The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c17.s2.t10.3

v2.c17.s2.t10.3

*Dramma*, *suvarṇa*, *gadyāṇaka*, *kalañju*, and *kāsu* are the five coin denominations mentioned in Rāṣṭrakūṭa records. Of these the last two were not current in the Deccan, but in Southern India. The Cambay plates of Govinda IV mention a gift of 1,400 villages yielding a revenue of seven lakhs of *suvarṇas*;⁵ the average revenue of a village was thus 500 *suvarṇas*. Whether the Rāṣṭrakūṭa administration issued any gold coins, and whether, like the *suvarṇas* of Northern India of the earlier period, they had a standard weight of eighty *rattis* or 144 grains, we do not know. It is quite possible that the sum of seven lakhs of *suvarṇas*, which was the revenue of 1,400 villages, represented the approximate gold value of the land revenue in kind collected from these villages. In that case, *suvarṇa* would have been a conventional coin of account. The *gadyāṇaka* was equal to two *kalañjaus* and weighed about 100 grains. No specimens of this coin issued by the Rāṣṭrakūṭas have yet been found. Dr. M. H. Krishna attributed four gold coins of a weight standard of about 60 grains to the Rāṣṭrakūṭas.¹ These have an elaborate floral design on one side and four lions punched round a tank with lotuses on the other. But as the coins bear no legend, this attribution can only be conjectural.