Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c41.4

c41.4

§ 262. The Jānapada appears to have been concerned with matters mainly constitutional and political. All the references to their work are to such business, with one or two exceptions, e. g., that they got gold coins minted by the royal mint-master.¹ This seems to have been a business of economic nature. Apparently they had to judge as to the number of coins necessary in the country for the purposes of exchange, and probably they exercised some sort of supervision as to weight and purity of the coins, as debasement of coinage by government is found recorded once or twice as a matter of public complaint.