Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c10.3.3

c10.3.3

And *go-puchchha*, I am afraid, has to be understood in the primary sense of a cow's tail, howsoever polluting and revolting such a custom may now appear to us. There are, again, at least three Sūtras in Pāṇini's *Aṣṭādhyāyī*, which speak of *kamsa*, *śūrpa* and *khārī* in connection with purchase of commodities. But as these are clearly measures of capacity, the only inference possible is that such commodities were bought by means of these measures and most probably with grains which were the staple food of a province. To this day the custom of purchasing things with food-stuff, such as rice grains, is not unknown in India, especially in rural regions. Now just see what these Sūtras teach us in regard to the different classes of articles that were used for currency purposes. Of course, coins were known in Pāṇini's time, and, as some of their names again are also of metal weights, we can imagine that metals by weight were also used as currency as they no doubt were in Burma till the middle of the nineteenth century. But if it is supposed that because some sort of metallic currency or another was prevalent in Pāṇini's time, there were no media of exchange in use such as we find in more or less uncivilised tribes of the modern day, I am afraid this supposition cannot be regarded as well-founded. For these media of exchange not only were prevalent in the time of Pāṇini, but have survived to this day as I have just told you.