འཕགས་པ་མར་མ་མཛད་ཀྱས་ལང་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད notes.24

notes.24

24. Although the Tibetan zong is often interpreted to mean articles of merchandise or salable goods, as a translation of the Sanskrit paṇa it can refer to a type of coin. Sanskrit versions of the story have five hundred kārṣāpaṇas (e.g., the Divyāvadāna, Rotman 2017, p. 25; and The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva, ) or purāṇas (e.g., the Mahāvastu, Jones 1949, p. 188, n. 9), both also coins of varying values depending on what they were made of. We find this to be more plausible than Megha wandering around with or being handed five hundred “articles of merchandise.”