India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s6.20

c9.s6.20

*Śāṇa*. Pāṇini refers to a range of prices in terms of *śāṇa* coins, such as 1½ *śāṇa* (*Sāṇād-vā*, V.¹.35, *adhyardhaśāṇam*, *adhyardha-śāṇyam*), 2 *śāṇas* (*dvi-śāṇam*, *dvaiśāṇam*, *dvi-śāṇyam*), and 3 *śāṇas* (*tri-śāṇam*, *traiśāṇam*, *tri-śāṇam*, V.1.36), to which Patañjali adds *pañcha-śāṇam* and *pañcha-śāṇyam* (*Bhāshya*, II.350). This shows *śāṇa* to have been quite a popular coin. Pāṇini also mentions *śāṇa* as a *parimāṇa*, i.e. weight (*Parimāṇāntasyāsaṁjñā-śāṇayoḥ*, VII. 3. 17), but such examples as *dvai-śāṇa*, purchased for 2 *śāṇas*, show that it was the name of a coin. Charaka refers to *śāṇa* as a weight equal to one-fourth of a *suvarṇa* or *karsha*, *i.e.* 20 *rattis*. This may have been a gold *śāṇa* of which we are not certain. But *śāṇa* as a real silver coin was one-eighth of one *śatamāna* as stated positively in the *Mahābhārata* (*ashṭau śāṇāḥ śatamānaṁ vahanti*, Āraṇyakaparva, 134.14); its weight therefore was 12½ *rattis* or 22.5 grs. (Cf. *J. N. S. I.*, XIV, pp. 22-26).