Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c9.20.1

c9.20.1

We thus see that *rūpa* and *rūpya* both mean coined money, and that both the words were prevalent at the same time. If *rūpya* signified any metal piece on which a *rūpa* was stamped, the question naturally arises: how is it that both these words of which one is a derivative of the other were being used in one and the same period? Has this strange phenomenon any foundation in fact? In other words, were there any pieces of coined money which were so shaped that they were the *rūpas*, *i.e.* figures or representations of any real objects, and was there again another kind of coined money in circulation which consisted of metallic pieces, not shaped like, but impressed with, these *rūpas*? If for any unknown reasons evidence of this nature is not forthcoming from India, is it supplied by the pre-historic or historic archæology of countries outside India? This is the question that now confronts us. In fact, this was the question that confronted me when I was engaged upon the study of numismatics for these lectures. As Mr. Panchanan Mitra is the Lecturer of this University on pre-historic archæology, naturally I turned to him for discussion of this subject as I did in the question of the origin of the Brāhmī alphabet on which I lectured to you last year; and he was able to draw my attention to the researches of Prof. Ridgeway who has familiarised the antiquarian world by bringing the anthropological method to bear upon the interpretation of ancient history, especially, of Greece.