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The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s9: IX. Medium of Exchange

The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s9

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IX. Medium of Exchange

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The use of minted metallic coins as the medium of exchange marks a big forward step in civilisation, especially in its economic aspect. The question as to when metallic coins were first introduced in Bengal is involved in obscurity. It is certain, however, that they were known and used several centuries before the commencement of the Christian era. This is proved by three concurrent pieces of evidence. In the first place, the Mahāsthān Brāhmī inscription mentions coins called gaṇḍaka, and probably also kākaṇika. The former has been explained as a small piece of coin of the value of four cowries, while the latter is referred to in the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya as a sub-multiple of the copper kārṣāpaṇa.¹ Secondly, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea records that a gold coin, known as caltis, was in vogue in the market-town of Gange (Tāmralipti?) at about the first century A.D.² But by far the most valuable evidence in this regard is furnished by the discovery of a large number of silver and copper punch-marked and cast coins, most of them dating back to the pre-Christian epoch. These have been found, sometimes in large number, in various localities of the province—in the neighbourhood of Berāchāmpā (24-Parganas),³ near Manda (Rajshahi),⁴ in the highland close to the river-bed at Tamluk,⁵ and at Wari-Bator (Dacca).⁶ There are good reasons to think that these punch-marked pieces represent the earliest coinage of Bengal, as perhaps also of many other provinces of India, and served for centuries the commercial needs of the people. The symbols punched on these coins are often similar to those found in other parts of India—a fact which shows that from very early times Bengal followed the main currents of general Indian economic life.

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¹ Arthaśāstra, tr. p. 95. For its relative place in the currency scheme of Kauṭilya cf. S. K. Chakrabortti, Ancient Indian Numismatics, p. 58.

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² Periplus. 47.

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³ ASI. 1922-23, p. 100.

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⁴ Ibid. 1930-34, p. 255.

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⁵ Ibid. 1921-22, p. 74.

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⁶ Annual Report of the Dacca Museum, 1935-36, p. 5.

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A few gold coins of the Kuṣāṇ kings have been discovered in Bengal;⁷ but there is nothing to show that they were used as medium of exchange within the province. They might have come by way of trade, along with pilgrims, or in the trail of an invading army. In the territory under the direct rule of the Kuṣāṇ emperors gold was linked up with copper, and it is significant that not a single copper coin, struck by any Kuṣāṇ king, has been discovered in Bengal.

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⁷ Supra p. 45.

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With the establishment of the Gupta empire, Bengal shared in the currency system introduced and maintained by that dynasty. The coinage of the Gupta monarchs was based essentially on gold and silver, though copper was not unknown. The discovery of a large number of Gupta coins, both of gold and silver, in almost every part of Bengal, shows that they came into fairly wide circulation within the province. Extant specimens prove that the earlier gold coins of the dynasty followed the standard of their Kushān prototypes, weighing about 122 grains; but from the time of Skandagupta onwards a deliberate attempt seems to have been made to revert to the old Hindu *suvarṇa* standard of 146.4 grains.¹ The silver coins of the Gupta monarchs show considerable variations in weight; but those circulating in the central and eastern provinces of the empire appear to have approximated the standard weight of silver *kārshāpaṇas*, i.e. 36 grains.²

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¹ This is only a general statement, and must not be taken too literally. For a detailed study of the metrology of the Gupta coins, see Allan, *Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasties* (1914), Introd. pp. cxxxi-cxxxv.

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Epigraphic records belonging to the Gupta period mention two varieties of coins, viz. the *dīnāra* and the *rūpaka*, as media of exchange in purchasing land. It is generally held that the former (derived from the Latin *denarius aureus*) denotes the gold, and the latter, the silver coins of the Gupta monarchs. Concerning the rate of exchange between the two, we get valuable information from the Baigrām Plate (*supra* p. 49). The epigraph records purchase of land at the price of 6 *dīnāras* for 3 *kulyavāpas* and 8 *rūpakas* for 2 *droṇavāpas* in area, the customary price in that locality being 2 *dīnāras* for each *kulyavāpa*. As already stated, one *kulyavāpa* was equivalent to 8 *droṇavāpas* in area. It is thus clear that the rate of exchange between the *dīnāra* and the *rūpaka* coins was 1:16.

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But this raises an intricate problem as to the rate of exchange between gold and silver in Eastern India about the middle of the 5th century A.D. It is not difficult to estimate the ratio of the two metals, if the weight of the gold and silver coins is definitely known. Extant specimens of the gold and silver coins of Kumāragupta, to whose reign the Baigrām Plate has to be assigned, show that the former varied in weight from 117.8 to 127.3 grains and the latter from 22.8 to 36.² grains. Taking the mean in each case, say 122 grains as the average weight of gold coins and 30 grains as the average weight of silver coins, and leaving out of consideration the percentage of alloy used in either case (of which there is no definite information), we have the formula of 480 grains of silver as equivalent to 122 of gold, and the relation between these numbers is approximately 4 to 1. Even if we take the view that the silver coins, which circulated in Eastern India, weighed 36 grains, the ratio of gold and silver would work out at 1:4.6.

