As I had earlier stated, I started reading literature available with the Bilaspur Museum. It was believed that at the beginning of the Christian Era, Dakshina Kosala, was under the suzerainty of the Satavahanas. All inscriptions of that period are referred to as that of Satavahanas. The 2nd Century rock inscription at Gunji (Barpali) near Sakti (now Janjgir district) is also attributed to Satavahana period. The inscription tells about distribution of 1000 cows to local Brahmins twice by Raja (King) Kumaravaradatta and a third time by his minister. Because of this hangover I largely read about the Satavahanas and their coinage. To cap it, a coin fo
und at Balapur in the sands of the river Mahanadi is attributed to a king named Apilaka, who happens to be the 5th in the Satavahana lineage.[ Now it has been established that the attribution was faulty. The name has been read as Rano Siva Siri Silalukasa by Dr. (Mrs.) Susmita Bose Majumdar in her monograph titled “a new series Coins of Malhar” wherein most of the coins covered are from my collection](IIRNS Publication available here).
If I am lucky, I could dig out Raja Kumaravaradatta, I thought. May be I could also bring out other Satavahana rulers who are not known by their coin issues. Cleaning of the coins was proving difficult. All the pieces had hardened mud coating. Finally I put them in Acetic Acid overnight and I could succeed in getting rid of the deposits using a tooth brush. Out of half a dozen pieces, one was a lead coin with inscription. Others were copper and highly corroded. However I was very happy and started trying to figure out the name of the King on the lead coin. With my limited knowledge of Brahmi characters, I read the name as 
Maagha Sirisa. Immediately I referred to the list of Satavahana rulers and thrilled to find something matching. There was one Meghaswati listed there. I showed it to my friends in the Archaeological department. They encouraged me and suggested further readings. However, I could not resist myself from sending out a letter to Dr. Ajay Mitra Shastri at Nagpur reporting my findings. In turn he expressed his doubts and asked me to go through his book on “Kausambi Hoard of Magha Coins”.
Steadily my collection started growing with many more additions establishing the real cradle of Maghas at Malhar
Maghasiri was the founder of Magha Dynasty sometimes during the 1st Century AD as discussed in my earlier page on Maghas. All his coin issues are in lead. In few of them we find tree in railing as the reverse symbol. The topmost coin is not rectangular. It is broader and thinner at the top. This gives an impression that perhaps the name ‘Maghasirisa’ was impressed with some device. In that case the original coin could have belonged to some other ruler.
Maghashri is considered to have been succeeded by a ruler named Siriya Magha whose coin appears alongside. The legend has been read as “Siri Yamagha” by some scholars. This seems absurd, devoid of any meaning. I am inclined to go for “Siriya Magha” as explained by P.L. Gupa (Numismatic Digest Vol 14, pp. 10-11). In that case the issuer would be “Maghasiri” with the honorific prefix of “Siriya”. If we consider “Siriya” as part of the name, the issuer of the coin would be a different ruler. We leave it at that for further numismatic evidence to come up.
