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Ancient Indian Coins
The study of Ancient Indian coins is both interesting and fascinating. India was a boiling pot of various cultures since ancient times, witnessing numerous invasions and attacks by rulers of other regions of the world..
India was always perceived as a land of bounty and enormous wealth. Thus it attracted attention of some of the world's most famous rulers like Alexander, the Huns and the Islamic rulers.
Early
days before the advent of coinage
Self-Subsistent economy was prevalent in ancient India during Pre-Vedic
era. A Family would cultivate and produce what was required for itself.
Gradually, these small families came together to form small communities
or tribal clans. That's when the needs of people elevated from the self
subsistence economy to barter economy where goods were exchanged between
people or between various communities.
People began to realize the limitations of the barter system economy mainly because two commodities were never of the same value. Certain things got preference over the others and a higher value was attached to them. This resulted in conflicts between parties or most often, there was no equal benefit accrued to one of the parties because of the transaction.
That's when the need for a common commodity as a medium of exchange arose and they were the precursors of coins. The huge granaries found at the Mohenjo Daro and Harappa excavation sites corroborate to the fact that agricultural products were used a medium of exchange.
The Vedic people used cows as a medium of exchange and this is evident from various ancient literary sources like the Aitreya Brahmana, the Rig Veda and the Ashtadhyayi.
One passage in the Rig Veda mentions the price of the image of Indra offered on sale to be ten cows.
Similarly in the Aitreya Brahmana, there is a reference to the number of cows as an estimation of wealth. It is mentioned that a price of a hundred cows was paid to the father of Sunahsepa, when he was being sold for a sacrifice conducted by Harishchandra. Cows remained as a medium of exchange till the later part of the post-Vedic period. This is evident from the certain passages of Ashtadhyayi of Panini.
Cows met the needs of the age, as they were not easily perishable, can be moved from one place to another and had the capacity to multiply, work and supply milk. However, cows were a troublesome medium of exchange as they required to be cared and some degree of skill in rearing. Hence, this medium was not suitable for large transactions and long-term savings etc.
This gave arose to the need for a more stable medium of exchange - metals. The problem of how to use them was solved by inventing balances and weights, and the metals were cut according to a pre-defined standard weight. Metal was weighed against seeds and different kinds of seeds (krishnala seeds or Abrus Precatorius) were introduced in different regions as standard weights according to their availability.
Transactions involving metal were equally tedious. Scales were required to weigh the metals and touchstones to determine the purity of the metal was used. In addition, there were problems of rampant debasement of metal, forgery etc that again resulted in a loss of value in transactions. Hence, official authorities or merchant guilds stamped metal pieces, and conducted a check to ensure genuineness and the purity of the metal content.
Thus, first coins of Ancient India came into existence and were known as “Punch Marked Coins”. The Ashtadhyayi mentions that the metallic pieces were stamped (ahata) with symbols (rupa). These were in circulation along with the unstamped variety of metallic coins which were referred to as the ‘nishka’, ‘satamana’ and ‘pada’. There is also a mention of ‘shana’ and ‘karshapana’, terms used for different monetary denominations.
In Gopatha Brahmana, Uddalak Arun-- a distinguished scholar of Kuru-Panchala, who was moving through the country carrying a banner to which a nishka was attached, had offered the same to one who could defeat him in a debate.
Method of manufacturing coins in Ancient India
The Punching technique:
As mentioned in the earlier paragraph, coins were cut out of metallic sheets of silver and then punched with various symbols. A complete understanding of all the symbols is still debatable but scholar’s feel that these symbols depicted the various aspects of nature. For eg symbols of frog and turtle which don’t assume significant importance but can be seen on the “Punch Marked Coins”.
Kautilya, the minister of Chandra Gupta Maurya, has referred in a passage
to the counter-feiters of coins (Kootaroopakaaraka) in his Arthashastra,
the book on state administration, compiled in the 4th century BC. Therein,
he has listed a number of objects that were used in the manufacture of
coins. Metal was first melted in crucibles (moosha) and purified with
alkalis (kshara). It was then beaten into sheets on an anvil (adhikarni)
with a hammer (mushtika), cut into pieces with clippers (sandansa) for
adjusting weights and finally stamped with dies or punches having symbols
(bimba-tanka).
