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

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AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
In addition to the above, he also financed the expensive undertakings of his military expeditions in the second, fourth, eighth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth years of his coronation.
In this way, we find that the State treasury under Khāravela was always full of ready money to enable him to draw hundreds of thousand pieces of money practically every year. The fact that Khāravela was able to spend as much as thirty-five hundred thousand pieces of money in the very first year of his installation to the throne shows that he had inherited a very rich treasury from his predecessor. All this goes to show that Khāravela was a very rich king and also that Kalinga was a very prosperous country under his rule.
Strange enough, however, Khāravela does not make any indication in his inscription as to the type of moneykārshā paņa, suvarņa or satamāna, that was current at that time. Excavations at Sisupalgarh, in recent years, have yielded a few punch marked coins both of silver and copper. Two coin-moulds too have been discovered. Both are of punch-marked coins and are much worn out, presumably by repeated casting operations. This might lead one to believe that Khāravela continued to mint and utilize punch-marked coins both of silver and copper. But the coins discovered, during the excavations, are so few that to derive a conclusion from these is not quite safe. Inspite of all these shortcomings, it may not be far wrong to presume that the pieces of money used by Khāravela may have, most probably, been the kārs hāpaņas, so much spoken of and used in ancient India. The same standard of money was used by Sātakarņi, the third ruler of the
1. Ancient India, Vol. V, pp. 95.96.