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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c40.s3: Gold and Coins

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c40.s3

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Gold and Coins

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The goldsmith was known as *svaranakāra*, who made ornaments as well as coins of gold and silver. Pāṇini referred to some special ornaments; ear-rings (*karṇikā*, later the famous term *maṇikarṇikā* associated with Vārāṇasī), frontlets (*lalatikā*), finger-rings (*aṅguliyaka*) (4.3.62-65), etc. *Ākarṣika* was one skilled person who could test gold on the touchstone (*ākarsa*, 5.2.64). The goldsmith undertook three kinds of jobs. (Agrawala, 1953:235) He could start with new gold or silver bar or ingot brought to him. Secondly, he could melt and re-shape old ornaments: *niṣatapati suvarṇam*. Thirdly he could repolish or brighten the old ornaments by heating them only once (*anāsevane* : Pāṇ., 8.3.102).

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The earliest historical record of the Indian coins is found in Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī. We have noticed that the Vedic literatures mentioned the golden niṣka, sometimes as an ornament and sometimes as a medium of exchange. We postulate that the word niṣka was etymologically related to the word niṣaya mentioned by Pāṇini to indicate binding, meaning financial bond or commitment. Pāṇini referred to several derivative terms based on niṣka: dviniṣka (two niṣka or units of money), bahunaiṣkikam (worth many niṣkas — Pāṇ., 5.1.30), uttamanaiṣkikam (worth the highest niṣka or denomination of money — Pāṇ., 5.1.20). Gold was known as jātarūpa, ‘beautiful when it appears’. Pāṇini forwarded a linguistic hypothesis (we are not sure of its validity) that all words for gold indicating weight or measure (of money) end with an e.g. suvarṇa, svarṇa, hiranya, etc.

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jātarūpebhyaḥ parimāṇe aṇ (Pāṇ., 4.3.153).

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Similarly when a weight of copper was used as coin, it was known as paṇa : paṇaḥ parimāṇe (Pāṇ., 5.1.34).

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Pāṇini also explained the genesis of the word for silver : rūpyaḥ or raupya. Next to gold, silver was used as the coinage metal. Some form (rūpa) of the king or ruler was embossed (āhatam) : rūpāt, āhata, praśamsayoḥ yap (Pāṇ., 5.2.120). Thus raupya was derived from rūpa and became the new name of rajata or silver during the Achaemenid rule (sixth century BC). There was a special name for a stamped or embossed silver coin vārk rūpya or silver stamped with vṛka die (Pāṇ., 4.2.106).

Śatamāna to Kārṣāpaṇa

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V.S. Agrawala (1953:471) pointed out that śatamāna as a coin had been mentioned in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa only in those Kāṇḍas (5 and 12-14) associated with the name of later day sage Yājñavalkya. Thus this currency probably existed during the latter part of the Brāhmaṇa era (c. eighth-fifth century BC). Pāṇini witnessed the transition of the Indian coinage system from the śatamāna to the kārṣāpaṇa denomination. Pāṇini also mentioned a gold coin vista of 80 rattis or ratikās (Pāṇ., 4.1.22; 5.1.31).

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Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (13.4.2.10) made it clear that both gold as well as silver śatamāna coins were in circulation. No gold śatamāna has been discovered; probably all such objects were ultimately melted and re-used for some other purpose.

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The heavist silver punch-marked pieces so far discovered are the oblong bars in the Bhir Mound at Taxilā assignable to the middle of the fourth century BC. These are twice as heavy as the Achaemenid or Persian siglos. Weighing around 180 grains or 100 ratti/māna/kṛṣṇalas, the Taxilā bent bar coins (śalākā) probably represent the ancient śatamāna coins (Pāṇ., 5.1.27).

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The most important (one-eighth) fraction of śatamāna was a śāna (Mahābhārata, Āraṇyakaparva, 134.14). Pāṇini refers to the silver coin śāna in several places (5.1.35-36; 7.3.17). He refers to certain taxes levied in East India (6.3.10), on which the Kāśikā cites sūpeśanaḥ (6.2.64 and 6.3.10)—a special cess at the rate of one śāna coin per kitchen (sūpa) or household.

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The kārṣāpaṇa monetary system started around sixth century BC probably as a standard for collecting kara or tax, toll and royal revenue (Pāṇini, 5.1.29 and 6.3.10). The word kārṣāpaṇa is unknown in the Saṃhitā or Brāhmaṇa literature, and is peculiarly a Sanskrit term of the Sūtra period. (Agrawala, 1953:264) Numerous hoards of this punch-marked coin, also known simply as paṇa, have been found in various parts of India. The sub-multiples of kārṣāpaṇa were known as: ardha (1/2), pāda (1/4), dvi-māṣa (1/8), māṣa (1/16) and ardha-māṣa or kākaṇī (1/32) and ardha-kākaṇī (1/64). Pāṇini mentioned part of this series in 5.1.34: paṇa-pāda-māṣa-śatādyāt. Pāda means a quarter, and there had been pāda-niṣka or panniṣka coins in the Vedic age. In Pāṇini 5.1.34, pāda meant quarter of a kārṣāpaṇa.

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Māṣa in the above sūtra was both a silver and a copper coin. The silver māṣa was one-sixteenth of a kārṣāpaṇa and weighed 2 rattis or 2 kṛṣṇalas or 3.6 grs:

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द्वे कृष्णले समधृतो विज्ञेयो रौप्य-माषकः
dve kṛṣṇale samadhṛto vijñeyo raupya-māṣakaḥ
(Manu, 8.135).

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Actual specimens of silver māṣa coins have been found in a hoard at Bhir mound, Taxilā. These are minute coins, 0.2. inch diameter weighing 2-3 grains.

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The copper māṣa was a sub-multiple of the copper kārṣāpaṇa and weighed 5 rattis, i.e., one-sixteenth of a tāmrika-paṇa of 80 rattis. The kākaṇī and ardha-kākaṇī copper coins were not mentioned by Pāṇini, and became common later during the period of Kauṭilya.

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The silver kārṣāpaṇa of 32 rattis was upgraded by the Nandas. Instead of 16 māṣa kārṣāpaṇa they introduced heavier 20 māṣa silver coin which came to be known as vimśatika. Pāṇini mentioned (5.1.24) vimśatika as well as the 30 māṣa trimśatika coins being in circulation.

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We have mentioned Pāṇini’s explanation as to how the word raupya for silver originated: on a silver coin the rūpa or form of the king was embossed. “The mode of manufacturing the punch-marked silver coins was first to get ready a hammered sheet, which was then cut into strips, and sub-divided into lengths of approximately the desired weight, which was adjusted by clipping the corners when necessary”. After this, the metallic pieces were subjected to the process of stamping symbols on them by means of a separate punch for each symbol. It is this particular stage in the process of manufacture to which Pāṇini refers in the famous sūtra:

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रूपात् आहत प्रशंसयोः यप्
rūpāt āhata praśaṃsayoh yap
(5.2.120)
‘Silver was stamped with a praise-worthy form’.

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Whereas kārṣāpaṇa was a punch-marked coin, the later day dināra (Denarious) and kedāra (Kedāra Kuṣāṇa coin third century AD) were actually cast in moulds and not punched.

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