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² Ibid. p. cxxxiv.

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This is, however, an extremely disconcerting position. From the Nāsik inscription of Ṛishabhadatta, dated 120 A.D., it has been estimated that in the second century A.D. the relative value of gold and silver in Western India was 1:10.¹ It is very probable that even in ancient times the rate of exchange between gold and silver did not vary greatly in different parts of India. If that were so, the question arises as to the cause of this tremendous fall in the value of gold in relation to silver in course of the next three centuries. Was it due to a sudden stoppage in the importation of silver, India having had to depend on foreign countries for the supply of that metal? Was this stoppage in any way connected with the break-up of the Roman empire in the fifth century A.D.? Or are we to infer that the term *dināra*, as used in contemporary documents, did not refer to the ordinary gold coins of the Gupta monarchs, but rather to those light-weight, debased gold coins, which are usually described as "Imitation Gupta" coins, and which have been found in such profuse number in different parts of Bengal?² These are problems which, in the present state of our knowledge, we are scarcely able to solve.

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¹ I have here followed Professor Rapson (CCBM. clxxxv) in preference to Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar (*Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics*, p. 192). The latter has worked out the ratio as 1:14; but his calculation is based on the theoretical standard of the Sanskrit classical works, not on the actual standard of coins in circulation.

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² Cf. *supra* pp. 52-53. The extant specimens of these coins vary in weight from 75 to 92.5 grains, and Dr. N. K. Bhattasali is probably right when he says that they were "struck on the 50 *rati* or half-*suvarna* standard, of a *rati* of about 1.9 grains, i.e. an original weight of about 95 grains" (*JASB*. N. S. 1923, p. 61). If we then allow for the very large percentage of alloy used in these coins, the rate of exchange between gold and silver may approximately work out at 1:8 or 1:9.

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Whatever may be the correct explanation of the relative value of gold and silver in the 5th century A.D., the immediate successors of the Gupta monarchs in Bengal, while adhering to the traditions of Gupta gold coinage, seem to have altogether given up the practice of minting silver coins. This is shown by the fact that while not a single silver coin of any of these rulers has yet been discovered, a number of gold coins bearing the legends of Śaśāṅka, Jaya(-nāga ?), Samāchā(radeva) and other kings³ have been found in different parts of Bengal. These coins, however, although conforming to the weight of the later Gupta gold coins (and consequently to that of Manu’s *suvarṇa*), are in most cases debased in metal content, and inferior in style and execution to those of their prototypes. The times were difficult; the forces of disruption were rampant on all sides; and the kings seem to have resorted to debasing their currency with a view to retaining as much gold in their own hands as possible. The process thus started seems to have been continued for several generations¹ till, by the operation of what is called the Gresham’s Law, gold coins wholly went out of circulation in Bengal.

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³ *Supra* pp. 53-54.

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¹ The unattributed “Imitation Gupta” gold coins are usually assigned to this period (*JASB. N. S. 1925*, pp. 1-6; *supra* pp. 52-53). Dr. N. K. Bhattasali says that among the coins of this type, discovered at Sabhar (near Dacca), at least three stages in the process of debasement can be easily discerned.

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It was probably during this period of monetary anarchy that cowries, which might have been in circulation even in earlier times,² established themselves as the only dependable medium of exchange in the province. A people, who had for centuries been accustomed to minted currency, could not be suddenly expected to revert to barter; and as the State failed to discharge its normal functions in the matter of coinage, and as the traditions of private coinage were long forgotten, there was hardly any alternative to the use of cowrie shells, which were known to have been in circulation about the same time in some other parts of India. When political stability was re-established in Bengal under the Pāla kings, an attempt appears to have been made to re-introduce minted currency. This is shown by the discovery of a few copper and silver coins, belonging to the Pāla period. Three copper coins of a “unique type showing a rather clumsily depicted bull on the obverse and three fish on the reverse” have been found at Pāhārpur, and these have been tentatively assigned to the early Pāla empire. Numbers of silver and copper coins of a second type have been found in Bengal and Bihar. From the legend “Śrī Vigra” on the obverse these are attributed to king Vigrahapāla, and are generally called Vigrahapāla-*dramma*, the term *dramma*, as a designation of coins, occurring in the Bodh-Gayā inscription of Dharmapāla (Pāla Ins. No. 1). V. A. Smith attributed the finer specimens of this type to Vigrahapāla I. and the debased ones to the second or third king of that name. K. N. Dikshit, however, thinks that the debased coins “may have been issued after the original by other rulers, not necessarily even of the Pāla dynasty.”³ But whatever view we might take of this, it seems from the extreme scarcity and the generally debased character of these coins that the attempt of the Pāla rulers to introduce a currency of their own was a faint-hearted one and was soon abandoned. When we think of the long rule of the Pāla dynasty and the extent of its kingdom, its lack of currency becomes an intriguing problem, almost a mystery, which cannot be solved at present. The mystery is still more deepened by the fact that gold coins seem to have been profusely used in the neighbouring province of Kāmarūpa (Assam) even during the Pāla period. For, according to the Silimpur inscription, assigned to the eleventh century A.D., a Brāhmaṇa of Varendrī was offered nine hundred gold coins by Jayapāla, a king of Kāmarūpa.¹

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² *Cf.* Fa-hien, p. 43.

