Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c10.45

c10.45

The type of coins which has been described is, as I have informed you, evolved from the Kārshāpaṇa. But you will naturally want to know whether there was any other type prevalent in this early period. It is, therefore, necessary to invite your attention to some more coins. I hope you have not forgotten the coins of the autonomous cities of the Punjab to which I have referred in my first lecture. On the obverse occurs the word *negamā*, and on the reverse, such names as Dojaka Tālimata and Atakatakā.¹ I had then occasion to tell you that the word *negamā* here must be taken to signify ‘the city people’ and that the letters occurring on the reverse must be understood to be the names of the cities. What is noteworthy here is that on neither of the faces of these coins occurs anything but the legend. They are conspicuous by the absence of any kind of symbols, such as we are accustomed to note on the Kārshāpaṇa. It thus appears that in that early period, some coins were struck with mere names unaccompanied by any devices. If further evidence is required, it is supplied by a coin found at Eraṇ in the Central Provinces. On this coin only one legend occurs and on one face only, the legend consisting of the letters Raño Dhammapālasa in very ancient Brāhmī characters.¹ And as these characters run from right to left, Bühler thinks that they could not have been later than the fifth century B. C.² This coin is thus earlier than those of the autonomous cities of the Punjab, and, as we have just seen, is devoid of all devices, and has been found in one of the Eastern Provinces of India. It will not, therefore, be unreasonable if we infer that another type of coinage which was prevalent at this early period and which was in no way influenced by the Kārshāpaṇa consisted of mere legends stamped on one or both sides.