In medieval India, the term "Fanam" referred to:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) Coins
UPSC's key is coins. NCERT notes that variations of the word 'pana' (paṇaṁ in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam) are still used for money.
- ✓ (b) UPSC's official key treats this option as correct; we could not confirm the meaning of the term from an official source, so we do not explain it here. The RBI Museum notes that the Vijayanagara kingdom's coinage, largely in gold and copper, was a standardised issue that later served as a model for the European trading companies.
- ✗ (a) UPSC's official key treats this option as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
- ✗ (c) UPSC's official key treats this option as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
Remember · Per UPSC's key, the answer is coins; NCERT notes the 'pana'/'panam' family of words is still used for money.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 11 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 7 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Chapter 11 “variations of the word 'pana' continue to be used in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam as paṇaṁ and in Kannada as 'haṇa' for money”
- Reserve Bank of India Museum: Medieval coinage, The Vijayanagar Empire ↗ “the Vijayanagar contemporaries of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughals, were the other dynasty whose currency presents a rare example of a standardised issue which later provided a model for the European and English trading companies.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·