Vishnukundin Coins in Telangana State Museum, Hyderabad

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The Pre-Calukyan history of the Andhra country since the disappearance of the Imperial Satavahanas is a chapter of fragmentary events of several royal dynasties. What was the actual extent of the Satavahana kingdom in their last phase and who were their contemporary rulers either as subordinates or as kings of equal status are yet problems which await solution. The Andhra Bhrtyas or Cutüs in the west and the Sriparvatiyas or Ikshvakus in the east seem to be the immediate successors of the Imperial Andhras or Satavahanas. The Pallavas succeeded the Cutüs and the Ikshavakus in the sovereignty of the Southern Kuntala and the Southern Andhra respectively, where- as the Brhatphalayanas, the Anandas and the Salankayanas rose to power in the northern coastal Andhra. Thus till the end of fourth century AD, and a little later the Andhra country was under the rule of more than one contemporary king. The Vishnukundins were again a major dynasty, since the fall of the Satavahanas which enjoyed imperial status over the entire Andhra country including Kalinga during the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era.

A Catalogue of select Sätavähana coins preserved in the cabinets of the Andhra Pradesh Government Museum, Hyderabad, prepared by me, was published previously by the Archacological Department of Andhra Pradesh. Sri N. Ramesan, the then Director of Archaeology, invited me to continue my study of the coins in the Museum and examine the coins of the post-Satavahana period and I gladly agreed.

I found, during the course of my examination of these coins, in April-May, 1961, a number of copper coins of the Visnukundins, many gold and silver coins of the western Calukyas, Yadavas and others and over 14,000 copper pieces of the Eastern Calukyas. It was decided that these coins should be published in three separate monographs.