Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/89



78 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS Similarly also the disproportion between the coins of the pre-Nero Emperors and the post-Nero Emperors is marked among the finds at Kalliyamputtur in the Madura district (Circa 1856), at Kottayam the old Nelcynda (Cera kingdom), at Karuvur in Trichinopoly District, and near Nellore and also at Vinukonda in Krishna District. Coins after the time of Septimius Severus are rare. Similar is the proportion of silver coins found at Pollachi in Coimbatore District in 1800, at Karuvur about 1878 and at Vellalur, Coimbatore and at Yesvantpur near Bangalore in 1891. The export of Roman coin commenced on a large scale in the reign of Tiberius or in the preceding reign of Augustus. Tiberius is said to have complained about the drainage of specie eastward from Rome with the discovery of the monsoon winds by Hippalos (Circa 45 A.D.) The gold and silver coins poured into the chief marts of the west coast of India, and this was more so because of the depreciation of currency by Nero who induced the traders remove all the good coins of the previous reigns to India. There is no silver coin after Nero's in the Tamil country, nor gold coin until we reach a much later stage of the Roman Empire. Sewell" denies the possibility of Romans having given up the practice of residing in Tamil States through wars between the Pandya and the Cola kingdoms (though some of the finds seem to indicate that hoards of coins were hidden away bastily), and concludes that the appearance of gold coins in more northern districts contrasted with the meagre finds made in the Tamil kingdoms (three finds only having occurred in the district of Madura and none at all in the district of Coimbatore) points to a partial cessation in demand for luxycies paid for by coin and a new impulse of trade towards the acquisition of raw pecessaries such as cotton goods paid for by barter, and that