The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.s1.1

v1.c25.s1.1

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.