COIMBATORE, a collectorate of the Madras Presidency, in the south of tho Peninsula. Its chief town of the same name is in lat. 10° 59' 41" N., and long. 76° 59' 46" E., and is 1350 feet above the sea at the palace.
The district occupies an area of 7432 square miles, over which about 7000 villages and hamlets are spread, possessing a population of 1,763,274 human beings. It bast but little rain. The produce is grains, mostly of the dry description, cotton, sugar, tobacco, and hemp. The climate is warm, and not unfrequently oppressive, being completely hill-locked. The aspect of the country is arid and unpleasant in the extreme. Its northern part, called Collegal, has numerous small jungle-covered hills; and to the we,st of Collegal are tho Neilgherry Hills. The Anima1lay Ilills aro in the S.W. border of Coimbatore, and are richly clothed with valuable forests, with many elephants; and sonic of the lower hill ranges from the Neil glierries, between which is the valley and gap or pass of Palghat leading to the western mut. The Guzzlehutty pass leads up the deep valley separating the ISeilgherry Hills front Collegal. The Inimallay (literally Elephant Hills) are occupied by the Kader,-open, independent, straightfor ward men, siinple, and obeyinm their mopens or chiefs implicitly. They are stbrong built, active, with woolly hair and something of the African features, and file their front teeth to a point. The women wear enormous circles of pith in the lobts of their ears, which they distend down to their shoulders. A black monkey is their greatest dainty.
The other hill and forest tribes, chiefly residing on the Animallay, are the Malai Arasar, Irular, Pulyar, and blandanar, subsisting precariously on wild fruits and roots, by the chase, or the sale of jungle produce. 40'8 per cent. of the population were Vellalar cultivators, 13'7 per cent. Pariahs, 8 per cent. Vannian or day-labourers, 5'3 per cent. Kaikalar or weavers, with artisans (Kammaan), Brahmans, washermen (Vannan) potters (Kusa van), fishermen (Sambadavan), b'arbers (Arnbat tan), and writers (Kanakan).
Coimbatore land is many times more valuable than it was forty years ago ; and wheeled carriages, which were 603 in 1846-7, in 1867 were 4500. In Coimbatore two very different minerals pass under the common name of corundum. The one is true' corundum of lamellar structure ; the other softer and amorphous, but christature in its com position, apparently smile form of hornblende. The mineral is abundant in .the district, and easily procured at a small cost. Localities in Coimbatore supply the beryl, and are also sup posed to have yielded the emerald, though Tavernier was not able to ascertain that any part of India, in his day, was yielding emeralds.— Tavernier's Travels, p. 144 ; Lt.-Col. Hamilton, in literis. See India, p. 324 ; Korumbar ; Narapati. ' COINS, Currency. ' Monnoie, FR. Nagd, Sicca, . . HIND.
Mamrecke, . . GER. Chilaoni, . . , Richtkeil, . . „ Conio, Donaro, IT., 'SP.
The Hindus altogether neglected history, and, after the Greek • occupation of.Bactria until the advent of the Mahomedans, the coins of the rulers furnish almost the sole evidence of the dynastic changes and their individual rulers in tbe country of the Kophones river, i.e. Bactria, .Asia, and
Kabul: The' earlier of the Greek successors of Alexander used Greek. This was adhered to by Theodotus 1., B.C. 256, of the time of Arsaces ; of Theodotus tr., B. c. 240, who reigned in the Kt1bul valley. Euthydemus, . B.C. 220, reigned in the time of the expedition of Antiochus the Great, and was defeated in battle near Mery by the united Syrian and ,Parthian armies. He then urged Antiochus to receive him in alliance, and so extend the Greek influence to the Indus. A peace was concluded, and Euthydemus led the Syrian army through Bactria, i.e. by the route north of the mountains to the Kau! valley, and across the Indus,.in B.c. 206. There Antiochus made peace with Sophagasenus (Asoka), which that sovereign recorded by edicts on rocks and pillars in various parts of India, in characters exactly resembling those on the coins of Agathocles. In B.C. 205, Antiochus returned by way of Arachotia. Aga thocles, B.C. 190, coined with Greek and Sanskrit ; is supposed by Lassen to have ruled Kabulistan to the Indus ; and Mr. H. T. Prinsep supposes him to have been the governor lef t by Antiochus in Kabul, after his treaty with Asoka.. Pantaleon, B.C. 195, coined in Greek and Sanskrit. Eukratides, B.C. 178 (Prinsep, B.C. 181; Bayer, Wilson, B.D. 165 ; Visconti, Lassen, B.C. 175). He seems to have made an expedition to India in 165 B.C. and on his return from it to have been murdered by his son. Numerous of bis coins have been found in Bactria and Afghanistan ; and Mr. H. T. Prinsep considers that he ruled originally in Bactria, subsequently made conquests in and south of Parapamisus in Kabul, and was the first of all the Greeks who coined in the bilingual Aryan inscrip tion. The first use of two languages, however, is also ascribed to Agathocles, who used Greek and Sanskrit, while Eukratides used Greek and Aryan. Eukratides was certainly amongst the earliest of the Greek kings of Bactria, Kabul, and Arya, who adopted bilingual inscriptions on his coins, and his so doing is supposed consequent on his conquest of the Parapamisus, after assumption of the title ' of Great King. On his death, Ins wide dominion is supposed to hare been broken into several inde pendent kingdoms. Heliocles, B.C. 155, the parri cide of Eukratides, used bilingual inscriptions on coins in pure Greek and Aryan. His rule, though short, extended over Bactria and the Parapamisus. Antimachus, B.C. 150, coined with Greek arid Aryan. Bactria seems to have th en passed under the sway of various Saca and Parthitua and so-called Indo-Scythian rulers,' and 'during the first six or seven, centuries of the Christian era it was one of the most important centres of Buddhistic monasti cism. As early as the second century B.C. the coins of Enkratides had the Bactrian - a language cognate with Sanskrit, but written with characters of seemingly Phoenician origin.