________________
MAY, 1928)
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE
93
(Siam, p. 331), however, describes the tickal and its parts as nothing more than bits of silver bar bent and the ends beaten together, impressed with two or three small stamps.63
E-VII. Ancient Tokens. That lump currency in fixed forms, like the Shân silver shells, is very ancient in the East is shown by the following quotation from the Jatakas (Buddhist Birth Stories), where golden bricks, ploughshares, elephant's feet, bricks and tortoises are mentioned. That it was continuously used amongst Far Eastern Nations there is much evidence from Chinese, Tongkingese, Annamese, Cambodian, Siamese, Shân and Malay sources, besides Burmese.64 In the Nilánakatha, 66 a Sinhalese composition in Páli of the fifth century A.D. is an account of the land on which Anathapiņdika built tbe famous Jêtavana Vihara, referring to a lump currency in gold which existed in and before the writer's time:-"Long ago in the time of the Blessed Buddha Vipassin, a mercbant named Punabbasu Mitta bought the very spot bylaying golden bricks over it, and built a monastery there a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddba Sikhin, a merchant named Sirivaddha bought that very spot by standing golden ploughshares over it, and built there a monastery three quarters of a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Vessubhů, a merchant named Sótthiya bought that very spot by laying golden elephant feet along it, and built a monastery there half a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Kakusandha, a merchant named Achchuta also bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built there a monastery & quarter of a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Kongamana, a morchant named Ugga bought that very spot by laying golden tortoises over it, and built there a monastery half a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Kassapa, & merchant named Sumangala bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built there a monastery sixty acres in extent. And in the time of our Blessed One, Anethapindika, the merchant, bought that very spot by laying kahapanas over it, and built there a monastery thirty acres in extent. For that spot is a place which not one of all the Buddhas has dorarted."
The writer of the above passage, in bringing in his own way the history of the Monastery down to these comparatively modern times, clearly indicates, by the expressions bricks', 'ploughshares', 'clephant feet', 'tortoises', ingots of certain shapes, current as weights in his own time, till he comes to the last payment, which he states in terms of a then recognised weight. The kahá panaṁ Skr. karshapana was, as a gold weight, equal to 16 máshds-about 176 grains.
Plate LVII of Cunningham's Barhut Stupa, 1879, contains a bas relief,66 which represents Anathapiņdike, making over to Sangha the park at Jetavana, which he had purchased by covering the ground with a layer of crores (kótis) of bricks. At p. 84 ff. there is an elaborate account of the story with many references. See Hultzsch, Bharaut Inscriptions, No. 38, ante, vol. XXI, pp. 226, 230.
Compare also Fausböll, Jalaka, vol. I, p. 92, where the text runs: "Anathapindiko... Jelavanaṁ koțisanthárena (atthara sahisañña kotihi) kinifua." On comparing this statement with the inscriptions at the Stupa : "Jetavana Anadhapediko deti koti-saṁthatena ketd," we may reasonably conjecture that the very precise expression I have placed in brackets got into the story later than the date of the Bharaut sculptures, of the second or first century B.C.
63 For a remarkably good note on the larin or hook-money, closely allied to the tickal in principle, see Pyrard de Laval, Hak : Soc : Ed., vol. 1, pp. 232 ti. Good specimens of tickals are to be found in the Indian Museum, Calcutta Mint Collection, Nos. 887, 888, 902-906, 993. At p. 65 of the (old) Catalogue (before 1890), Nos. 1759 and 1760, there is a queer entry : "tickal or takel, Arakan." Sarat Chandra Das, JASB., Proc. 1887, p. 148, says tickals were made in gold, silver and lead in the reign of " Somdetch Pra Charem Klow." See also Bowring, Siam, vol. I, pp. 267 ft.
54 Soe Obsoleto Malay Tin Currency,” ante, vol. XLII. p. 92 1.65 Rhys Davids, Birth Stories, p. 132 1.
66 In Hutchinson's History of the Nations, there is a drawing (p. 124) in modern perspective, by Horace van Raith, of this reliet.
