For several centuries Ramatankas were the most popular form of religious token used by the Hindus in India. During their heyday, which was the inneteenth century, Ramatankas were used from the Ganges valley in the north to Trivandrum in the south, and from Calcutta in the east to Bombay in the west. In earlier times the use of Ramatankas had been more restricted, mainly because the use of pictorial Hindu religious tokens was not acceptable in the Moslem kingdoms which then ruled over northern India. That was a time when the use of Ramatankas was restricted to their original homeland in the Hindu kingdoms of the Central and Southern Deccan – to the south of the Moslems. The homeland of Ramatankas lay in the modern State of Karnataka.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michael Mitchiner
Michael Mitchiner, born in Croydon in 1938, is a physician by profession. He began taking an interest in coins after being given some by an uncle when he was nine years old. After leaving school he studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital, in London. Later, he spent several years on the staff of Guy’s Hospital, and gained a Ph.D. for research on the structure of viruses. Michael Mitchiner has written numerous article and several books on coinage, since his first numismatic paper was published in 1969. These include a set of volumes on Indo-Greek and Indo-Schythian Coinage published during 1975-76, three large volumes on Oriental Coins published during 1977-79, and three volumes on Jetons, Medalets and Tokens published during 1988-98. Subsequently he has also published twos volumes on the Coinage and History of South India in 1998, on the History and Coinage of South East Asia in 1998, on Indian Tokens in 1998, and Coinage and History of East Bengal (Bangladesh) in 2000. From 1976 until 1985 he was editor of the Oriental Numismatic Society’s Newsletter.
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