Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c21.27

c21.27

§ 54. Purī and Ganjam. — Numerous specimens of a peculiar class of bronze coins have been found in the Purī District of Orissa and in the neighbouring District of Ganjam in the Madras Presidency. They bear no inscriptions; but their types are evidently borrowed from those of the bronze Kuṣaṇa coins of the time of Kaniṣka (§ 73) — *viz.* standing figure of the king on *obv.*, and the figure of some deity on *rev.* In the case of the chief recorded discovery of these coins in the Purī District, they were found in company with bronze Kuṣaṇa coins struck in the ordinary manner. From this it would seem probable that the two classes — the struck originals and the cast imitations — were in circulation at the same time. It appears, however, to be a fact, that Kuṣaṇa coins are not, as a rule, found so far east or south of India as Purī and Ganjam; and it has been suggested that their occurrence in these districts may be due to pilgrims who brought them from a distance as offerings at the shrines of Purī. It is, therefore, possible that the cast imitations in question may have been made for the same purpose, and that they should be regarded not as coins, but, like the *Rāma-*