Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c10: Appendix to Chapter III. Early Foreign Coins in India
Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c10
- Language
- English
Contents
- c10.11 — 4 parts
Appendix to Chapter III. Early Foreign Coins in India
c10.2
( *Nanda-Maurya Period* )
c10.3
The coins current in India before her contact with the Greeks were of the variety usually described as punch-marked and cast¹. Their manufacturing technique widely differed from that of the Greek coins, and it has been almost unanimously accepted that it was invented by the early Indian moneyers, without the aid of any outside influence². Though numismatists differ about the earliest date of the circulation of these indigenous coins, there is no doubt now that many of them passed current during the Nanda-Maurya period, being introduced in India at a much earlier time. Other types of coins which also passed as currency in the extreme north of India during this period were those issued by the Achaemenid Persian rulers of this region. The Persian emperors from Darius I onwards usually struck two types of coins, viz., the darics and the sigloi, the former being of gold and the latter of silver. The name 'daric' is evidently derived from that of Darius Hystaspes whose Indian conquests included the whole of the Indus valley while 'siglos' is based on 'shekel', a kind of weight standard adopted by the Persians from the ancient Babylonians. On the obverse of the former, the Persian emperor armed with a bow and a spear is shown in a running posture, while the reverse contains an irregular oblong incuse. The Persian silver coins bear almost identical devices, but several of them have peculiar countermarks both on the obverse and the reverse, which according to some scholars emphasise their definite Indian association¹. The darics are about 130 grains (8.42 grammes) in weight, while the maximum weight of the sigloi, twenty of which were equal in value to a daric, was 86.45 grains (5.6 grammes). It was previously held that both these varieties of silver and gold Persian coins were actually minted in India, and passed current there side by side. But a more acceptable suggestion has been made not very long ago that the relative cheapness of gold in this country would make it uneconomical for the Persians to mint any gold coins here for circulation; in fact, it would tend to draw outside the country any darics which might have been brought there in course of trade and commerce². This view has been supported by the non-discovery of the darics here in any quantity, and the comparative frequency of sigloi in the Indian soil.
c10.4
¹ The name 'punch-marked' is given to a large mass of early Indian coins, mostly in silver and comparatively infrequently in copper, on account of the various symbols being punched on metal blanks of different shapes, sizes and weights. It was at first suggested by numismatists that these coins were private issues, various moneyers or shroffs being held responsible for their manufacture: according to this view the symbols on their surface were nothing more than the hall-marks of the different individuals through whose hands the coins passed in the course of trade and commerce. But this view has given place to the more probable one of their having been issued by a centra authority. Uninscribed cast copper pieces bearing such symbols as elephant, tree in railing, mountain &c., are some of the commonest coins of ancient India, and belong probably to the same period in which the punch-marked coins are to be dated. For a full treatment of these varieties of the earliest indigenous coins of India, the reader is referred to J. Allan's *Catalogue of the Coins of Ancient India*, Introduction, parts ii-iv.
c10.5
² M. Decourdemanche, however, was of opinion that most, if not all, of the punch-marked coins belong to the Achaemenid monetary system, these being nothing but a variety of the Indian issues of the Achaemenid Persian emperors: *Journal Asiatique*, 1912, pp. 117-132. D.R. Bhandarkar opposes this view; cf. *Carmichael Lectures*, 1921, pp. 118-22. J. Allan thinks that the thick silver bent bars with devices on their concave side, found in some parts of north-western India, 'are struck on a Persian standard and represent double sigloi or staters, half and quarter sigloi, *CAI*. p. xvi, 1-3.
c10.6
¹ Rapson held this view; he recognised some symbols thus countermarked as similar to those found on Indian punch-marked coins, and other marks he explained as resembling several Brāhmī and Kharoshṭhī letters: JRAS. 1895, pp. 865. ff. E. Babelon attributed these countermarks to other countries of Asia, such as, Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia and Cyprus; Les Perses Achemenides p. xi. G. Macdonald says 'that the results of the most recent investigation (Hill, JHS. 1919, pp. 125 ff.) rather tend to bear out his opinion' though he does not ignore the noteworthy similarity between them and the Indian punchmarks: CHI. I, 344.
c10.7
² CHI. I, 342-43. The ratio between gold and silver in India as we know from Herodotus, 'was not higher than 1:8' as compared with the form of 1: 13. 3 maintained by he Imperial mint'.
