DescriptionOne of the great Vijayanagar Emperors. Successful in war at first he got in trouble with the Bahmanis several times and did not prevail. He invaded Ceylon and received tribute from Pegu and Tenasserim in Burma.The Vijayanagar or Karnata Empire came into being in the 14th century AD after a major defeat of the major southern Indian Hoysala kingdom by the Delhi Sultan. A Hoysala commander Harihara raised an army and defeated Delhi. Harihara proceeded to unite the Hindu minor kings mostly by force and expanded to control most of South India. Constant hostility from Muslim states to the north eventually destroyed the southern Hindu Empire.The earliest ancient Indian coins were the “bent bar” punchmarked silvers of the Achaemenid Persians occupying Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. By the 3rd century BC coins were in general use in most of India and Ceylon and in subsequent centuries struck round coins in gold silver and copper came into use throughout the subcontinent and beyond to Southeast Asia and Pacific islands to Java and beyond.
