India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s6.16

c9.s6.16

3. *Suvarṇa-Māshaka*. The *māsha* coin in gold and copper weighed 5 *rattis* and in silver 2 *rattis* (*cf.* A. I. N., p. 52; *Arth.* II. 18. p. 103). Specimens of silver and copper *māshas* are known, but *suvarṇa-māshaka* occurs only in litetrature. The *Udaya Jātaka* mentions a golden dish with *suvarṇa-māshakas*, a silver dish with the same, and a copper dish with silver *kahāpaṇas*, the three being mentioned in order of their diminishing value (*suvaṇṇa-māsaka-pūraṁ ekāṁ suvaṇṇa-pātiṁ, Udaya Jātaka*, IV. 106-8). A silver *kārshāpaṇa* (32 *rattis*) was thus lower in value than a gold *māshaka* (5 *rattis*). Gold and silver were thus related in the ratio of about one to seven in the period of the *Jātakas*.