c10.8
No coins of any Greek prince, however, could have been in circulation in India before Alexander invaded the country. It is presumed that even during the period of his short stay there in the course of his conquests in the north-western regions, he could hardly have found any time to issue coins in his newly acquired territories. A copper coin of squarish shape bearing the name of Alexander, which was supposed at first to be his Indian issue, has been long since declared to have no connection with India¹. But two silver coins (tetradrachms) bearing the name of Alexander and one silver coin, that of Philip Aridaeus, were discovered by Marshall in the course of his excavations at the Bhir Mound site Taxila². These coins ‘bear on the obverse head of Alexander wearing the lion skin, and on the reverse Zeus seated on a throne with the eagle on his right hand and the sceptre in left’. Though they have different legends and monograms, they are closely similar to one another. On one of the coins of Alexander, the legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ can be distinctly read. Their freshly-minted condition and the fact that they were recovered from a stratum, assigned by Marshall to the 3rd or 4th Century B.C., may lead one to suppose that they were actually minted in India. But this first recorded find of such coins in India is still unique and the coins could have been brought here from outside.
c10.9
¹ P. Gardner thought that there were a few such pieces of Alexander's Indian money: *BMC*. xviii. But realy the piece, now in the collection of the Berlin Museum, is unique. The shape which is the only reason for associating it with India might have been an accidental freak, ‘the result of awkward handling by some workman at a western mint’. Macdonald refers to a group of tetradrchms with Zeus' head on the obverse and the eagle on a thunderbolt accompanied by the legend ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ on the reverse, as having some connection with the east, if not actually with India : *CHI*. I 388–89. The presence of a satrapal tiara on the right field of the reverse sides of these coins proves that they were satrapal issues.
c10.10
² *ASR*. 1924–25, pp 47–8, pl. ix. These coins were found in a small earthen jar which also contained as many as 1167 silver punch-marked and bent-bar-type of Indian coins, and one Persian siglos.
c10.11.1
The troubles which Alexander’s officers left in charge of his Indian conquests had to encounter in maintaining their transitory hold on these regions did not allow them to issue coins in any number in the name of their master³. But a few interesting coins of Greek technique belonging to the latter half of the 4th century B.C. have been discovered, which, though all of them were not found in India, seem to have Indian association. Among them mention may be made first of the few unique silver decadrachms issued by Alexander himself from his Babylonian mint, which were distinctly of a commemorative character. The obverse shows an elephant with two riders followed by a warrior on a prancing horse, while the reverse contains the standing figure of Alexander shown as the god Zeus. The obverse device has been explained by numismatists as the artist's version of Alexander's battle with Porus, the Macedonian emperor on horseback attacking with his lance Porus riding on the elephant, while a second person, the driver of the elephant, turns to throw a javelin at the pursuer. The reverse depicts Alexander dressed in a Macedonian cloak with a composite helmet on his head, his right hand holding a thunderbolt and his left a spear ; Nike is shown in the top left field, about to place a wreath on his head.
c10.11.2
The monogram on the lower left field of the reverse is AB which may either stand for ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, or may more probably be a contraction for Babylon, one of the mint cities of Alexander. The other class of silver coins which are usually supposed to have been minted in India, were the issues of one Sophytes, as we know from their legend on the reverse. This Sophytes has so long been identified with Sopeithes of Arrian (vi, 2, 2) and Strabo (xv. 699), who ruled over terroitories in the Salt Range region, Punjab, at the time of Alexander's invasion. Sopeithes appears to have been the Greek form of the Indian name Saubhūti who according to most scholars was an Indian¹. But R.B. Whitehead questioned the identity of Sophytes and Sopeithes not very long ago. He further suggested that Sophytes was an eastern satrap in the last quarter of the fourth Century B.C. ruling somewhere in the Oxus region, where his coins were originally minted—(Numismatic Chronicle, 1943). It is true that there is no record of an actual discovery of any of these coins in Indian soil, but there is also no clear proof of Sophytes' connection with the Oxus region. Arrian and Strabo are explicit about the existence of one Sopeithes (most probably the Greek transliteration of some such Indian name as Saubhūti) and it is tempting to connect it with the name Sophytes, the issuer of the coins in question (JNSI VII, pp. 23—6).
