Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s2.2
Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s2.2
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c9.s2.2
The dating of these coins is fairly known (c. 800-200 B. C.). The Pāli literature refers to them as having been current in the time of King Bimbisāra when Rājagṛiha was the capital in the sixth century B. C. The earliest coins go back to the real Janapada period, when besides Magadha similar coins were issued by the Kosala Janapada and the Śūrasena Janapada. In that first stage the standard weight of a coin was 20 māshas of silver (called Vimśatika) and 30 māshas (called Trimśatka). Some of these early coins are cup-shaped, stamped with bold rayed symbols on one side only, dating from c. 8th-7th cent. B. C. According to Pāṇini and the Pāli texts these coins were called Kārshāpaṇa, but we do not find this term in the Brāhmaṇa literature and it may be assumed that this coinage was introduced at the close of the Brāhmaṇa period in about 800 B. C.