Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c9.38

c9.38

We have already seen on the authority of Buddhaghosha that there were some coins, *viz.* the Māshakas, which were made of wood, bamboo, palm-leaf, and even lac, and impressed with a *rūpa*. He further tells us that there were also pieces of bone and leather or fruits and seeds of trees which passed for money and which were with or without a *rūpa*. As all these substances are of a perishable nature, it is not surprising that these varieties of money have not been preserved. Prof. Rhys Davids has, however, drawn our attention to a lacquer medal which was in the possession of Col. Pearse, and says that it may represent the lacquer Māshaka coin referred to by Buddhaghosha.¹ Which of these substances, and up to what periods, were employed for the purposes of money is a subject which has not yet been properly investigated. It is nevertheless a subject on which investigation not only is possible but also will be of an interesting nature. I may here give one instance. Among the multifarious objects out of which, as Buddhaghosha informs us, money was made, is *chamma*, *i.e.* leather. As leather is a perishable substance, no specimens of leather-money which were in circulation for any length of time can be expected to be found anywhere now, and, as a matter of fact, none has yet been found. Again, *primâ facie*, leather is a substance which seems so unfit for the purposes of coinage that having not yet discovered any single leather-coin,² one begins to suspect whether Buddhaghosha, after all, was not drawing upon his imagination. But we have good evidence to show that there was some kind of leather-money actually prevalent in Mahārāṣṭra in the thirteenth century A.D., *i.e.* full eight hundred years even after Buddhaghosha. Some of you may have heard of the earliest poet-saint of Mahārāṣṭra called Jñānadeva. He composed his Marāṭhī commentary on the Bhagavadgītā in Śaka 1212 = 1290 A.D., when the Yādava king Rāmacandra was ruling over the Dekkan. In his commentary on Chapter IX of the Divine Lay there are two Ovī verses which are worth considering and which I translate here as literally as possible. "If but the letters of the royal order are on a scrap of leather, through that very leather are all commodities obtainable (v. 453). Even gold and silver have no value without those letters. The royal order is the principal thing. If a single leather piece of that kind is obtained, all things become purchasable (v. 454)." I have thus placed a literal translation before you. And I have done so purposely, because I myself do not know what exact conclusion to draw from it. Of course, we have here a clear reference to leather-money, but whether it is leather-coins or currency notes I confess I am unable to determine.