Chalukyas of Badami (6-8 Century AD), Gold Varaha (Gadyana), Obv: the Chalukya royal insignia, i.e. a caparisoned boar (Varaha), facing left, with the sun and crescent symbols above, Rev: blurred Kannada legend "Shri Sana (la Bhoopa)" in one horizontal line across the center between two beaded lines, artistically set within the feathers of the bird (presumably those of a peacock as seen on the walls and pillars of ancient Jain temples) surrounded on either side, 3.7g, 14.55mm, the obverse is partially double-struck, cleaned, otherwise about very fine, Exceedingly Rare.

Note: Pulakeshi I Chalukya was a governor of Badami under the Banavasi Kadamba King Harivarman (fl. 5th Century AD), who would later establish his sovereignty by founding the Badami Chalukya dynasty at around 540 AD. He assumed the title of Maharaja and performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice to assert his sovereign status. The Badami Chalukyas ruled for almost two centuries until 757 AD. During this time the Chalukya Kingdom would spread beyond the river Narmada upto Malwa-Gujarat in the north, the kingdoms of Kalinga and South Kosala to the east and the kingdom of Kadamba, located in the upper Tungabhadra basin, to the south. Badami was the capital of Western Chalukya kings, as they were called by historians to distinguish them from the eastern cousins who contemporaneously ruled from Vengi, between 6th to 8th centuries AD.

The Badami Chalukyas used the boar (Varaha) as their royal insignia, employing it in numismatic designs such as the boar/temple, temple/sceptre, lamps/temple and boar/lamps. Coinage bearing their dynastic devices were die-struck The temple design, as seen on the coins, seems to be inspired from the temples at Aihole, the earlier capital of the Badami Chalukyas.

The title “Sana (la Bhoopa)” means the “Lord of Sanala”, which is not known from any inscriptions from this period and is encountered only in coinage. The Kannada script is in its early form from around the 8th century AD and coincides with the ruling period of Vikramaditya II (733-746 AD) and Kirtivarman II (746-753 AD). The place “Sanala" is presently a village in the Jamkhandi taluk of the Bagalkot district, which is around 60 kilometres in the North-west of Badami.

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