Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c18: III. Early Foreign Coins in India
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c18
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III. Early Foreign Coins in India
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§ 7. Early Persian Coins. — During the period of Achaemenid rule (c. 500—331, B.C.) *Persian* coins circulated in the Panjab. Gold double *staters* (**Plate I, 5**) were actually struck in India, probably in the latter half of the 4^th cent. B.C. (E. BABELON, Les Perses Achéménides, pp. xi. xx. 16, Pl. II, 16—19, and 27). Many of the silver *sigloi*, moreover, bear counter-marks so similar to the native punch-marks as to make it seem probable that the two classes of coins were in circulation together (**Plate I, 3**), and this probability is increased by the occurrence on sigloi of characters which have been read as Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī letters (**Plate I, 4**).
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BÜHLER, Indian Studies III^2, p. 113; RAPSON, JRAS. 1895, p. 865. BABELON, op. cit. p. XI, attributes these countermarks to other provinces of Asia.
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§ 8. Early Persian standard. — As a result of the Persian occupation is probably to be regarded the establishment in the Panjab of a weight-system apparently derived from the Persian (siglos = 86,45 grs., or 5,601 grms.), which was subsequently used in the coinages of nearly all the Greek princes.
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GARD. p. lxviii; C.NChr. 1888, p. 216, explains this change of standard as due to an alteration in the relative value of gold and silver; VON SALLET also, ZfN. 1879, p. 193, regards the new standard as reduced from the Attic.
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§ 9. Athenian coins. — At an early period, the *owls* of Athens were carried in the course of commerce to the East; and, when the supply from the Athenian mint grew less (i. e. for about a century before B.C. 322, when the mint was closed) imitations were made in N. India. Some of these are merely attempts to faithfully reproduce the originals (**Plate I, 6**); others, probably somewhat later in date, substitute for the owl on the reverse an eagle (**Plate I, 7**). From the latter class, the coins of Sophytes (v. inf. § 11), who, at the time of Alexander's invasion (326 B.C.) ruled over a district on the banks of the Acesines, seem to be copied (**Plate I, 8**).
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HEAD, Catalogue of Greek Coins in the Brit. Mus., Attica, pp. xxxi. xxxii, Athens, nos. 267—276a, Pl. VII, 3—10; GARDNER, NChr. 1880, p. 191, Pl. X, 5. 6. Cp. also C.NChr. 1866, p. 220; GARD. p. xix.
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§ 10. Alexander's coins. — It is probable that certain copper coins of square Indian form, bearing the name ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, were struck in India by Alexander the Great.
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*Gard.* p. xviii. Dannenberg who first noticed these coins attributed them to Bactria, *von Sallet*, ZfN. 1879, p. 285, Pl. IV, 1.
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§ 11. Indian relations with the Seleucids. — From the date of the eastern expedition of Seleucus and his alliance with Candragupta in b.c. 306 (Appian, Syr. 55), a constant intercourse was maintained between the Seleucid kingdom of Syria and the Maurya kingdom of N.India, as is shown by the Seleucid embassies established under Megasthenes and Daimachus at the court of Pāṭaliputra, and by the mention of Greek kings in Aśoka's inscriptions (L.IA. II, p. 241). The adoption of the elephant as a type on Seleucid coins, and the similarity between certain coins of Seleucus (e. g. Babelon, Rois de Syrie, Pl. I, 15) and those of Sophytes, are no doubt due to this intercourse.
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It has been generally assumed (e. g. *Gard.* p. xx) that the coins of Sophytes were copied from those of Seleucus; but the opposite may have been the case, or, perhaps, both of these classes may have been derived from the same originals — the imitations of Athenian coins made in India (v. s. § 9). For Sophytes, v. C.JBA. 1865, p. 46; NChr. 1866, p. 220; Geog. Ind. p. 157; *von Sallet*, ZfN. 1879, p. 285, Pl. IV, 2; *Gard.* pp. xix. 2, Pl. I, 3; *Sylvain Lévi*, JA. 1890 (XV), p. 237. Cp. also NChr. 1893, p. 101; Proc. BA. 1867, p. 106; Rev. Num. 1890, p. 496; ZfN. 1883, p. 2, Pl. I, 1.
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§ 12. Graeco-Bactrian influence. — But, until the beginning of the 2nd cent. b.c., no extensive modification of the native Indian coinage had been caused by foreign influence. It was from the kingdom of Bactria, established by Diodotus (**Plate I, 9**), who revolted from the Seleucid sovereign Antiochus II, c. b.c. 248, that there came eventually the influence which completely changed the form and character of the coinage of N.W.India (v. inf. § 18).
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§ 13. Parthian influence. — Parthian characteristics, due no doubt to the contact between Parthians and Śakas in Bactria, are found in the Saka coinages of India, the earliest of which — those of Maues — belong to the latter half of the 2nd cent. b.c. (v. inf. § 29). The dynasty of Vonones, which seems to have exercised a sort of suzerainty over the successors of Maues in the 1st cent. b.c., is very probably Parthian in origin (v. inf. § 30). The later dynasty of Gondophares in the 1st cent. a.d. is certainly Parthian (v. inf. § 61).
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§ 14. Roman coins, dating from the beginning of the empire onwards are found in great numbers in many parts of India both north and south (v. inf. §§ 69. 123).
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§ 15. Roman influence. — With regard to their influence on Indian coinages, two points at least seem clear — (1) the head on the Kuṣana copper coins bearing the name Kozola Kadaphes is directly imitated from the head of Augustus (v. inf. § 66); (2) the gold coinage of the Kuṣanas follows a weight-standard identical with the Roman (v. inf. § 70).
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§ 16. Sassanian influence. — The result of intercourse between the Sassanian monarchy of Persia and the Kuṣana kingdom of Kabul, during the period from c. a.d. 300 to 450, is shown by a class of coins struck in the Oxus territory and known as Scytho-Sassanian — a class which is of great chronological importance from the fact that most of the issues can be attributed
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AR. II (1790), p. 331; C.ASR. II, p. 162; XIII, p. 72; JBA. 1 (1832), pp. 392. 476; 1834, pp. 562. 635; 1851, p. 371; Proc. BA. 1879, pp. 77. 122. 205. 210; 1880, p. 118; 1886, p. 86; NChr. 1843 (V), p. 202; 1843 (VI), pp. 111. 160; 1891, p. 199; PE. I, p. 148.
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to the different Sassanian monarchs who reigned within these limits (v. inf. § 75). There is also further evidence of relations between Persia and India during the reign of Varahrān V, A.D. 420—438 (DROUIN, HE. p. 24, from the Muséon 1895). But the most extensive importation of Sassanian coins into India was due to the invasion of the Hūṇas (last quarter of the 5^th cent. A.D.), who brought with them the proceeds of the plunder of Sassanian treasuries. Some of the coins thus introduced were restruck in repoussé by the Hūṇas (v. inf. § 104); others no doubt were used as currency with little or no modification and formed the patterns from which subsequent Hūṇa and also other Indian coinages were copied (v. inf. § 105). In this manner the Sassanian type of coin — *Obv.* King's Head: *Rev.* Fire-Altar — became firmly established in certain parts of India, and continued to be used during several centuries (v. inf. § 122). During the 7^th cent. also, as is proved by the coins, Sassanian kingdoms existed in Multan and Sind (v. inf. § 109).