Indian Epigraphy c16.s8.30

c16.s8.30

Sometimes coins were named after their issuer and remained in circulation for centuries after their actual issue. Thus the Anjaneri plates¹ (709 A. D.) of Sendraka Bhogaśakti refer to the currency of the coins called Kṛṣṇarāja-rūpaka in Western India. The Kṛṣṇarāja-rūpaka was the silver coin issued by the Kalacuri king Kṛṣṇarāja who ruled in the second half of the 6th century A.D.² Similar is the case with the Ādivarāhadramma and Vigrahapāla-dramma which were respectively silver coins issued by the Partihāra king Bhoja I Ādivarāha (c. 836-85 A.D.) and bearing the legend śrīmad-Ādivarāha, and those issued by a certain Vigrahapāla.³ Similar names of coins issued by the Caulukyas of Gujarat are Bhīmapriya-dramma and Viśalapriya-viṃśopaka known from some inscriptions.⁵ The word dramma, found on certain copper coins issued by the Yaudheyas about the 3rd century A.D.,⁴ was derived from Greek drachma, its old Attic standard being 67.5 grains although the Indo-Greeks adopted the Persian siglos standard of 86.45 grains.⁶ Of the Muhammadan coin names Dirham and Dām, the first was derived from the Greek word and the second from its Indian form. Wilson’s Glossary mentions the Dirham as a silver coin weighing about 50 grains. The Akbarī Dām (old Dramma) was a copper coin, 40 of which made a silver Rūpia (Sanskrit rūpya, rūpyaka, i.e. Rupee) while 46⅓