Raja Raja Chola "Octopus Man" staters – mint years?

Hello!

I have two Chola dynasty staters and was wondering if there was a way to tell when it was minted.

On Numista there are three years: 985, ND, and 1014. Are there any difference between the 985 one and the 1014?
(https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces17657.html)

Below are the ones that I own —

#1:



#2:

I have several of these, and my understanding is that Rajaraja Chola ruled from 985-1014 AD, and the coins are undated. The coins of several rulers after him are very similar and often misattributed to Rajaraja Chola, so it's a good idea to check the details for attribution. Here's a site with some descriptions of all of these

https://sirimunasiha.wordpress.com/about/the-coins-of-pandyan-and-colas-found-in-srilanka/

Quote: "Seeker55" The coins of several rulers after him are very similar and often misattributed to Rajaraja Chola, so it's a good idea to check the details for attribution.

​Indeed:
http://coins.lakdiva.org/medievallanka/polonnaruva.html
http://coins.lakdiva.org/medievallanka/dambadeniya.html

http://coins.lakdiva.org/main.html

Numista and most websites don't properly represent these series as there are several variations of coins for the "Raja Raja Chola" coins. This does not include the coins from other reigns, kingdoms, countries, territories, provinces, etc. However, most people just lump the series into two: The standard coins and the more "dumpy" ones. I wouldn't include the Sri Lankan or Pandyan coins in the series as its different...

Oh, that certainly explains why there's a lot of variants! I didn't know Chola ruled Sri Lanka for some time. I guess it's safe to assume mine are Indian as they don't look like any of the Sri Lankan ones, though?

Definitely Raja Raja Chola Indian coins. The lakdiva site primary concentrates on Sri Lanka. The so-called "Octopus Man" design was used for hundreds of years through out South India and Sri Lanka with varying designs. Most people have only seen the Raja Raja and Sri Lankan varieties. I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of some of the other coins in my collection, but here are three:

Chola: Kulottunga Chola I (1070-1120) Kasu (MCSI-345)

Obv: King half seated, with raised arm on right; Tamil legend beneath raised arm - Ku (கு)
Rev: Standing man, with lamp on left and group of pellets on right



Chola: Raja Raja I (ca. 1007) AE Kasu (Biddulph-21)

Obv: King half seated, with raised arm on right; Devanagari legend beneath raised arm; श्री राजा राजा (Sri Raja Raja)
Rev: Standing man, with lamp on left and fish on right, representing the the Pandya conquest




Arya Chakravartis of Jaffna: Anonymous (ca. 1284-1410) AE Massa (MNSI-862)

Obv: Seated king on left facing right with Tamil legend செது (SETU) vertically below his arm.
Rev: Standing king with crown consisting two lines and a dot, trident on left under raised right arm. A bull couchant vertically with a circle before it. All in bead circle. group of spheres on right, surmounted by crescent.



BTW, several naive ebay sellers have labeled these coins as "Octupus Man", and in reality, the other so-called extra legs are really his garment (called dhoti). See the following thread for more types:

http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,1286.0.html

Ohh, thank you for the infos! This is all very interesting to me – I guess I still have a lot, and I mean a LOT, to learn about the whole South Asian history, obviously. The first one (Kulottunga) looks very nice!

And I see! I knew it was not actually an "octopus man," which is a shame because I LOVE cephalopods (that's why I got interested in this Chola coin in the first place), but had trouble figuring out how come they depicted the man that way. It makes some sense now!

Having seen the Sri Lankan ones I still like the Indian one somewhat better. Maybe I'll look for a better grade one!