Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c10.11

Language: English

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.