The Late Period
These coins known as 'Parakramabahu lion type' are found in large numbers in the northern and western parts of Sri Lanka. The king is Parakramabahu VI of Kotte and the coins are believed to have been issued by Sapumal Kumara (also known as Chempaka Perumal) who ruled Northern peninsula from nallur on behalf of the Kotte king, for some years. Although some writers have suggested that the lion represents Sinhala dominance over the Jaffna Kingdom, others have pointed out that the lion is stylistically Tamil, and unmistakably so.
As illustrated above the lion symbol was used on Jaffna coins by Pallava rulers as well. The lion on the Rajadhiraja Chola II is very similar to the lion on the present Lion Flag of Sri Lanka.
Read more about this topic: Pre-modern Coinage In Sri Lanka
Famous quotes containing the words late and/or period:
“What else has been English news for so long a season? What else, of late years, has been England to us,—to us who read books, we mean?... Carlyle alone, since the death of Coleridge, has kept the promise of England. It is the best apology for all the bustle and the sin of commerce, that it has made us acquainted with the thoughts of this man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Words convey the mental treasures of one period to the generations that follow; and laden with this, their precious freight, they sail safely across gulfs of time in which empires have suffered shipwreck and the languages of common life have sunk into oblivion.”
—Anonymous. Quoted in Richard Chevenix Trench, On the Study of Words, lecture 1 (1858)