The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.344

v1.c19.s9.344

But for the ordinary mechanism of exchange we find, in that and all early Buddhist literature, the worth of every marketable commodity, from that of a dead mouse and a day at the festival up to all kinds of prices, fees, pensions, fines, loans, stored treasure, and income, stated in figures of a certain coin, or its fractions¹⁶. This is either stated, or implied to be, the *kahāpaṇa*. Of the coins called *purāṇas* this literature knows nothing. Other current instruments of exchange are the ancient *nikkha* (*nishka*—a gold coin, originally a gold ornament)¹⁷, the *suvaṇṇa*, also of gold, and such bronze or copper tokens as the *kaṃsa*, the *pāda*, the *māsaka* (*māsha*), and the *kākaṇikā*. Cowry shells (*sippikāni*) are once mentioned¹, but only as we should speak of doits or mites, not as anything still having currency.