Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c8.90

c8.90

But perhaps the most complicated point we have to tackle in connection with this type of coinage is the weight of the Kārshāpaṇa and its smaller tokens. This weight problem I will place before you in a few words. Take first the weight of the copper Kārshāpaṇa. It weighs, we have seen, approximately, 146·4 grains. But, as a matter of fact, the Kārshāpaṇas of all provinces do not strictly conform to this weight; e.g., among the various coins picked up by me in the Besnagar excavations the Kārshāpaṇa weighs 147·5 grains.¹ I admit it is quite possible to explain this small difference of weight by saying that the Ratikā or Guñjā seeds of the different provinces, like any other seeds, cannot be of exactly the same weight, and that this insignificant difference of 2 or 3 grains is, therefore, permissible. But take another case which, I am afraid, cannot be made explicable in this way. If the Kārshāpaṇa weighed 147·5 grains at Besnagar, the Ardha-Kārshāpaṇa must have weighed about 74 grains. But between these weights of the full and half Kārshāpaṇas, i.e., between 147 and 74 grains, we have coins found at Besnagar itself which weigh 136, 114, 111·5 and 107 grains.² What could be the denomination of these four coins? Are we to imagine that there was also a ¾th Kārshāpaṇa? In that case it is true it would weigh approximately 111 grains, and among the four coins whose weights have just been mentioned there is no doubt one which weighs 111·5 grains. And there is nothing to preclude us from supposing that it represents the 3/4th Kārshāpaṇa. But what about the remaining three? Their denomination cannot possibly be explained away similarly, because their weights are far removed from those of the 1/1, 3/4th and 1/2 Kārshāpaṇas. Again, it is not the copper Kārshāpaṇas only that present this difficulty. The silver Kārshāpaṇas, or Purāṇas as they are called, give rise to the same problem. Of course, we shall not here take for our consideration any promiscuous group of Purāṇas coming from different places. But we will restrict ourselves only to those which have been discovered at one single place just as in the case of copper Kārshāpaṇas we consider only those that were found at Besnagar. Let us therefore confine ourselves, e.g., to the Peshāwar hoard of Purāṇas which was reported upon by Dr. Spooner. The accepted weight of a silver Kārshāpaṇa is 58·56 grains. The weight of a half Purāṇa must therefore come to 29·28. There is really no specimen of the half Purāṇa or lower denomination in this hoard. The lowest weight to which some of these Purāṇas conform is 42·09 which is far removed from 29·28, the weight of the half Purāṇa and which cannot thus be identified with that denomination.