Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c9.10

c9.10

I have already informed you that *rūpa* in the sense of ‘coins’ occurs in Kauṭilya’s *Arthaśāstra*. I have referred to the words *rūpya-rūpa* and *tāmra-rūpa* which he employs and which can mean ‘silver and copper coins’ only. I have also referred to an officer called Rūpadarśaka by him whose duty was to examine coins whether in circulation or brought to the royal treasury. To the period when Kauṭilya lived has been assigned Kātyāyana the grammarian, who composed vārtikas on Pāṇini’s sūtras. In his gloss on Pāṇini’s sūtra I. 4.52, Kātyāyana gives a vārtika which Patañjali illustrates by: paśyati Rūpatarkaḥ Kārṣāpaṇaṃ darśayati Rūpatarkaṃ Kārṣāpaṇam. What exact bearing this example has upon the sūtra and the vārtika need not trouble us here. It is sufficient for our purpose if we understand the meaning of the words as they stand. They mean: “a Rūpatarka examines a Kārṣāpaṇa, and (he) causes a Rūpatarka to examine a Kārṣāpaṇa.” Here the inspection of a coin called Kārṣāpaṇa is associated with a Rūpatarka, and it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Rūpatarka of Patañjali is identical with the Rūpadarśaka of Kauṭilya. It will thus be seen that rūpa in the sense of a ‘coin’ was known not only in the time of Kauṭilya but also Patañjali. If the term rūpa signifying a ‘coin’ was current from the time of Kauṭilya to that of Patañjali, there is nothing strange in our finding the word used in the early Pāli scriptures of the Buddhists. One instance will suffice here. About a century after the death of Buddha, the venerable Yaśa, while touring, once came to Vesāli and was staying with the Vajjian Bhikshus. One Uposatha day he was shocked to find the Bhikshus filling a copper-pot with water and placing it in the midst of the Saṃgha and saying to their lay-disciples: ‘Give sirs, to the Saṃgha One, One-half, or One-fourth, Kārshāpaṇa, or a Māshaka-rūpa.’¹ Here the word rūpa obviously signifies ‘a coin,’ and the Māshaka-rūpa denotes a token coin of Kārshāpaṇa known as Māshaka, as I have shown in the last lecture. This import of the term rūpa survived to a very late period, though it was by no means much in vogue after the beginning of the Christian era.² Thus the word rūpa or rather rūpaka occurs in the Rāja-taraṅgiṇī,³ where in the sixth book a Brāhmaṇ is represented as telling to King Yaśaskara a pitiful tale of the loss of his money. This money, we are told, consisted of one hundred suvarṇa-rūpakas, which Sir Aurel Stein has rightly translated by ‘gold coins,’ and the same hoard is thrice referred to again as rūpakas. Rāja-taraṅgiṇī is not the only work of the late period which contains the word rūpaka with the meaning of ‘a coin.’ It has been traced, e.g., also in the Kathāsarit-sāgara,⁴ where in one place the Dīnāras have been referred to as svarṇa-rūpakas, or gold coins.