa were a dynasty during the Late Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, who ruled Goa from the 10th to the 14th century CE. They took over the territories of the Shilaharas and ruled them at first from Chandor, later ...

, and the

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Kingdom, was a late medieval Hinduism, Hindu empire that ruled much of southern India. It was established in 1336 by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama dynasty, belongi ...

. There were two types of pagoda coined by foreign traders: *The most valuable was the star pagoda, 100 of them were worth 350

rupees Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Afr ...

, issued by the

English East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South Asia and Southeast A ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. A star pagoda weighed 3g (of gold). *The second was the

Porto Novo , , ; ; ; also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe) is the capital and second-largest city of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. In 1863, following British bombardment, Porto-Novo accepted French ...

pagoda, issued by the Dutch at

Thoothukudi Thoothukudi (formerly called Tuticorin) is a port city, port industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The city is capital and headquarters of the di ...

and also by the

Nawabs of Arcot The Carnatic Sultanate (Persian language, Persian: ; Tamil language, Tamil: ; Urdu: ) also known as Carnatic State or Arcot State was a kingdom in South India, southern India between about 1690 and 1855, ruled by a Muslim nawab under the legal ...

, and worth about 25% less than the star pagoda. The French struck local gold "pagodas" and silver "fanams" under contract by the nawabs. The silver coins of the French were called "fanon" which were equivalent to the local "fanam" and could be exchanged at the rate of 26 fanon to one gold pagoda. The local Indian rulers paid their arrears to the French, English and other European East India Companies in Pagodas, such as

Veerapandya Kattabomman Veerapandiya Kattabomman was an 18th-century Palayakarrar and king of Panchalankurichi in present-day Tamil Nadu, India. He fought the British East India Company and was captured by the British with the help of the ruler of the kingdom of Pu ...

, who almost cleared all the revenue arrears of his Panchalankurichi Palayam, leaving only a balance of 1080 Pagodas to the English East India Company before the Palayakararar Wars against the English East India Company began.

References

External links

Sources of Karnataka History – Numismatics
Coins of India Economic history of Karnataka {{India-hist-stub

See also

References

External links