Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c8.15

c8.15

Though in the majority of the instances in which Kārshāpaṇa is mentioned in the Jātaka literature, it can refer only to the silver coin, instances are not wanting in which copper and gold Kārshāpaṇas can alone be understood to have been referred to. Thus to hire a carriage in Benares by the hour cost 8 Kārshāpaṇas. The same amount was considered to be a remuneration fit for a barber. Again, tailoring repairs well done, in a suburb of Benares, brought in money at the rate of 1,000 pieces a day.¹ Similarly, a fisherwoman is fined eight Kārshāpaṇas.² In these and a few more such instances it is impossible to conceive Kārshāpaṇa as being of any metal other than copper.