Indian Antiquary Vol 51

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 149

JULY. 19221
INDIAN COINAGE BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN FRA.
141
vol. II. ch. IV. p. 135), the introduction into India of the use of coins, that is to say, metallic pieces authenticated as currency by marks recognised as a guarantee of value should be ascribed to the seventh century B.C. There is reason to believe that the increasing neces. sities of commeroe with foreign merchants were the immediate occasion for the adoption by the Indian peoples of a metallic currency. The old system of barter, as Dr. Rhys Davids points out (Buddhist India, p. 100), had entirely passed away, never to return. The latter system of a currency of standard and token coins issued and regulated by government authority had not yet arisen. Coinage as Mr. James Kennedy justly observes, was according to Oriental ideas, "the business not of the state but of the banker and merchant” (JRAS., 1898, p. 281). In accordance with this principle, the earliest Indian currency was struck by private persons, not by governments. Transactions were carried on; values estimated and bargains struck on terms of the kaha paņa, a square copper coin, weighing about 146 grains, and guaranteed as to weight and fineness by punch marks made by private individuals. Whether these punch marks are the token of merchants or simply the bullion dealers is not certain.
"The most archaic looking coins " says Mr. Vincent Smith (1.G., vol. II, p. 136), "are punch-marked copper pieces, found at extremely ancient sites near Benares. These rare copper pieces are possibly older than any silver coin, and may be a memento of Babylonian trade by overland routes."
Silver coins were not unknown. Some of the silver coing, known to have circulated at this time, have been discovered by modern numismatists. The greater number of these silver coins are roughly square or oblong bits of metal cut out of a strip and containing about 20 per cent. of alloy. The circular pieces are scarce. The marks on the punch-marked coins whether circular or square are extremely numerous and varied. They comprise rude outlines of men, animals, trees, the sun, and a variety of miscellaneous objects. Legends are always absent. The Laws of Manu denote coins of this kind as puranas and Southern writers call them salakas or "dominoes.”
Silver, however, was never produced to any considerable extent in India, but has always been, as it still is, one of the chief items in the list of imports. “The Phoenicians before the time of authentic history "-writes Prof. H. D. Macleod (Bi-Metallism, seo. 6, p. 63) brought silver from Tartessus and exchanged it for the gold dust of the Indus, which Sir Alexander "Cunningham, the first authority on the subject, holds to be Ophír." Even in the Vedio times silver is very rarely mentioned (P. T. S. Aiyangar, Age of the Mantras. p. 29). Silver coins consequently cannot have been very considerably minted in ancient India.
The references to gold coins are late and doubtful and no such coins have been found. (Rhys David's Buddhist India, p. 100). Some thin gold films with punch-marks upon them were found in the Sakiya Tope, but these are too flimsy to have been used in ciroulation as coins. It is said that gold was not coined at this time, but was kept as dust tied up in little bags, which passed current as equivalent to money. History records that the Persian King Darius, who invaded India about 500 B.O., exacted 360 talents of gold dust from a king of Northern India as tribute. This gold dust Darius got coined into darios.
Besides these coins there was a very considerable use of instruments of credit. Th great merchants in the few large towns gave letters of credit to one another. And there is constant reference in Buddhistio works to promissory notes. There were no banking facilities. Money was hoarded either in the house or buried in Jarsunder-ground, or deposited with a friend, a written record of the transaction being kept.