Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c8.62

c8.62

(3) animals; (4) trees, branches and fruit; (5) symbols connected with solar, planetary or Śivite worship; and (6) miscellaneous and unknown. But this classification, I am afraid, is as good as nothing, for what is gained by our being told that one group of devices is human figures; another, animals; a third, trees, and so forth? What we should like to know is the significance of the human figures, or animals such as the elephant or horse, that we find punched on the Kārshāpaṇas. Elsewhere,¹ in this connection, I have remarked that one set of symbols is certainly the seven *ratnas* or treasures, the possession of which constitutes paramount sovereignty. These have been described *e.g.*, in the *Mahā-sudassana-sutta*. They are (1) *chakra* or wheel, (2) *hastin* or elephant, (3) *aśva* or horse, (4) *maṇi* or gem, (5) *strī* or woman, (6) *grihapati* or treasurer, and (7) *pariṇāyaka* or counsellor.² All these symbols can be easily recognised on the Kārshāpaṇas, and their presence is quite natural and intelligible on coins which are indicative of sovereignty. In the same paper where I identified these devices I have thrown out a hint that another group of signs on these coins must consist of auspicious symbols and that some of them are certainly those met with in old cave inscriptions which begin or end with them. But no scholar seems to have yet worked in this direction.