India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s6.t1.12

c9.s6.t1.12

COPPER CURRENCY—The copper *māsha* was a sub-multiple of the copper *kārshāpaṇa* and weighed 5 *rattis*, i.e. one-sixteenth of a *tāmrika-paṇa* of 80 *rattis*. The *kārshāpaṇa* was the standard unit of both silver and copper currencies similar to the *suvarṇa* of the gold currency. Its lower divisions in the copper series were *ardha-māshaka*, *kākaṇī* and *ardha-kākaṇī* according to Kauṭilya. Pāṇini refers to *adhyardha-māsha* in *sūtra* V. 1. 34, *i.e.* one and a half *māsha*, which shows his acquaintance with an actual coin called *ardha-māsha*. This *ardha-māsha* was a copper coin.¹ The *aḍḍha-māsaka* coin is referred to in the *Jātakas* (*Aḍḍhamāsaka Jāt.*).