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ANGAVIJJA
1894, i.e. the square Kärshapana must be to the ancient punch-marked coins, which owing to the presence of a variety of symbols were also described as चित्त (Skt. चित्र).
8. This word was derived from the Greek term 'stater', which became familiar in India from the time of the Indo-Greeks, and continued to be current during the Kushäna period, and probably in the Gupta epoch also. The stater was a gold coin weighing 133.2 grs. In the Central Asian Kharoshthi documents mention is often made of the ya Hac or yaf Het coin, i.e. the gold stater, which was current along with silver coins called e or 764, the drachm.' Shri Ratna Chandra has also drawn attention to an important evidence from the स्फुटार्था commentary on the अभिधर्म कोष of वसुबन्धु in which a specific reference is found to the dt coin with the remark that 2 dināras were equal to 1 d. This raises several problems, e.g. (1) what was this particular an coin which had the exchange value of 2 : 1 with the stater coin ? (2) Whether the air was of silver or gold ? The literary references acquaint us with the dināra coin both of silver ( CAT) and gold (Hauf CH ), but we are not yet in a position to determine the nature of the dināra affiliated to the stater. The probability is that the silver dināra may have been the name applied to the silver Drachm (wt. 67.2 grs.) in India, and then the weight of the stater (133.2 grs.) would stand to the dināra in the ratio of 2 : 1, as recorded by महावीराचार्य in the गणितसार संग्रह-द्वौ दीनारौ सतेरं स्यात् प्राहुलॊहेऽत्र सूरयः, i.e. in the case of metallic weights 2 दीनारs are equal to 1 सतेर.'
It may be safe to assume that were was not a new coin minted in the Kushāna period, but the old Indo-Greek gold stater which continued to be in free circulation for several hundred years after the end of that dynasty.
9. yque 1001t-We know from ancient literature that the 419 coin existed in gold, silver and copper, as the one-sixteenth part of the standard coin. So also the luft. It was one-fourth of a H15. The Arthaśāstra furnishes definite evidence about the ratio of a luft to a -19. The you coin being 80 rattis, its H194 would be 5 rattis and a half hot 1.25 rattis (2.25 grs.). We have of course, no actual specimens of such minute gold coins either for the Kushāņa or for the Gupta period.
10. मासक काकणी-This seems to refer to the काकणी coin related as a submultiple to the silver माषक coin, although there is nothing to preclude a 10 of copper from being known by this name. On Pāņini VI. 3.79, the front commentary has the following examples:
(a) 4414: Satur:
(b) H141977: 1 i.e., a (silver) ofu exceeded by a (silver) 4797 coin, and a (silver) 49 coin exceeded by a (silver) 014, 0ft coin.
11. quu T5-It signifies a 11 or 1 ratti of gold, and it is uncertain whether the reference is to a coin, or merely a wt., but the probability is in favour of the former. The far far does refer to a gold FUIT coin (ch. 9).
12. The name was derived from Roman denarius. A coin of this designation was first introduced in Rome in B.C. 269-268. It was a silver coin and its original weight was 70 grs, but within about fifty
1. Ratna Chandra Agrawala, Numismatic Data in the Kharosthi Documents from Chinese Turkestan, JNSI, XIV. p. 103. The writer refers there, on the authority of Prof. Gran wedel to a stater of silver, but the point is left undeveloped. We do not yet know of any other firm reference to a silver ch coin.
2. Ratna Chandra Agrawala, Greek Stater in Ancient Indian Epigraphs and Literature, JNSI, XV, pp. 153-154. 3. Ratna Chandra, ibid, JNSI, XV, p. 154. 4. v fque quemfufai yrity 1 0479 1414 374414fufa (37purer II. 12. Text, p. 84, Mysore edn.). 5. danty 46 476 4 2
aai area (fancy, Vol. I, p. 426, fawarfa, ch. 9) 6. See however, for a contrary view, K. V. Rangaswami Iyengar, Brhaspati Smrti. Introduction, pp. 152-156.
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