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I OO
BUDDHIST INDIA
gold (seldom siiver), — these were the main articles in which the merchant dealt.
The older system of traffic by barter had entirely passed away never to return. The later system of a currency of standard and token coins issued and regulated by government authority had not yet arisen. Transactions were carried on, values estimated, and bargains struck in terms of the kaliipana, a square copper coin weighing about 146 grains, and guaranteed as to weight and fineness by punchmarks made by private individuals. Whether these punch-marks are the tokens of merchants, or of guilds, or simply of the bullion dealer, is not certain (874). (Fig. 24.)
No silver coins were used (877). There were half and quarter kahāpaņas, and probably no other sort. The references to gold coins are late and doubtful; and no such coins have been found. Some thin gold films with punch marks on them were found in the Sākiya Tope, but these are too flimsy to have been used in circulation as coins (878). It is interesting to notice that Alexander, when in India, struck a half kahāpaņa copper piece, square (in imitation of the Indian money), and not round like the Greek coins of the time.
It is only in later times that we hear (as for instance in Manu, S. 401) of any market price being fixed by government regulation. In the sixth century B.C. there is only an official called the Valuer, whose duty it was to settle the prices of goods
See Figs. 1, 3, and s in the plate annexed to this chapter for examples of these oldest kahāpaņas. Also Fig. 23.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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