Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c13.65

c13.65

§ 41. Pāṇini implies by his rule IV. 3. 127 that a *Saṅgha* had its aṅka and lakshaṇa.† Aṅka means a mark, and lakshaṇa also has a similar significance. I propose to identify this 'lakshaṇa' of Pāṇini with the 'lāñchhana' or heraldic crest of later Sanskrit. The lakshaṇa was the permanent heraldic mark of a Saṅgha-state which they employed on their seals, and probably also on their coins and standards. The Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya (II. 12, p. 84), in laying down rules for the manufacture of silver and copper coins, calls the Mint-Master 'Lakshaṇa-adhyaksha' or the 'Director of Lakshaṇas.' The Mint-Master appears to have acquired this official designation on account of the lakshaṇa he stamped on the coins. Evidently this refers to a coinage when no name, far less the figure, of the ruler was struck. The lakshaṇa, therefore, in Kauṭilya, is the 'royal' or 'state' mark. The aṅka, it seems to me, refers to symbols adopted by changing governments. An elected ruler or body of rulers adopted their own special aṅka which was given up when those officers went out of office. In Hindu-Law books we get hastāṅka for signature.¹ Kālidāsa uses the term gotrāṅka in connection with a song, that is a signed song.² The verb aṅk is used from the time of Kauṭilya³ (and evidently earlier) up to Kālidāsa,⁴ and even later, in the sense of 'marking with letters or figures.' We have the term Rājāṅka, in Kauṭilya, with which the bulls of the royal stable were marked or branded. Aṅka thus signifies an individual mark. It may mean even the legend or the motto adopted by a ruler. Reference may be made to the legends Mānāṅka and Guṇāṅka (*aṅka* of King Māna, *aṅka* of King Guṇa) of Nepal coins, 425—450 A.C.⁵ This interpretation would explain the permanent and the changing symbols and legends on republican coins. In the case of earlier punchmarked coins without legends, a Saṅgha probably employed its special aṅka in initial letter-marks and otherwise, and its *lakshaṇa* in the figure of an animal or river, town or the like. The animal most likely is the lakshaṇa, and the legend, aṅka. The constitutional point is that the corporate