Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c6.8.2

c6.8.2

Although in respect of Gaṇa numismatics does not thus furnish us with new information, its value in respect of the other forms of Saṃgha government cannot be denied. In that second lecture of mine on Administrative History, I have clearly shown that side by side with oligarchy, democracy of a two-fold kind was flourishing in ancient India, one styled Naigama which was confined to a town, and the other Janapada which extended over a province. Of course, I am not here referring to the power which the people of towns and provinces, called Paura and Jānapada respectively, sometimes wielded in the administration of a country, and which is often alluded to in the epics and sometimes in works on law, but which was never of a political character. I am here referring to those cities and countries which enjoyed political autonomy and whose existence has been attested by coins alone. I hope you remember I mentioned one type of coins found in the Punjab on the obverse of which you find the word Negamā, i.e., Naigamāḥ, and on the reverse such names as Dojaka, Tālimata, Atakatakā and so forth, and told you that they were really the civic coins struck by the peoples of these cities.¹ This, no doubt, reminds us of similar coinages of Phocæa, Cyzicus and other Greek cities,² and further points to the fact that the Naigama or civic autonomy was as conspicuous among the Hindus of the old Punjab as among the Greeks on the Western coast of Asia Minor.