Coins In Lucknow Mus. Vol 01 [56 MB - IndianCoins.org

11place, leaving behind only one of the factors to recover the debts.The representation of the Agents at Bantam to the President andCouncil at Swat of the necessity of being supplied with Coromandelcloths, to furnish that station and the Southern marketswith the means of increasing their investments in pepper andspices, had determined the Presidency to re-establish the factoryat Masulipatam, and to strengthen Armagon and the; necessary 1632.authority to do so was obtained in November 1632.A Firman was obtained on the 2nd of February 1633 for 1633.liberty of trade to the English in the Province of Bengal, withoutany other restriction, than that the English ships were toresort only to the port of Pipley. This event marks the date atwhich the English first obtained the right to enter the Ganges,and those countries which, subsequently, opened up a mostlucrative trade.lu 1 639 Mr. Day, one of the Council at Masulipatam, was sent 1639.to explore the country in the neighbourhood of the Portuguesestation at St. Thome, and reported that Madraspatan l wasa situation, at which, in his opinion, the best coast goodscould be procured. The land was purchased from the Raja ofClumdragiri and, without waiting for orders from the Court,Mr. Day commenced building, at the expense of the Company,a fortification to which the name of Fort St. Greorge was given.The continuation of this work was ordered later by the Presidentand Council of Surat, and the new station, to which the factoryof Masulipatam was transferred, made subordinate to Bantam.The early gold coin of Madras was the pagoda, a word which,2 "Moor says is a word altogether unknown beyond the corruptinginfluence of European colloquial example, whether used descriptivelyof a coin or a temple the former;being generally calledby Hindus Pun." As to the word pagoda, applied either to a coin or a temple,to the latter especially itought to be dropped as inaccurate andbarbarous, and not at all used by the natives out of the reachof European tradition. I find an attempt to derive the wordfrom Mahometan authority, imagining that anti-idolatrous peopleto have called the temples of the Hindus by the deba-sing butaccurate appellation of biit-ydda: from but, an idol, and ydda, atemple. Bartholomeo says the coin, being impressed with thegoddess Bhagavada, is, therefore, so called pagoda : being acorruption or abbreviation. But, admitting Bhagavada to be aname of Devi, and to be borne by some puns, it would apply tosuch only ;whereas we giveit to all gold coins of about thevalue of seven or eight shillings, be the impression what itmay.And, indeed, I have lately seen a silver coin, worth about fourshillings, with the word pagoda, or half puyoda, in English, with1Note from Yule and Burnell, op. cit. " 1672 following upon Madraspatan,otherwise called Chinnepatan, where the English have a fort called St.George, chiefly garrisoned by Toepasses aud .V/S.'MV.S-,- from this place they annuallysend forth their ships, as also from Suratte." B>.is, Germ, ed., 152.1726. "The Town or Place, anciently called Qhinapatnam, now called Madraspatnamand Fort St. George." />