Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c7.30

c7.30

I mean the Kārshāpaṇa about which most of you must have already heard. I do not wish to say much here about this type as the whole of my next lecture will be devoted to this subject. The Kārshāpaṇa, as we read of it in the Jātaka literature, was of three varieties according as it was of gold, silver and copper. Gold Kārshāpaṇa, however, is seldom referred to, and the common types of Kārshāpaṇa that we hear of are either silver or copper. How extensive and deep the circulation of this type of money was in all the strata of the society of the seventh century B. C. is clear even from a cursory study of the Jātaka tales, but this we shall see in the next lecture.