The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.s1: Athenian and Macedonian Coins in India
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.s1
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Athenian and Macedonian Coins in India
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It is difficult to say how far the currency of India was immediately affected by Alexander's conquest. In the end, of course, it must have been profoundly modified by the disappearance of the Persian *sigloi*, the issue of which did not long survive the overthrow of Darius III, as well as by the stimulus which native art undoubtedly received as a result of the Greek invasion. But the change did not come all at once, and the task of determining the exact course that events followed is rendered virtually impossible by the lack of trustworthy evidence. It is, indeed, often stated that India was one of the many quarters of the ancient world into which the silver tetradrachms of Athens made their way, and also that imitations of Athenian coins are found from time to time in the Punjab. If these statements could be confirmed, they would furnish at least one definite clue. A demand for local copies would only arise when the supply of originals ran short, and such a shortage could most readily be accounted for by connecting it with the paralysis that overtook the Athenian mint when the city was finally crushed beneath the heel of Macedon. Indian imitations might, therefore, be assigned with reasonable confidence to the period of Macedonian supremacy. As a matter of fact, however, enquiry has failed to bring to light any trustworthy records of the actual discovery of 'owls' in India, while the imitations acquired by the British Museum at Rāwalpindi appear to have been brought without exception from the northern side of the frontier and thus to be of Central Asian, rather than of Indian, origin. Precisely the same difficulty besets any attempt to establish an intimate connexion between India itself and those coins of a Macedonian character which are usually described as being of Indian provenance; in all definitely ascertained cases the 'find-spot' lies beyond the Hindu Kush. Nevertheless, as fresh testimony may at any moment emerge, it seems desirable to enumerate briefly the more important of the issues concerned.
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The imitations of Athenian tetradrachms fall into two distinct groups. The first of these (Pl. I, 7) approximates fairly closely to the original model. One variety, however,—represented both in the Bodleian and in the British Museum (Pl. I, 8)—reads, not ΑΘΕ, but ΑΙΓ, which Head interprets as perhaps referring to the Aigloi, whom Herodotus (III, 92) mentions as dwelling to the north of the Bactrians. The second group (Pl. I, 9, 10) is characterised by a softer style, by the presence of the monogram Ṃ, and by the use of a bunch of grapes as a symbol. The difference between the two is emphasised by the fact that, whereas the dies from which coins belonging to the first are struck have lain at all conceivable angles relatively to one another, the types of the coins belonging to the second are adjusted (↑↓) with a nicety which points to the employment of a hinge or of some equally effective mechanical contrivance. Further, while the first group appears to consist solely of tetradrachms, the second includes also didrachms and drachms (Pl. I, 11, 12). These smaller denominations are remarkable in that they are not minted, like the tetradrachms, on the Attic standard, which has a maximum weight of 67·5 grains (4·37 grammes) to the drachm, but on a standard in which the drachm seems to have weighed at the outside no more than 58 grains (3·75 grammes). In this and other respects they link themselves naturally to a set of drachms and diobols which are struck from regularly adjusted dies (↑↓), but in which the place of the Athenian owl is taken by an eagle, looking backwards (Pl. I, 13). On the drachms and diobols just referred to, the bunch of grapes still figures as a symbol. In one instance it is accompanied by a caduceus.
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Some ground for thinking that at least the smaller Athenian imitations were not unfamiliar in the north of India is furnished by a notable series of silver drachms of Attic weight (Pl. I, 17), for the actual finding of which in the Punjab General Cunningham is able to vouch. They are struck from regularly adjusted dies (↑↓), and these dies have been cut by a Greek artist who signs himself M or MN. The obverse shows the head of a warrior wearing a close-fitting helmet, wreathed with olive, while the reverse has a cock standing to right with a caduceus behind. The legend is ΣΩ. Apart from the circumstance that a unique trihemiobol in the Berlin Museum has the head of Athena, instead of that of a warrior, the coins leave a general impression of having been designed after an Athenian prototype. This and the absence of a royal title go to indicate a date not long subsequent to Alexander's expedition, a conclusion which in its turn fits in well with the current interpretation of the inscription. Sophytes (Saubhūti) has been by universal consent identified with the Sopeithes of Arrian (VI, 2, 2) and Strabo (xv, 699). If this view is right, his coins may be regarded as a very direct memorial of Greek influence in India.
