Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c8.40

c8.40

If gold coins of genuinely Indian types have not been obtained prior to the Gupta period, silver coins at any rate have been found in abundance and of much earlier periods. Are there any from amongst them which are one Karsha in weight and may thus be regarded as representing the silver Kārshāpaṇa? This is what we have now to find out. I am afraid we have to answer this question in the negative, as no coins have so far been discovered which singly weigh one Karsha. Are we therefore to suppose that there were no silver Kārshāpaṇas? How then are we to reconcile this with the fact that Purāṇas are designated Kārshāpaṇas in some of the Sanskrit works as I told you just a while ago? Purāṇa has on all hands been admitted to be a class of silver coins and known also as Dharaṇa. But Manu says that two Kṛiṣhṇals or Ratis make one silver Māshaka and that sixteen such Māshakas make one Dharaṇa.¹ A Dharaṇa or Purāṇa is thus equal to 32 Ratis. How can a Dharaṇa by any stretch of language be called a Karsha and how can a Purāṇa be supposed to denote the silver Kārshāpaṇa? Again, the weight which Manu has specified for Purāṇa is not a figment of the imagination, because many silver coins of 32 Ratis or of approximately 58 grains have been found.² Why then should Purāṇa have been looked upon as representing the silver Kārshāpaṇa, when it does not weigh one Karsha? This question must, therefore, confront us here. If we now refer to the chapter from Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra which gives an account of weights and upon which we drew just a while ago to prove that Suvarṇa was the gold Kārshāpaṇa, we find that he gives the specification of the weight of a Dharaṇa also, and what is most interesting is that this Dharaṇa is almost the same as Karsha. Thus according to Kauṭilya 88 Gaura-sarshapas or white mustard seeds equal one silver Māshaka and sixteen silver Māshakas equal one Dharaṇa. The question now is: What is the weight of a Gaura-sarshapa as compared to a Kṛiṣhṇala or Rati. Here Manu comes to our aid as he tells us that 18 Gaura-sarshapas make 1 Kṛiṣhṇala and 5 Kṛiṣhṇalas 1 Māshaka. A Māshaka is thus, according to Manu, equal to 90 Gaura-sarshapas, whereas it is equal to 88 according to Kauṭilya. This difference of two white mustard seeds is so insignificant that it is a negligible quantity, especially as a mustard seed of one province cannot possibly be of exactly the same weight as that of another. Thus the Dharaṇa of Kauṭilya practically comes to 80 Ratis, the weight of a Karsha. Further it is to be noted that he specifies also the smaller tokens of this silver money, for he speaks not only of silver Paṇas but also ½ Paṇas, ¼ Paṇas and ⅛ Paṇas.¹ No rational objection can therefore be raised to Dharaṇa of Kauṭilya’s description denoting the real silver Kārshāpaṇa. But here we are confronted with another question. If Dharaṇa was up till the time of Kauṭilya equal to one Karsha, why did it suffer a diminution shortly after as is clearly evinced by the actual specimens of Purāṇas we have obtained which weigh not 146 grains like a Karsha but 58 grains only? Those who have read Cunningham’s book entitled “Coins of Ancient India”¹ must be familiar with his remark that India produced little or no silver. Kauṭilya,² on the other hand, speaks of many varieties of silver, and in no place gives us the impression that it was scarce in his time. Is it possible that shortly after Kauṭilya the sources of producing silver in India began to fail and that consequently as silver became scarce and increased in value, the Purāṇa had to be diminished in weight?