Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c7.31.3

c7.31.3

Now, in the Kāṇḍa dealing with the Rājasūya we have a section which treats of the Ratha-vimochanīya oblations. And in connection therewith we are told that behind the right hind-wheel of the cart-stand the king fastens two ROUND Śatamānas, which he has afterwards to give to the Brāhman priests as his fee for this ceremony.¹ Again, in another place the same Brāhmaṇa has the following: "Three Śatamānas are the sacrificial fee for this (offering). He presents them to the Brahman; for the Brahman neither performs (like the Adhvaryu), nor chants (like the Udgātṛi), nor recites (like the Hotṛi), and yet he is an object of respect: therefore he presents to the Brahman three Śatamānas.”¹ Of course, Sāyaṇa in this and the preceding passage takes Śatamāna to denote ‘a round plate,’ but the case is not unlike that of Nāgojibhaṭṭa who, while commenting on the celebrated passage from the Mahābhāshya referred to in my last lecture, interprets Mauryas as idol-makers. But just as no scholar will now understand Mauryas to mean idol-manufacturers but take them to denote the Maurya princes only, no one can similarly explain the term Śatamāna in the way in which Sāyaṇa has done, but he must interpret it to denote the Śatamāna coin alone. Śatamāna may, however, have been one hundred mānas or guñjā berries in weight as explained by Sāyaṇa and accepted by Prof.