Tribes in Ancient India c35.13.4

c35.13.4

They bear head of Athena on the obverse and owls on the reverse.⁷ These owls of Athens have been picked up in Southern Arabia Felix. But none of the owls found in the east are of the types known from Athens. The coins found in Arabia might have travelled there as a result of commercial intercourse, for they are generally counter-marked on the obverse with Sabaean letters or are scratched on the reverse with a Sabaean monogram. Bhandarkar argues when a foreign money for the first time comes into circulation along with the native coinage of a country, all the new specimens are tested, and those, which are found not deficient in weight or quality of metal, are sanctioned by marking them with an official stamp which may consist of a single letter or symbol. These official stamps which are found on the owls of Athens, discovered in South Arabia, are conspicuous by their absence on those found on the frontiers of India. The practice of putting such counter-marks on coins was not unknown in or near India also, for the silver Persian sigloi which were current in the Punjab bear Indian counter-marks.¹ When there is no counter-mark, it is not reasonable to say that they were brought there in course of trade. Bhandarkar² therefore concludes: ‘The natural inference must be that they were native to some outlying district of India which was peopled by the Yavanas or Greeks.