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Coins of the Ancient Republics of Rajasthan
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have almost every square yard of the surface scanned and this laborious process yielded a rich harvest of coins, a number of which are really interesting and unique. This collection consists of a few silver punch-marked coins, over three hundred coins of the Mālava tribe, 14 coins of Mitra kings, 6 Senāpati Issius, 7 Vapu coins, a broken coin of Apollodotus, 189 uninscribed copper coins, a couple of IndoSassanian coins of base silver belongs to the medieval Hindu period and a coin, of Muhamed II, the Khalji Sultan of Delhi".18 Mālava coins which have been found at Rairh, are different in nature with their counterpart coins of Nagar. The feature, which makes them unique, is the symbol of a wavy snake or river like symbol. A group of seven square coins bearing the legend Vapu is also extraordinary in character. The script is Brahmi of early period and according to excavator probably the Vapu is a name of a Mālava chief.
Thus, it can be inferred that Mālavas contributed a lot to the Indian coinage. Probably, they were among the forerunners of Indian coinage who initiated the inscribed coins in early history of India.
SIBI Coins : Likewise the Mālavas, Sibis were also an important republic of north-western part of India who made their home at southeastern Rajasthan. The place, where Sibis established their republic, is known as Nagari or Madhyamikā located near Chittorgarh. Nagari was discovered by Carlleyle in 1872. In the opinion of Dilip Chakraborty, "Carlleyle's description of Nagari is one of the best description of an early site in the Nineteenth century history of Indian Archaeology........19 Chakarborty narrates about these coins in following words, "These coins bear the name of their country or nation:- Majhimikāya Sibis Janapadasa - ‘of the country of the Sibis of Madhyamikā.20 Thus it seems that Madhayamikā or Nagari was their capital. The coins of Sibis are very rare and their metal is copper. After Chak arborty's short narration about the Sibi coins, S.J. Mangalam and Shobhana Gokhale studied these coins in detail on the basis of the collection of H.D. Sankalia. During his exploration in Rajasthan, Sankalia had collected nineteen coins from the Nagari which are presently at Deccan collage, Pune Museum.
On the basis of the study of Manglam and Gokhale the major characteristic features of these coins are summarized as below:
The weight of the Sibi coins varies from 6.4428 to 1.89 gms. This lowest group may belong to the series of Ardha-kārşāpaņa. The lightest Sibi coin known previously is 1.66 which may be 1/8 of a paņa. But the problem is with regard to the higher denominations of 6.4428 gms, and many intermediary series which can not be easily accommodated along with the known Indian weight standard. Thus the Sibi coinage apparently shows a different weight standard difficult to determine. 21 Sibi coins have symbol of six arched hill and river. It is a very common symbol in many tribal coins. It is very interesting to note that a number of Western Kšatrapa coins have also been recoverd from the Nagari itself". Thus it can be presumed that Western Kśatrapas might have copied this motif from the Sibi coins. Western Kśatrapa coins also have this symbol in their coias. The different weight standard of Sibi coins shows that either there was not any controlling authority at mint level or the Šibi republic was facing the problem of inflation. But one particular aspect of the coins of both the republics is note-worthy that they initiated the inscribed coins in the Indian Coinage at such a period when north India was facing a political distengration. The availability of copper around the Aravali belt induced the process of copper coinage in Rajasthan. It shows that Indian economy was not the subject of the political authority during the period from 200 B.C. to 300 A.D., either it was under the control of the