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A few coins with the name of Alexander himself have also been classed as Indian. Thus a bronze piece, not distinguishable from his ordinary issues except that it is of squarish shape, has for many years been tacitly accepted as proof that the conqueror issued money of his own in India, conforming so far to local custom as to adopt the native fashion of striking the coins on blanks cut from oblong strips or bars. But the piece, which is now in Berlin, stands absolutely alone. Beyond the shape, there is not a particle of evidence to suggest association with the East. And closer scrutiny points to the shape being no more than an accidental freak, the result of awkward handling by some workman at a Western mint¹. A group of silver tetradrachms deserves more serious consideration. They have on the obverse a head of Zeus, and on the reverse an eagle on a thunderbolt, accompanied by the legend A (Pl. I, 14). The types are Macedonian, and the coins were long believed to be European and to represent Alexander's earliest mintage. There can, however, be little doubt that Head is right in claiming them for the East. The significance of the symbol in the field, which he was the first to recognise as a satrapal tiara, is unmistakable. Again, the only specimen whose history is known, came from Rāwalpindi, while a diobol of similar types is said to have been in the hands of a dealer in Tashkand in 1906. Finally, although the die-positions are irregular, there are points of contact with the second group of Athenian imitations described above. To say nothing of the eagle with reverted head, certain subsidiary symbols—an olive-spray with leaves and berry, and a vine-branch with grapes—are common to both; and both are apparently struck on the same abnormal standard, the average weight of three of the Macedonian tetradrachms being 217·5 grains (14·09 grammes). But, if the coins in question are Eastern, it does not follow that they are Indian. On the contrary, the evidence of provenance, slight though it be, is all in favour of Central Asia. And so, too, is that of the peculiar weight standard. When this standard next emerges in that quarter of the world, it is among coins struck by Antiochus I during his viceroyalty or, in other words, after Seleucus Nicator had formally renounced his pretensions to the Punjab as part of his bargain with Chandragupta. The inference is that the district whose needs tetradrachms of the sort were meant to meet, lay beyond the confines of India.
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¹ This is the emphatic opinion of Prof. Regling, who has been good enough to examine the original carefully. His view is fully borne out by a cast which he has kindly supplied.
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None of the pieces we have been discussing bear the King's title. Both title and name (βασιλέως Ἀλεξάνδρου) have, however, been read into the monogram [Figure:], which occurs on an extraordinary silver decadrachm of Attic weight, now in the British Museum (Pl. I, 16). The obverse type is a horseman, with lance at rest, charging down upon a retreating elephant, on the back of which are two men turning round to face their pursuer. On the reverse, beside the monogram, is a tall figure, wearing cuirass, cloak and cap, and having a sword by his side, standing to left holding a thunderbolt and a spear. In spite of certain features which are not altogether satisfactory, the genuineness of the coin has been unhesitatingly accepted by Head and Gardner, and from such experienced judges it would be very rash to differ. Gardner, who was the first to publish it (*N.C.*, 1887, p. 177), was disposed to give it to Bactria and to connect it with 'some notable victory won by a Greek King of Bactria over the invading hordes of Yueh-chi in the second century B.C.' Head, on the other hand, comes to the conclusion, 'after a careful study of the fabric...that it belongs to Alexander's own time, and that it records the historical event of his invasion of the Punjab in 326 B.C.' He sees in the standing figure a representation of Alexander as Zeus, while he puts forward the interesting suggestion that the lance is being wielded, not by the horseman, but by the rearmost of the two elephant-riders, and that consequently the scene depicted is the retreat of Porus and his pursuit by Taxiles, exactly as recorded by Arrian (v, 18). The coin, he thinks, may have been struck by Taxiles himself at his capital city Takshaçilā. Unfortunately this hypothesis is not supported by the 'find-spot' of the decadrachm. It was discovered at Khullum in Bukhāra.
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A similar inconclusive result awaits any endeavour to sift the assertions so frequently advanced as to the circulation, and even the striking, of double darics in India. These fine gold coins (Pl. I, 6) are, in the strict sense, Persian. But it is hardly likely that any of them were minted until after the defeat of the last of the Achaemenids by Alexander. It is certain that the great majority bear Greek monograms or letters, and that they were issued at Babylon, and possibly elsewhere, by the satraps of the Macedonian conqueror. That they were popular in the East is beyond question. Whether they made their way into India is another matter. The statement that they were struck there has nothing whatever to confirm it. Nearly all of the specimens in the British Museum were acquired at Rāwalpindi, but the real source seems to have been the rich find or series of finds made about 1877 and 1878 in Bukhāra, 'eight marches beyond the Oxus, at an old fort on the tongue of land formed by two joining rivers.' The precise locality appears to have been Kabadian, a town on the Kapinahan, in the ancient Sogdiāna.