Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c7.25.2

c7.25.2

For in the Jātaka literature we read of gold coins of a still smaller denomination. I have been able to trace at least two references to a type of gold coins called Suvarṇa-Māshaka. Thus in the Udaya-Jātaka we are introduced to Udayabhadra and Udayabhadrā, who are brother and sister and yet become husband and wife. They are the king and queen of the Kāśi kingdom. Udayabhadra dies, and becomes Śakra in the Heaven of the Thirty-three (*Tāvatiṃsa-bhavana*). And he comes to the mortal world one day to tempt his former wife with riches, by, we are told, lavishing encomium on her beauty and holding before her a golden dish replete with Suvarṇa-Māshakas.¹ Again, in the Saṃkhapāla-Jātaka we have a third instance of a snake-king being captured, this time, however, by a party of sixteen men. A rich landowner, who happens to pass that way, sees the Bodhisattva in great agony, and, struck with compassion, releases him by making handsome gifts to those lewd fellows amongst which prominent mention is made of the Suvarṇa-Māshakas.² But what is a Suvarṇa-Māshaka, you may naturally ask me here? I may have something to tell you about it in my next lectures, but here it will be sufficient to state that *māsha* is a unit in the weight system of Indian coinage which differs in weight according as the coin is of gold, silver or copper. And while, as a rule, *māsha* denotes the weight, Māshaka denotes a coin of this weight.