[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922) › v1.c19.s9.335 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.335 The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.335 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c19.s9.335](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.335) The ‘sample’ mentioned above is suggestive of a surviving payment made in kind. That the ancient systems of barter and of reckoning values by cows or by rice-measures had for the most part been replaced by the use of a metal currency, carrying well understood and generally accepted exchange value, is attested by the earliest Buddhist literature. Barter emerges in certain contingencies⁸, as e.g. when a wanderer obtains a meal from a woodlander for a gold pin⁹, or when among humble folk a dog is bought for a \*kahāpaṇa\* (\*kārshāpaṇa\*) \*plus\* a cloak¹⁰. Barter was also permitted in special commodities by the law-books ascribed to Gautama¹¹ and Vasishṭha¹², and was prescribed in certain cases for the \*Saṅgha\*¹³, to whom the use of money was forbidden¹⁴. Moreover, as a standard of value, it is possible that rice was still used when the Jātaka-book was compiled¹⁵. - [Previous: v1.c19.s9.334](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.334) - [Next: v1.c19.s9.336](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.336) - [Up: v1.c19.s9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.335](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s9.335) · Pramāṇa