Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c10.60

c10.60

We now come to the denomination Dramma which was prevalent all over North India up to the Narmadā in the late mediæval period, that is, from the ninth to the thirteenth century A.D. The earliest record, where this word has been traced, is the Gwalior inscription of Bhojadeva of the Imperial Pratīhāra dynasty and dated 875 A.D.¹ Obviously the word Dramma has to be traced to the Greek Drachma. But it is curious that although the Greeks ruled over North-West India from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D., the word is not to be found in any literature or epigraphic record of that period. It is really not till the middle of the ninth century that we hear of this word at all. This clearly shows that the influence of the Indo-Bactrian Greeks over Indian political and economic life was not very deep. How then did the word Dramma arise, and, above all, in the late mediæval period? The explanation of it has to be found, I think, in the invasion of the Gurjaras who appear to have strongly imbibed the Sassanian civilisation, though perhaps not ethnologically connected with them. The Drachma of the Greeks was prevalent in Iran till the Sassanian period, and the Gurjaras, who poured into India in the 6th or 7th century A.D., must evidently have come from there. What are called the Indo-Sassanian coins by the numismatists were, in my opinion the earliest issues of these Gurjaras. I have elsewhere shown how far the Gurjara might extended. Certainly it had spread as far east as Bengal and as far south as the Narmadā. And the Sassanian characteristics, which are clear and indisputable on their early issues, can be traced on all coins, gold, silver and copper, up to almost the thirteenth century A.D., though the original fabric and type gradually change.