Telangana Will Turn into Hub for Cultural Preservation, Says Bhatti
NSI chairman Dr. D.Raja Reddy said with more than 50,000 coins, the State Museum has the largest collection of Satavahana coins. In addition, the museum has the largest collection of lead coins.
Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday said that the state government is determined to develop Telangana into a central hub for scientific study, cultural preservation, and knowledge production.
Participating in the 107th annual conference on 'Coinage and Economy of Southern India’ organised by the Numismatics Society of India (NSI) here on Thursday, Bhatti Vikramarka said Telangana should emerge as a frontrunner in the fields of numismatics and heritage studies.
Stating that south India has richest numismatics from Satavahanas, Ikshvakus, Kakatiyas and Vijayanagara dynasties, the Deputy Chief Minister said the old coins can reveal stories about economy, technology, beliefs and political relations of the past.
"History helps us in understanding long journeys of thoughts that still shape us. A single coin holds a lot of information compressed into a tiny piece of metal," he added.
Referring to the discoveries in Telangana, Bhatti said even a single coin can reveal a lot of history. In Koti Lingala, archaeologists found a lead coin belonging to the Satavahana period. Though it looked simple at first glance, it was extraordinary upon closer study, he said.
According to heritage department director Prof. A Arjun Rao, Telangana preserved nearly 2.5lakh coins from the Satavahanas to the Asafjahi’s periods. "These coins provided valuable historical evidence in the history of India,” he said
NSI chairman Dr. D.Raja Reddy said with more than 50,000 coins, the State Museum has the largest collection of Satavahana coins. In addition, the museum has the largest collection of lead coins.
"For the first time, 23,000 coins were found in the Peddabankur of the Satavahanas dynasty. Of the total, 38,000 coins were of Satavahanas. During the excavations, 7,000 coins, with the Ujjain symbol on one side and an elephant on the other side, were found,”he added.
Prof. Binda Dattatreya Paranjape, President,107th Annual Conference of NSI, said, “more study needs to be carried out on numismatics of the postcolonial and colonial periods.”
The Deputy Chief Minister released several publications, including “Chada: An Early Historic Site in Telangana,” “Art, Architecture and Iconography Salvaged from the Krishna – Tungabhadra Valley in the State of Telangana,” and “South Indian Fanams" during the event.
