The tree in the railing reminds me of Sanchi, a Mauryan stupa just North of Bhopal in central India. Could the hills be symbolic of a stupa and therefore the Buddha?
A few pics of Sanchi...
I find the trees depicted on early Indian coins very interesting. Many different types of trees can be seen on punch-marked coins, with each type probably representing the initials of the issuing ruler. The early cast copper coins commonly depicted a tree-in-railing. The Sunga dynasty, which succeeded the Mauryas, used a fig tree (or
Bodhi tree) ("Sunga" means "fig tree".)
The arched hill symbols found on early Indian coins are also quite interesting. On Maurayan punch-marked coins, these could have been used to indicate descent from a particular ruler?/clan?/deity?. Take the following symbols, for example.
Could the crescent-on-arches mark have been used to indicate descent from moon, or descent from Chandragupta (the first Mauryan emperor;
Chandra=Moon)?
Could the eight-arched-hill (as seen in your coin) have been used to represent the
Noble Eightfold Path?
Doesn’t “dasa” mean servant in Sanskrit? Does anandadasa literally translate as servant of joy?
Dasa can mean "servant" or "ten", depending on its context. I think the names here should be broken as Chutukulananda-dasa, Mulananda-dasa, etc., for translation, not Chutukul-anandadasa, etc. I think
Dasa here would probably mean "servant of god".
