Pagoda - Krishna Deva Raya Double Presentation Pagoda

References: 
Elliot 1886, plate 3, 112

Ganesh and Girijapathy, Coinage of Vijayanagar Empire, 1997, 9.1.1.

Karnataka Andhra 1088

Rare and unusual Presentation Issue. 

Krishnadevaraya was the greatest King of the Vijayanagar Empire. He was a good general, a wrestler and a lover of arts and crafts. He added the large Narasimha statue, the Rangamandapa and the eastern Gopuram at the Pampapati temple at Vijayanagar. It is reported that he had a huge army of 573,000 infantry, 28,600 cavalry and 586 elephants. Among his achievements, he controlled the increasing menace of the Adil Shahi’s of Bijapur, crushed his opponent Pratap Rudra Gajapati of Orissa and extended the boundries to Trichanpally, Madurai and Mysore. In 1516 he marched towards Kalinga. Prata Rudra Gajapati had to sue for peace and offer his daughter in marriage to Krishna. The victor left for Vijayanagar through Tirupati where he offered prayers to Lord Venkateshwara by performing Kanakabhisheka and had the God bathed in gold using 30,000 coins. It is probable that the above coin was struck to commemorate this event. – Some scholars have attributed this issue to Krishna Raja Wodeyar of Mysore but the palaeography and the style is certainly early enough to fit into the events happened at Tirupati in 1516 AD when a double denomination of Pagoda could have been struck for the first time in Indian history.
- The New York Sale