Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c6.22

c6.22

The migrations of the Mālavas remind us of the migrations of another people which have been brought to light by their coins,—I mean the Śibis whose coins have been found in and near Nagarī not far from Chitorgarh in Rājputānā and who have been called not a Gaṇa but Janapada. Of course, from the Mahābhārata and also from an inscription we know that the Śibis originally belonged to the Punjab,² but coins show that some of them were settled in the Chitorgarh district shortly before Christ. It is curious, however, that the province so occupied by them is not called Śibi after them, but Madhyamikā, as is quite clear from their coin legend. In one of my lectures, I informed you that the province of Madhyamikā has been mentioned both in the Mahābhārata and Varāhamihira's Bṛhat-saṃhitā,³ and that Madhyamikā was in reality the name of both the province and its principal town as Avanti and Ayodhyā no doubt were. The coins thus enable us to identify the city of Madhyamikā with Nagarī, near Chitorgarh, which, as I have elsewhere shown, contains the ruins of a large town.¹ The significance of this identification will flash on you. You are aware that Patañjali in his *Mahābhāshya* gives two instances of *laṅ*, viz., *aruṇad = Yavanaḥ Sāketam* and *aruṇad = Yavano Madhyamikām*, to show that the past event denoted by this *laṅ* must be such as is capable of being witnessed by the speaker. Patañjali thus evidently gives us to understand that the city of Madhyamikā was besieged by a Yavana or Greek prince shortly before he wrote. And naturally curiosity centred round the location of this Madhyamikā. This curiosity, we know, was gratified by the study of coins only, *i.e.*, by the occurrence of the name Madhyamikā on the coins of the Śibi Janapada. We thus see that this Madhyamikā can be no other than Nagarī itself, as far south as which place the Greek prince, whosoever he was, pushed forward in his expedition of conquest when Patañjali lived and wrote.