As a research scholar, I tried to figure out the fact with history of our civilisation.

I found many incidents where the majority of the finds bore the images of the God. This fact is true whether it is Indian or foreign coins.

Mainly, the emperors of the Vijayanagara Kingdom, as well as the British India merchants and other European traders like the Dutch and the French, extensively used the image of Hindu Gods and Goddesses from the 13th century.

Research works and our cultural backdrop of the Indians, in particular, showed that they revered the Gods and gold. Even though they had to accept it for the sake of trade; they invariably preserved these coins as a symbol of prosperity.

Then who will cast away a gold coin and that too one with the image of God?

The Hindu tradition emphasises the significance of this type of gold pagodas. In the Tamil marriage custom even the word ‘Katti Varahan’ (the swami pagodas) gains a place.

Another adage emphasises that one who has a lot of fanam (a unit of currency) is the boss.

People scramble for coins with the images of God as these gold pieces remained as a means of wealth. The hymns form Vedas and the Vastu Shastras extol the significance of gold. That is why gold is offered in havans and during bhoomi pooja,
navaratnas, including gold, and nava danyas are offered to the mother earth. All these are done for everlasting prosperity.

These coins of the Vijayanagara show Shiva-Parvati, Lakshmi-Narayana, Venkateswara, Sita-Rama, Balakrishna, Narasimha and many other combination of Gods on one side and the title of the ruler in Sanskrit on the other side.

These gold coins come in various weights. A gold fanam will be approximately of 0.75 grams, while gold pagodas come in 1.8 to 3.5 grams.

This is the reason why these coins still adore the lockers of rich and famous.