India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s6.10

c9.s6.10

*Nishka* as a gold coin also seems to have had its submultiples. Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar suggested that the 20,000 *pādas* offered by king Janaka as prize to the most learned Brāhmaṇa in the assembly of philosophers were gold coins related to *nishka* (*A. I. N.*, p. 60). He also supposed that this *pāda* coin was the same as that referred to in Pāṇini's *sūtra Paṇa-pāda-māsha-śatādyat*, V. 1. 34. While it is likely that king Janaka offered gold pieces called *pāda* as *dakshiṇā* it is not certain if *pāda* of *sūtra* V. 1. 34 was a token coin of the gold *nishka*. From its juxtaposition with *paṇa* it may as well have been related to the silver *kārshāpaṇa*, in which series it is mentioned by Kauṭilya (*Arth.* II. 12, p. 84). The submultiple *pāda* coin of *nishka*, however, did exist, as Patañjali refers to it as *pannishka* and *pāda-nishka* (*Nishke chopsaṅkhyānaṁ kartayam, sūtra* VI. 3. 56; III. 163, '*pāda* optionally becomes *pad* before *nishka*'). Manu defines *nishka* as equal in weight to four *suvarṇas* or 320 *rattis* (*chatuḥ-sauvarṇiko nishkaḥ, Manu*, VIII. 137). This would make a *pādanishka* synonymous with *suvarṇa*, but since no specimens of either the *nishka* or *suvarṇa* have yet come to light, it is not possible to indicate their relative weights. The *Kāśikā* instances *nishka-mālā* (VI. 2. 55), a necklace of *nishkas*, as indicative of wealth in coins (*hiraṇya-parimāṇa*).