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³ For the Pāla coins *cf.* *CCIM.* I. 238, 239. Pl. xxv. 10; *Supplementary CCIM.* 56-57; *ASI.* 1927-28, pp. 104-5, Pl. XLVIII(e); *Paharpur*. 19, 86, Pl. LVIII(g).

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¹ Dr. Basak who edited the inscription explains ‘hemnāṁ śatāni nava’ as nine hundred gold coins (EI. XIII. 292, 295), and this seems to be the natural interpretation.

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The copper-plate grants of the Sena kings refer to two coin-denominations, viz. purāṇa and kapardaka-purāṇa. They are usually mentioned in connection with the income from particular plots of land donated by kings. A comparative study of the grants would tend to show that the purāṇa and kapardaka-purāṇa were interchangeable terms, and not, as is usually supposed, the denominations of two different coins. It seems probable that the term kapardaka was prefixed to purāṇa so as to leave no room for doubt as to the identity of the coin specified, more or less in the same way as bhū was sometimes prefixed to pāṭaka and droṇa in order to make it clear that they were measures of space and not measures of weight.

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Two different considerations prove the validity of the above hypothesis. First, in some land-grants the income derived from particular plots of land is described in figures (e.g. 200 in the Edilpur Plate of Keśavasena; 500 in the Śaktipur Plate of Lakshmaṇasena; 627 in the Madanapāḍā Plate of Viśvarūpasena; 100, 60, 140, 50, 25, 25, 50, 50 in the Madhyapāḍā Plate of Viśvarūpasena, etc.) without reference to any coin-denomination. If there were two different coins circulating side by side, it is certain that one or the other would have been mentioned in connection with these figures. Secondly, it is well known that the purāṇa was a silver coin, weighing 32 ratis or 58 grains. Had the Sena kings minted silver coins of this or of any other weight, it is very probable that at least a few specimens would have come down to us. Curiously, however, not a single coin, which may be attributed to any Sena king, has yet been discovered. On the other hand, the testimony of Minhāj (supra p. 242) indicates that the Muhammadans, when they first came to Bengal, noticed no silver currency in the country but found the people using cowrie shells in economic transactions. When the king intended to make monetary gift, says the Muslim historian, “the least gift he used to confer was a lak of kauris.”¹

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¹ Nasiri. transl. p.

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It is clear, therefore, that under the Sena kings cowrie shells served as the medium of exchange in Bengal. What, then, is the meaning of the purāṇa or kapardaka-purāṇa so often mentioned in the Sena land-grants? Dr. Bhandarkar has suggested that it was a silver coin shaped like a kapardaka or cowrie.² The strongest argument against this view is that not a single coin of this type has been discovered here or elsewhere in India. The fabrication of such a coin was also difficult and would mark a sudden “retrogression in the evolution of coinage” in the country.³ More plausible is the hypothesis, set forth by Dr. S. K. Chakrabortti, that the kapardaka-purāṇa was not an actual coin, but a mere abstract unit of account; that is to say, it was the value of a purāṇa counted out in cowrie shells. In other words, “payments were made in cowries and a certain number of them came to be equated to the silver coin, the purāṇa, thus linking up all exchange transactions ultimately to silver, just as at present the rupee, the silver coin, is linked up to gold at a certain ratio.”⁴

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⁵⁵⁶ The Bengali Charyā-padas (supra pp. 383 ff.) refer to the use of kavadi (cowrie) and vodi (budi) (BGD. 26). There is nothing to be surprised at in the use of cowrie even in a commercially developed community, for, even as late as 1750 A.D., duties were collected in Calcutta in cowries and many bazar transactions were also in cowries (Wheeler, Early Records of British India, p. 223). ² Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics, pp. 139, 176. ³ IHQ. viii. 597. ⁴ Ibid. 599.

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BENGALIS OUTSIDE BENGAL

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No survey of the history and civilisation of the people of Bengal can be regarded as complete without some account of their activities outside the boundaries of their own province, both in and outside India. From very early times many sons of Bengal distinguished themselves in various spheres of life both in India and abroad. Apart from these individual instances, we must presume that Bengal, as an integral part of India, must have taken her due share in the various activities of the Indians, and contributed her quota to the general influence exercised by them, in the outside world. But it is not always easy to distinguish the part played in these respects by Bengal or any other region comprised within the great sub-continent of India. We propose, therefore, to touch briefly upon those incidents or episodes alone in which the Bengalis are specifically known to have taken the leading part.

Cites (5)