The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c17.s1: Introduction
The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c17.s1
- Language
- English
Contents
- v2.c17.s1.t1 Punch-marked coins — 15 parts
- v2.c17.s1.t2 Roman Coins in the Deccan — 2 parts
Introduction
v2.c17.s1.1
IN the present chapter we propose to make a survey of the coinage of the Deccan from *c.* 400 B.C. to *c.* A.D. 1300, which is the period covered by this volume of the *History of the Deccan*. The Deccan and Southern India are remarkably rich in epigraphical material bearing on their history; the inscriptions of the Sātavāhanas, the Vākāṭakas, the Chālukyas, the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, and the Yādavas are much more numerous than those of their contemporaries in the north, the Śuṅgas and the Kaṇvas, the Guptas and the Vardhanas, the Pratīhāras and the Gāhaḍavālas. In the realm of sculpture and also in that of architecture, art made striking progress in Deccan and Southern India, but strangely enough it had little influence on the coinage. In this realm the North can well claim superiority over the Deccan. Not a single dynasty of the Deccan or of Southern India produced a coin series which can compare with the Gupta coinage in artistic beauty, variety, and fine workmanship.
v2.c17.s1.2
The Sātavāhana coinage is numerous, but it is generally crude. The Vākāṭakas and the Rāṣṭrakūṭas do not appear to have issued any coins at all; the coinage of the Chālukyas is scarce and intermittent. The Yādavas indeed did issue a regular series of coins in gold, but these have been handed down only in very small quantities. The gold coins of the Chālukyas and of the Yādavas can only have been employed in big monetary transactions. The ordinary man of the Deccan did not, it would seem, derive much benefit from the coinage which the different states issued from time to time. He apparently had to carry on his daily business by means of barter and with the help of cowries. However, we come across silver punch-marked coins in the Deccan, and the Sātavāhanas minted a great mass of coinage in lead and in copper. These latter types may well have been used in some daily transactions.
Punch-marked coins
v2.c17.s1.t1.1
The earliest coinage of the Deccan probably consisted of silver punch-marked money.¹ The antiquity of this medium of exchange was once referred to prehistoric times on the strength of such coins having been found in megalithic tombs. But subsequent evidence has shown that the money found in these tombs sometimes included not only punch-marked pieces but also Roman coins, making it quite clear that not all such megalithic constructions could be dated back to prehistoric times. The antiquity of the punch-marked coinage of the Deccan and Southern India cannot thus be assigned to a date earlier than that of the punch-marked coinage of Northern India; they were in fact probably not struck earlier than *c.* 500 B.C.
v2.c17.s1.t1.2
¹ As in Northern India, the Deccan had no punch-marked coins in gold. There were small gold spherules in circulation with minute marks on the obverse, which will be referred to later (p. 799); but they cannot strictly be called punch-marked coins. In Gibb's collection there was a gold coin about 1 in. in diameter and 57.2 grains in weight, which had several punched marks such as an Arrow-head, a Cross, a Conch, two *Śrīs*, &c. (Elliot, Pl. II, 60). But the presence of two *tris* shows that the coin does not belong to any regular punch-marked series. Copper punch-marked coins have not so far been found in the Deccan.
v2.c17.s1.t1.3
Hoards of punch-marked coins have been found in the Deccan at Singavaram and Gudivādā in the Krishna district; at Venna, Bhimlipattan, and Rothulpalem in the Vizagapattan district; at Karmanehi in the Kurnul district; at Karimnagar in the Hyderabad State; at Shinhi in the Kolhapur district, and at Sultanpur near Wai in the Satara district.
v2.c17.s1.t1.4
Among these hoards, the Sultanpur find is especially unusual and distinctive; it consists entirely of silver coins, double, single, and half-Kārshāpaṇas being the denominations. They have only one large symbol on the obverse and none on the reverse (Pl. LXII, 1-2). The weight of these coins is 50 and 49.5 grains respectively. These coins are usually regarded as early, but their precise date is difficult to determine.
v2.c17.s1.t1.5
The silver punch-marked coins of the Singavaram hoard, believed to have been discovered in 1934, were apparently 40,000 in number. The hoard is said to have filled a pit 3x3 ft. in dimension. But only seventy-one coins could eventually be procured for the collection in the Madras Museum. If these are truly representative of the hoard, we may conclude that all the coins were probably half-Kārshāpaṇas in denomination; their weight varies from 20 to 30 grains. These coins constitute a variety peculiar to Āndhra-deśa. They are thin and struck in *repoussé*; thus the symbols are convex in appearance and the coins have become cup-shaped.¹ The number of symbols on these coins is four and not five (Pl. LXII, 3-4). On Pl. LXII, 3 we have Elephant at the top and two Bulls yoked to a plough at the bottom; on either side there is a Knob with circles or crescents around. On Pl. LXII, 4, Branch symbol replaces the Bulls yoked to a plough. The symbols occur on one side only and the reverse is blank. In a few cases four symbols appear on both sides, where those on one side appear very indistinct and faded. In the case of these rare coins it appears that when the original symbols became worn out, a new set of four symbols was stamped on the original blank reverse.²
v2.c17.s1.t1.6
¹ JNSI, xv, 55.
