1 Kasu

The Madurai Nayaks ruled as nominally Vijayanagara vassals long after the empire itself had collapsed at Talikota in 1565, and their copper kasu coinage reflects that political ambiguity — maintaining older iconographic conventions while operating as a fully independent sultanate in practice. By the early eighteenth century the kingdom was fracturing under Maratha pressure, and Mughal encroachment from the north left minting activity increasingly irregular before Madurai was finally absorbed into the expanding dominion of Thanjavur and later the Carnatic.