Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c8.77.3

c8.77.3

Kuri means a pit or grave, and pāṇḍu denotes anything connected with the Pāṇḍus, to whom all over India ancient mysterious structures are attributed." It will thus be seen that quite in consonance with the indisputable fact that pre-historic signs are found on the Kārshāpaṇas is the other fact, equally indisputable, that they have been picked up also from the pre-historic cairns. I have repeatedly remarked that pre-historic archæology of India is yet in its infancy, but even taking the most unfavourable estimate of the age of these monuments, the Pāṇḍu-kuṛis, I am afraid, cannot possibly be placed later than 1500 B. C. In these circumstances the introduction of the Kārshāpaṇa coinage must be attributed to about the beginning of the second millenium before Christ. Cunningham who had far deeper insight into the age and nature of the ancient monuments of India than any of his successors was disposed to date these coins as early as 1000 B. C., but Smith thought this estimate to be certainly "much in excess of the truth" because his mind was obsessed with the idea that coinage began with the Lydians about 700 B. C. and that consequently there could be no coined money in India prior to that date.