Pellets were sometimes made from molten metal and then flattened. The flans or the planchets thus prepared were impressed on one side by means of punch bearing devices. Initially, these ancient coins bore only one punch but gradually the number of punches were made two and later on it was increased to five.
However, the early punch marked coins are attributed to various janapadas (republics) based on the symbol that they have on their coins. Some of them are depicted below.
Initially, these coins were punched only on the obverse but gradually the punches wear out and the reverse side of the coins is used for striking new punches with similar symbols. Also, when traders carry these coins to another republic or state, then they are stamped with a different symbol on the reverse indicating their fineness and purity. These symbols are struck by shroffs (merchant guilds, bankers, money lenders or gold smiths).
Thus, coins which were in circulation for a longer period had more punches on them. The states for which coins are known are Shuransena (modern Braj, the region around Mathura), Uttara Panchala (the Rohilkhand region), Dakshina Panchala (the Doab area stretching from the Ganga to the Chambal), Chedi (the region south of Yamuna), Kosala (the area bounded by the Gomti river on the west, Sarpika – modern Sai on the south, Sadanira – modern Gandak on the east and the Nepal Hills on the north), Kashi (the region around Varanasi including parts of the districts of Jaunpur, Ghazipur and Mirzapur), Malla (districts of Deoria and their surroundings), Magadha (the area bounded by the Ganga on the north and the Son on the west, the dense forest reaching the plateau of Chota Nagpur to south and Bhagalpur region to the east), Vanga (Bengal), Dakshina Kosala (comprising western Orissa and eastern Madhya Pradesh), Avanti (Ujjain region), Andhra (the delta of the Godavari and the Krishna), Ashmaka (the area on both sides of the godavari bordering Andhra Pradesh), Surashtra (the kathiawad region), Gandhara (north western region on the border of Afghanistan) and Kuntala (Satara and it’s environs in Western Maharashtra).
The coins
of these states were in circulation before the 5th century BC as with
the rise of the Magadha empire and the merging of most of the aforementioned
states into the empire. The Magdhan empire had issued imperial punch mark
coins which was in circulation throughout the empire. The late Dr.P.L.Gupta
had identified 450 varieties of symbols and these were classified according
to the grouping of the symbols. The Magdhan imperial punch mark coins
were thus broadly classified into 5 different series each belonging to
a specific period.
The Casting technique:
Copper coins were produced by casting from moulds and were widely circulated almost all over northern India., and are known in several varities. These coins are not attributed to any particular state or ruler as they are found throughout the northern and central parts of India.
The most common of them are the small round coins with an elephant on the obverse and a three arched hill on the reverse. Sometimes, two such coins are found to be attached to each other with a small band of metal between the two. It is not clear whether they were meant for circulation in that form as coins of double value or they were simply mint freaks. These coins were in circulation from the 3rd century BC till the 3rd century AD.
Obv: hollow cross, tree in railing Rev: Flag standard with bull/horse, swatika symbol.
Some scholars attribute the coinson the left to the Shunga dynasty.
With the advent of the Greeks, Indian coinage underwent a major change. The fine execution of the rulers bust, depiction of their gods and goddess with legends on the Indo Greek coins inspired the later coinage of the Indian rulers. The Kushana, the Satvahana dynasty and the Western Kshatrapa dynasty copied the silver drachms and tetra drachms of the Indo Greek kings. This gave a great impetus to the construction of Indian history as rulers during this era also included their name and sometimes their father’s name on the coins with dates.
Obv : King offering to the fire altar. Trident and Battle Axe near the altar.
Rev : Shiva standing in front of Nandi (Bull) holding a trident. A tamgha symbol on the right.
Obv : Bust of the king with date behind the ear.
Rev : Three arched hill, crescent and dots surrounded by brahmi legends “Rajna Mahakshatrapas Damasen putrasa Rajna Mahakshatrapasa Vijayasenasa” means :”The Mahakshatrapa king Vijayasena, the son of The Mahakshatrapa king Damasena”
That was a brief history about the beginning and the manufacture of coinage
in Ancient India. I would discuss hoard classification and legends and
symbols on coins in the next article.
- Coins – P.L.Gupta National Book Trust.
Images Courtesy :
- Prabhu's Webpage on Indian Coins - Mr. Govind Prabhu, http://prabhu.50g.com.
- www.grifterrec.com/coins/coins.html
- My own collection.