v2.c17.s1.t1.7
² *Trans. of International Num. Conf.*, 1936, p. 395.
v2.c17.s1.t1.8
The coins of the Singavaram hoard bear a curious resemblance to those of the Paila hoard discovered in the Kheri district of U.P. Both have only four symbols on the obverse, among which the Sun and the Six-armed symbol, so common on most of the varieties of the punch-marked coins, are conspicuous by their absence. The coins of the Paila hoard, however, follow the 24 *ratti* standard, whereas those of the Singavaram hoard are struck to the standard of 32 *rattis* or about 56 grains. There is a greater resemblance between the coins of the Singavaram hoard and those of the Sonepur hoard discovered in Orissa. Both are half-Paṇas, weighing about 20 to 25 grains each. The Sun and the Six-armed symbol are absent from both. Both have the Elephant and a pair of Bulls yoked to a plough among their symbols. It is likely that these coins may be a pre-Mauryan issue. Such coins as those found in the Sonepur hoard may possibly have been issued by the Nandas after their conquest of Orissa and the type may have been later imitated and modified in *Āndhra-deśa*, as suggested by the Singavaram hoard. The number of symbols on the Singavaram hoard coins is also four, but they are in relief and not in depression, as is the case with the coins in the Sonepur hoard.
v2.c17.s1.t1.9
The remaining hoards of punch-marked coins found in the Deccan are of the usual type, having five symbols on the obverse and weighing about 52 grains. They are Kārshāpaṇas of the 32 *ratti* standard. An analysis of 2,846 punch-marked coins in the Madras Museum shows that about 20 per cent. of them belong to the pre-Mauryan type of five-symbol coins, and the rest to the Mauryan varieties.¹ The same is probably true of other hoards found in the Deccan.
v2.c17.s1.t1.10
¹ I owe this information to Miss Vanaja of the Madras Museum.
v2.c17.s1.t1.11
The Mauryan punch-marked coins of the Deccan seem to have been introduced into that country as a natural consequence of the Mauryan conquest. Pre-Mauryan five-symbol punch-marked coins were not withdrawn from circulation by the Mauryas, and so some of them must have travelled to the Deccan with the Mauryan armies. They are therefore naturally found in the Deccan, though in a small percentage.
v2.c17.s1.t1.12
How long punch-marked coins remained in circulation in the Deccan is a difficult question to answer. The Sātavāhanas introduced their own coinage soon after the establishment of their dynasty, but this did not oust the punch-marked silver currency. Down to *c.* A.D. 110 the Sātavāhanas issued coins in lead and copper only, and these of course could not take the place of silver punch-marked coins. During the second century A.D. four Sātavāhanas kings issued silver coins, but they are extremely rare and were perhaps intended to meet the needs of northern Mahārāshtra and Gujarāt, which were accustomed to a silver currency. Punch-marked coins, therefore, may have continued to circulate in the Deccan even after the disappearance of the Mauryan rule. In the Mambalam hoard, found in Madras, there were 770 punch-marked coins of the pre-Mauryan type, together with one coin of Augustus. In the Tondananathan hoard found in the South Arcot district there were twenty-seven punch-marked coins in association with three *aurei* of Tiberius. It is therefore clear that punch-marked silver coins continued in circulation down to the end of the first century A.D. The majority of them were struck by the usual method of first preparing flans of the requisite weight and size and then punching the symbols on them. But in some localities, as at Kondapur, moulds were used and punch-marked coins were cast from them. In the Kondapur excavations, both the moulds and the punch-marked silver coins cast from them were discovered; their date is approximately the first century A.D.
v2.c17.s1.t1.13
There is no archaeological evidence to show that silver punch-marked coins continued in circulation in the Deccan after c. A.D. 200. A verse in the Nāradasmṛiti (c. A.D. 500) states that the silver Kārshāpaṇas were then current in the south.¹ But so far we have not found any punch-marked coins which can be confidently ascribed to so late a date.
v2.c17.s1.t1.14
¹ Kārshāpaṇo dakshiṇasyām diśi raupyāḥ pravartate, i, 57.
v2.c17.s1.t1.15
Some copper punch-marked coins have been found in Malwa, as also cast copper coins. But none of these have so far been found in the Deccan.
Roman Coins in the Deccan
v2.c17.s1.t2.1
There was steady and continuous trade between the ports on the coast of Andhra-deśa and the Roman Empire, and several Roman coins have been found in the Deccan at places like Athirāla in the Cudappah district; Gumad, Kolpad, Salihundam in the Vizagapattan district; Mallyapalem, Ongole, and Vinukonda in the Guntur district; Nāgārjunikoṇḍā and Vidyadurrapuram in the Krishna district; Nadyal in the Kurnul district, and Garparti in the Nalgonda district.² The Roman emperors represented in the hoards were ruling during the first and second centuries A.D. and their coins are found in territories over which the Sātavāhanas were ruling. The Sātavāhana currency, however, remained uninfluenced by the patterns and designs of the Roman coinage; no gold or silver coins were minted in the Deccan in imitation of the Roman types.
v2.c17.s1.t2.2
² Ancient India, ii, 116 ff.
Linked texts (1)
- Nāradasmṛti — Nārada, Sanskrit