Early History of Orissa

SR No.: 006922
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Amarchand Mittal
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 506
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 331

306
AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
and currency, all transactions in which the medium of exchange is a factor more or less in the same sense as rūpa in the Arthaśāstra. R. D. Banerji' says that rūpa must be an equivalent of rūpya meaning currency. In the Hāthigumphå text, the position of the word rūpa shows that the meaning cannot be anything else. It is impossible to imagine that the prince learnt 'acting'. We can compare the word 'Lupa da khe' in the Jogeśvari Cave Inscription, where it may also mean a "Currency Officer'. The term is also taken to mean a City Magistrate, who could recognize offenders at a glance. The exact meaning of the term is made clear by the explanation of Buddhaghosha in a passage of the Mahāvagga. The term is explained thus: "He who learns the Rūpa Sūtra, must turn over and over many kārshāpaņas. Finally, the term Rūpa-darsaka, in the Arthaśāstra," is translated as the Examiner of Coins' shows that the term rūpa was used in cases, as in the present inscription, with reference to currency. The term did not refer to silver currency alone but to other metals also as we find the term Tāmra-rūpa in the Arthaśāstra.
Gananā
In the same way, we are not to take 'gamanā' as a simple term for counting or calculation, but in the wider and deeper sense of all matters relating to accounting, more or less in the same sense as gañanā in Aśoka's Third Rock
1. I, 35. 2. HO, Vol. I, p. 72; Jayaswal & Banerji, EI, Vol. XX, pp. 71f. 3. AR, ASI, 1903–4, pp. 120 f; IA, Vol. XLVIII, p. 131. 4. SBE, XIII, p. 201 fn. 5. Tr: Shamsastri, p. 95. 6. Ibid.