Certain marked characteristics belong to the coinage of the south, which, in spite of foreign irruptions and their consequent innovations, have persisted until recent times. Gold and copper were the metals used almost exclusively; of the former there were two denominations, the _hūn_, _varāha_ or _pagoda_[37] (50 to 60 grains) and the _fanam_ (five to six grains), based respectively on the weights of two seeds, the _kaḷanju_ or molucca bean (_Cæsalpina bonduc_) and the _mañjāḍi_ (_Adenathera pavonina_). Copper coins were called _kāsu_, of which the English corruption is “cash,” while the rare silver coins appear to have followed the gold standard. The Travancore silver _chakram_ was equal in weight to the fanam. The gold coin had an independent development in the south, the various stages of which can be marked. The earliest specimens—the age of these is doubtful—are spherules of plain gold with a minute punch-mark on one side (Pl. VII, 1); these developed into the cup-shaped “padma-ṭaṅkas,” stamped with punches, first on one side only, later on both obverse and reverse. Finally came die-struck pieces, of which the small thick Vijayanagar pagodas are the typical southern form. Another characteristic is the preference for tiny coins: this is particularly evident from about the sixteenth century, when copper coins tend to decrease in size, and the fanam acquired a wide popularity; the silver _tārēs_ of Kalikat (Calicut), which weigh only one or two grains, must be the smallest known currency.[38] A great variety of devices and symbols, usually Hindu gods and emblems, also characterizes the copper currency, especially after the fifteenth century, and this feature adds considerably to the difficulty of correct attribution. [37] _Hūn_ is a Hindustānī corruption of _honnu_, Kanarese for “a half pagoda”; _Varāha_ is probably derived from the boar (varāha) cognizance on Eastern Chālukya coins; the origin of _Pagoda_, as introduced by the Portuguese and applied to this coin, is obscure, cf. Yule and Burnell, _Hobson-Jobson_ under “Pagoda.” The considerable variation in the weight of the pagodas issued by different dynasties may be due simply to different local standards; but if the Chālukyas were, as is supposed, of Gurjara origin, the heavier weights of their coins may reflect the influence of the “dramma.” [38] The silver _hemitetartemoria_ of Athens weighed 1·4 grs. each. The dynasties of the south may be divided into two territorial groups—(1) the kingdoms of the Deccan—all the country between the river Narbadā on the north and the Kṛishṇa and Tuṅgabhadrā on the south—and the Mysore country; Telugu was the language of the former, Kanarese of the latter. (1) The remainder of the peninsula, where Tamil and its cognate dialects were spoken, the country of the Pāṇḍyas, Cheras, Choḷas, Pallavas and their successors.