Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c8.46

c8.46

We thus see that the old Kārshāpaṇa, which is so frequently mentioned in the early Buddhist literature and Hindu law-books, can be recognised at least in the punch-marked coins from among the specimens found of the ancient coinage of India. Unfortunately no gold coins conforming to the Hindu metrological standard have been discovered of a period prior to the Gupta supremacy. But, so far as the silver or copper Kārshāpaṇa is concerned, there can be no reasonable doubt as to the punch-marked coins being among those intended. It, therefore, seems necessary now to say something more about these punch-marked coins in order that you may obtain a clearer idea of the Kārshāpaṇa. If Kārshāpaṇa, as we have perceived, represents the standard money of any province, whether it be gold, silver or even copper, it stands to reason that the punch-marked coins which have been identified with them must be found all over India. Is this a fact? I have just told you that no gold coins of a Hindu dynasty have been discovered of a period anterior to the Guptas. No wonder if gold Kārshāpaṇas have not yet been identified. But what of the silver or copper Kārshāpaṇas, you may ask. I will, therefore, quote the testimony of two celebrated numismatists to show you over what wide area the punch-marked coins are found. "These silver punch-marked coins," says Cunningham, "are found all over India, from Kabul to the mouth of the Ganges, and from the Himalaya Mountains to Cape Comorin. There were 200 specimens in the South Indian collection of Mackenzie, 500 in Masson's Kabul collections, 373 in Stacy's North Indian collection, 227 in the British Museum. About 2000 have passed through my hands, and altogether I have seen between 4000 and 5000 specimens." Another numismatist, E. Thomas, makes the following remarks in regard to the range of the distribution of the Kārshāpaṇa coins. "The silver pieces of this class,” says he, “the *purāṇas* of the Law-books, are found in unusual numbers, and over almost the entire length and breadth of Hindústán,—starting from the banks of the sacred Sarasvatí—to a crypt formed by nature, eighteen feet below the soil which now covers the inhumed city of ancient Behat—down the course of the Ganges to the sea, encircling the eastern and western coasts, and taking refuge even in the “Kist-vaens” of the extinct races of the Dakhin.”¹ These quotations will give you an exact idea of the range of the circulation of the punch-marked coins. Of course, copper punch-marked coins also have been found, but they are comparatively few. Copper is a more perishable metal than silver. Copper coins, again, are more apt to be melted down into domestic utensils. Besides, it is quite possible that in the ancient period represented by the punch-marked coins, the standard issue was generally silver Kārshāpaṇa, occasionally copper and rarely gold Kārshāpaṇa. This may explain the proportionate paucity of the copper and gold, as compared to the silver, Kārshāpaṇas found in India.