c10.11.3
The obverse of these coins shows the head of the king to right within dotted border, wearing close-fitting helmet and cheek-plate, the former adorned with a wreath of olive leaves ; on the reverse is shown a cock to right with a caduceus on the left field and the Greek legend ΣΝΦΥΤΟΥ on the right, all inside a border of dots. The coins are struck from regularly adjusted dies (↓↑) and usually bear a monogram consisting of the Greek letter M or MN; their approximate weight is 58 grains. These coins are of great interest as they are without doubt based on the imitations of the Athenian ‘owls’ which seem to have been somewhat familiar in or just outside the north-western border of India at that time. The discovery of a unique tri-hemiobol, now in the Berlin Museum, bearing the helmeted head of Athena in place of that of Sophytes, apart from most other numismatic features, definitely proves the connection between the two sets of coins. The weight of Sophytes’ coins, which according to earlier numismatists was derived from the Indian *dharana* or *purāṇa* (silver punch-marked coins weighing 32 ratis, roughly 58 grains) has now been shown by Macdonald and others to be the same as that of the imitations; it has been described as a lighter Attic standard sometimes adopted by moneyers in their issue of such coins in the east¹.
c10.11.4
As Sophytes does not use any royal title on his coins, it has been presumed that his coins were issued not long after Alexander’s invasion, when, though for all intents and purposes enjoying sovereign rights, he might have acknowledged temporarily the authority of the Greek invader². An earlier view regarding the prototype of Sophytes’ coins, not even completely abandoned now, is that they were imitated from a certain type of Seleucus’ coins; in fact such was the close similarity between the obverse of this issue of Seleucus I and that of the coins of Sophytes, that some numismatists were tempted to connect the two sets of coins in this manner. It is more correct to accept the view suggested by Rapson long ago that both were derived from the imitations of the Athenian 'owls'¹. But if Whitehead's suggestion that Sophytes was an eastern Satrap ruling somewhere in the Oxus region in c. 320 B.C. is correct, then these coins had no Indian connection.
c10.12
³ Macdonald's description of a few such imitations of the Athenian ‘owls’ which might have been minted in the extreme north-west of India, may be noted in this connection : *CHI*. I, 388. They are the same as referred to in the previous foot note.
c10.13
¹ D. R. Bhandarkar attempts to prove that Sophytes was really a Hinduised Greek; for his arguments, cf. CL. 1921, pp. 30—1.
c10.14
¹ But this so-called lighter Attic weight might have been influenced by the Indian *dharana* or *purāṇa* standard after all. It is the smaller denominations of the imitations of the Athenian ‘owls’ procured in the regions near the extreme north-west border of India, which are usually based on the 58 grains standard which is also the weight of a large mass of silver punch-marked coins.
c10.15
² D. R. Bhandarkar is of opinion that these coins of Sophytes could have been issued neither during the period of Alexander’s stay in India, nor at a time subsequent to his departure from there; according to him, they were issued before Alexander invaded India, *CL.* 1921, p. 30.
c10.16
¹ P. Gardner (BMC. p. xx) and several other older numismatists held the view; it has also been supported by C. Seltman in his Greek Coins, pp. 228-29, pl. LII. 3, and pl. LV.6. But Rapson correctly suggested long ago that 'both of these classes may have been derived from the same originals—the imitations of the Athenian coins made in India; IC. p. 4.
c10.17
It will be of interest now to study in brief the special features of these imitations of owls, some of which according to most numismatists were actually minted in the extreme north-west of India or just outside. The original 'owls' of Athens were beautifully executed silver coins of various denominations usually tetradrachms, which bore on the obverse the head of Pallas Athene, the tutelary deity of the city, and on the reverse the figure of an owl, the bird sacred to the goddess, with the legend AΘE usually in the right field. These coins were so much in demand among the people of the Aegean world and among those of the middle and near east, that Athens had to supply the specie from her own mint. When Athens lost her political importance as a result of her debacle in the Peloponnesian War and the subsequent Macedonian hegemony, her mint was closed, and imitations of the above type of the Athenian coins were made in large numbers in the countries which once used to import the Athenian originals. These imitations can be divided into two well-defined classes, the first closely approximating to its prototype. The second class softer in style usually bear the monogram M behind the head of Athene on the obverse and a bunch of grapes over the back of the bird on the reverse. The most characteristic feature which, however, distinguishes the second class from the first is that the obverse and reverse devices of the former are finely adjusted (↓ ↑), whereas in the case of the latter no such adjustment seems to have been made; this nice fixity of position of one die in relation to that of the other may point 'to the employment of a hinge or of some equally effective contrivance' (Macdonald). Moreover, the first class usually consists of tetradrachms, while the second also contains drachms and didrachms. These smaller denominations, again, are not based like the higher ones on the Attic standard of weight, a drachm according to which weighed 67.2 grains (4.37 grammes), but on one in which the same would weigh no more than 58 grains (3.75 grammes). These numismatic peculiarities of the second class of the imitations place them alongside ‘another 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’ (Macdonald). On this latter class of coins, the bunch of grapes behind the owl's back is in one case accompanied by a caduceus. These latter sets of the imitation of the Athenian ‘owls’ were undoubtedly the prototype of Sophytes’ coin discussed above, and this is one of the principal reasons which have led numismatists to infer that ‘at least the smaller Athenian imitations were not unfamiliar in the north of India’¹.
