Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t4.188
Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jātaka Stories c5.t4.188
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c5.t4.188
The *Jātaka* stories also give us the various token coins of this standard. We have *kahāpaṇa*, *addha-kahāpaṇa*, *pāda-kahāpaṇa*, *māsaka*, *addha-māsaka*⁴ and *kākaṇikā*⁵—almost the lowest money-piece of the day.⁶ The *kahāpaṇa* (whether of silver or copper) and its smaller tokens mentioned above, were quite intimately connected not only with the commercial life but also with the daily intercourse of the period. Whether these instruments of exchange, constituting of course a currency of standard and token coins, were issued and regulated by any Central Authority or by private guilds we have no means to ascertain.