Lord Srinivasa of the Seven Hills (Tiruvengadam) Who is fondly known as Balaji in the north and Govinda in the south has been enjoyed by Acharya Vedanta Desika (1268 to 1379 A.D. as the God of Grace or Mercy. In one of the Stotras of that great Acharya known as Daya Satakam, the Lord's grace has been sung about in beautiful poetry. Vedanta Desika himself has been claimed and acclaimed as an avatar or incarnation of Lord Srinivasa. On the occasion of the erection of a Temple to that great Lord in the Capital of this country, New Delhi, it is thought fit to enjoy in some detail the splendid sentiments enshrined in that Stotra, Daya Satakam.

Vedanta Desika was a poet of the first order, in addition to being a philosopher of great repute. Following on the lines of Acharya Ramanuja - 1017 to 1137 A.D., Vedanta Desika developed and perfected the system of Visishtadvaita which was postulated or rather re-stated by Ramanuja in his nine works, the most important of which is the famous Sri Bhashya, a commentary on the Brahma Sutras. In place of the formless, nameless and attributeless Brahman of the Advaitins, Ramanuja has postulated that the Para-Brahman of the Upanishads has got a form, name and all auspicious attributes. In fact, the Mangala Sloka of his Sri Bhashya equates Brahmam with Srinivasa. Lord Srinivasa of the Seven Hills, known to Tamilians as Tiruvengada mudayan, had been praised, worshipped and enjoyed in several ways by the great Alwars, those mystics of Tamilnad who have set a new standard in the cult of bhakti. One can see the great popularity that Tiruvengadam and the Lord of Tiruvengadam enjoyed during the period of the earliest of the Alwars. The first four of them, all of the whom hailed from Tondaimandalam (the region round Madras - Chingleput) have sung many verses about the greatness of this great Hill and about its presiding Deity. This outstanding prominence is not to be found in the works of the later Alwars. even the early Tamil classics like Silappadikaram have celebrated the greatness of Tiruvengadam and its Lord.

It has to be noted that Sri Venkatesa Sahasranamam is not the same thing as Vishnu Sahasranamam with which every one is familiar and which is given in Moksha dharmam of the Anusasana Parva of the Mahabharatam. It is also known to temple goers that Sahasranamarchana is not a part of the daily puja (Tiruvaradhanam), but that it is done in all temples after the puja, at the special request of a worshipper and for his spiritual benefit. In the Tirumala temple however it has become an established usage that the Srinivasa Sahasra namarchana is done only once and that every worshipper who desires to have his name associated with the function should obtain a ticket on payment of a fairly heavy fee to entitle him to be present when the Namarchana is recited by the person employed for the purpose. At the close of the function, the names of all those who have taken tickets are recited with their gotram and benediction pronounced for thier welfare and prosperity. Few people person make a compounded payment for a whole year, or for their life time and get the benediction pronounced every day although they may not be there in person.

Do you know that the Vijayanagar empire was the greatest and biggest Hindu empire in medieval India? It was founded in 1336 by two brothers - Harihara and Bukka - with the blessings of their guru Vidyaranya. The capital of the empire was Hampi or Vijayanagar on the banks of the Tungabhadra in Karnataka. Krishnadevaraya was the most famous of the Vijayanagar rulers.

The Vijayanagar rulers had a separate department for minting coins. The main mint was in Hampi, and the smaller mints were at Penukonda, Tirupati and many other places. The coins were in gold, silver and copper, and were circular.

The most beautiful Vijayanagar coins were those with the images of various gods and goddesses and animals and birds. The earliest coins feature Hanuman and the Garuda (divine eagle), the mount of Lord Vishnu.

The Vijayanagar rulers also issued gold coins featuring divine couples. Venkatapatiraya III, one of the last Vijayanagar rulers, minted coins showing Vishnu with Sridevi and Bhudevi.

Krishnadevaraya issued many coins featuring Balakrishna or baby Krishna. He issued these coins after he built a Krishna Temple at Hampi and installed in it an image of Krishna that he had brought from Udayagiri after conquering it from the Gajapati ruler of Orissa. On these coins, the playful Krishna is seen seated. Lord Venkateshwara, the presiding deity of the temple at Tirumala (Tirupati), also figures on Vijayanagar coins. Indeed, Venkateshwara was the favourite deity of the Vijayanagar monarchs. After his victory over the Gajapatis of Orissa, Krishnadevaraya visited the Tirumala temple with his queens and showered gold coins (kanakabishekam) on the deity. These heavy coins were specially minted for this ceremony.

A rare copper coin of the Vijayanagar ruler Sriranga I shows a standing figure of the emperor with a sword in his hand. Another rare copper coin issued by Sadasivaraya shows a fully caparisoned galloping horse. The elephant and the bull too appear on many Vijayanagar coins.

( Courtesy: The Hindu; Article "Silver and Gold Coins" by S. Suresh; Published on Nov. 24th 2001 )