c10.18
¹ CHI. I, 387—88.
c10.19
Several Greek coins² issued in Syria and in the adjacent countries to its east, some bearing the name of Seleucus I and others those of Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I jointly require a brief notice here on account of their Indian association of a somewhat remote character. The first group of these have on the obverse the head of a horned horse to right inside a dotted border, while their reverse shows an Indian elephant. Another class of coins in the same series bear a laureate head of Zeus on the obverse and Pallas Athene driving in a chariot drawn by four elephants on the reverse. The Greek legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ on the reverse side of both the classes proves that they were issued after 306 B.C. when Seleucus I assumed the royal title for the first time. A few of the latter class of coins, coarser in style and execution, are usually collected from the extreme north and north-west of India, showing thereby that though they were not actually minted in India, they might have been in circulation in this region. The other group of Greek coins, more or less similar in type to the second class of such coins just noticed,—on the reverse is shown a fighting Athena riding in a car drawn by either two or four elephants, bear the Greek legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ. The elephant device in all the above types of coins seems to have some remote connection with one of the terms of the treaty concluded by Seleucus I with Chandragupta Maurya; according to it the former bartered away the provinces of Paropanisus, Aria, Arachosia and Gedrosia along with his claims to the Punjab and other Greek conquests in northern India for five hundred war elephants. This particular war arm proved so decisive a factor at the battle of Ipsus where Antigonus the formidable rival of Seleucus was overthrown, that it became one of the favourite dynastic devices of the Seleucidae. The head of a horned horse, another favourite device of the same, was perhaps commemorative of Bucephalus, the famous charger of Alexander the Great, in whose honour the Macedonian emperor founded a city named Bucephala on the bank of the Jhelum in the Punjab.
c10.20
² These are usually tetradrachms; coins of lesser denominations, however, are not unknown.
c10.21
Most of the Greek coins discussed above are extra-Indian in character, from the point of view of their provenance; but almost all of them have some association, near or remote, with the country. The hoards of Greek coins, however, that were actually minted here and which passed as currency in the extreme north and north-west were the ones issued by the Greek rulers of Bactria and India. These Bactrian Greeks at first owed allegiance to Seleucus I and his successors, and it was under Antiochus Theos (Antiochus II), the grandson of Seleucus I, that one Diodotus, the Greek satrap of Bactria, threw off the Syrian yoke sometime in the middle of the third century B.C. Justin says that this Diodotus died shortly after the assumption of independence and was succeeded by his son of the same name. The second Diodotus issued coins bearing his name and the device of Antiochus II. But these coins as well as those of Euthydemus I who dispossessed him of the throne of Bactria, were all issued outside India. The coins of the immediate successors of Euthydemus I, viz., Demetrius and others were mostly non-Indian issues; a few of them were, however, actually minted in this country, when Demetrius carried the Bactrian Greek arms into India and conquered some parts of it. Eucratides who was a supplanter of Demetrius in Bactria and the head of a rival branch of the Greek princelings contending with Demetrius' successors for possessions in the extreme north and north-west of India, issued a large number of coins many of which were of Indian origin. The coins of the host of the Indo-Greek rulers, mostly belonging either to the house of Euthydemus I or to that of Eucratides, were all minted here, because these Greek princes who had long been driven out of Bactria by the Sakas had made their home in India. The story, however, of these Bactrian and Indo-Greek princes and their coins, though begining in the latter part of the Maurya age, really falls within the Śuṅga and Kāṇva periods.