Printed at the Wesleyan Mission Press, Mysore City.
Footnotes:
[1] Herod III, 94. Quoted in Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 12.
[2] Cf. I.M.C., p. 136, Nos. 1, 2, 3 (ingots), Nos. 4, 5, 6 (bars).
[3] By Dr. Spooner, Dr. Bhandarkar, and E. H. Walsh. Cf. Journal of the Bihār and Orissa Research Society, 1919, pp. 16-72, 463-94.
[4] Even in Mughal times bankers were in the habit of placing their mark on the rim or even on the face of coins which passed through their hands.
[5] Guide to Taxila, p. 117.
[6] This process was in operation in Morocco until the middle of the nineteenth century. Nearchus, the companion of Alexander, says that the Indians used only cast bronze but not hammered. Strabo XV, C. 716.
[7] Brāhmī (Fig. 1), Phœnician in origin, was the native script of Northern India, and was written from left to right. Kharoshṭhī (Fig. 2) was a derivation from the Aramaic script, and was written from right to left; it is believed to have been introduced during the Persian domination of Western India, and continued in use on the North-West frontier until about the fourth century A.D.
[8] Eraṇ, or Erakina, the capital of the ancient East Mālwā kingdom, in the Saugor district, Central Provinces.
[9] In these bilingual coins, unless otherwise noted, the same inscription is reproduced in both languages. Technically the reverse of this coin is the obverse, as being the impression from the lower die.
[10] Billon, or potin, is a mixture of silver and copper in varying proportions.
[11] Three fresh names have been added as recently as 1913.
[12] The sole example known is in the British Museum: it is figured in Vincent Smith’s Oxford History of India, 1920, p. 63.
[13] On the Attic standard, adopted by Alexander, the Seleucid and Bactrian kings, the drachm weighed 67·5 grains; on the Persian standard, adopted by the Indo-Greeks (and hence in some works called the Indian standard), it weighed 88 grains, but their coins rarely reach the full weight. Mr. Whitehead, in a recent monograph, “The Pre-Muhammadan Coinage of North-Western India” (Numismatic Notes and Monographs, No. 13, The American Numismatic Society, New York, 1922), calls the two silver denominations of the Indo-Greeks drachms and tetradrachms, thus supposing a separate Indian standard. I have retained the hitherto accepted nomenclature, hemidrachms and didrachms for convenience of reference to standard works.
[14] Marshall, Guide to Taxila, p. 27.
[15] For other city types see Camb. History of India, Vol. I, p. 557 sq.
[16] It is suggested (Camb. History of India, p. 561) that the coins of Hermaios extended over a long period, and that it was these degenerate posthumous coins which Kujūla Kadphises copied.
[17] They are also represented on horseback as on Eukratides’ coins.
[18] This coin seems to provide the family link between the Śakas and Pahlavas.
[19] It has been suggested with great probability that the title Sotēr Megas (Great Saviour) was that of the military governor (stratēgos) of Taxila under the Kushāṇas, and that these coins were the anonymous issues of successive stratēgoi. Cf. Camb. History of India, Vol. I, p. 581.
[20] Four different Kharoshṭhī forms appear on coins—Kasa, Kaphsa, Kadapha and Kaü. It is uncertain how many persons they denote.
[21] Maheśvara (Mahesh) is a name of Śiva.
[22] Nāgarī is a later form of Brāhmī script.
[23] The Śaka era started in A.D. 78; this date is now considered to mark the first year of Kanishka’s reign.
[24] Camb. History of India, Vol. I, p. 583.
[25] Dināra is derived from the Roman denarius. It affords an interesting example of the vicissitudes which so many coin names have experienced. The first letter of the same word d (enarius) now signifies copper in English money.
[26] The province of Kābul must be reckoned Indian territory from the time of Chandragupta Maurya till the eleventh century. It was reunited to India by the Mug̱ẖal Emperor Bābur in the sixteenth century and lost again in the middle of the eighteenth.
[27] It has been suggested with great probability that these are really compound words signifying “the mark or device of Māna, of Guna.”
[28] Asāvari is said to be a name of Durga; Śrī Sāmanta deva is borrowed from the coinage of Ohind.
[29] Cf. B.M.C., “Coins of the Gupta Dynasties,” Introduction, pp. lxiv-lxviii.
[30] Situated in Tirhut, Bengal.
[31] Coins have been found in Khotān with a Chinese legend on the obverse and a Kharoshṭhī inscription on the reverse. Cf. P.M.C., Vol. I, p. 167, Nos. 134, 135.
[32] In the Kathiawar peninsula, forming part of what was then known as Surāshṭra.
[33] Or according to Mr. Panna Lal, “Dates of Skandagupta and His Successors,” Hindustan Review, January, 1918, in A.D. 467.
[34] Certain thin silver coins of Sassanian type have been doubtfully ascribed to him. Cf. Rapson, Indian Coins, p. 34, § 122.
[35] The Vikrama era starts in 58 B.C. (Fig. 24 ante.)
[36] With the introduction of the Ilāhī coins, Persian gradually supersedes Arabic in the inscriptions.
[37] Hūn is a Hindustānī corruption of honnu, Kanarese for “a half pagoda”; Varāha is probably derived from the boar (varāha) cognizance on Eastern Chālukya coins; the origin of Pagoda, as introduced by the Portuguese and applied to this coin, is obscure, cf. Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson under “Pagoda.” The considerable variation in the weight of the pagodas issued by different dynasties may be due simply to different local standards; but if the Chālukyas were, as is supposed, of Gurjara origin, the heavier weights of their coins may reflect the influence of the “dramma.”
[38] The silver hemitetartemoria of Athens weighed 1·4 grs. each.
[39] In 1850 a large number of Roman aurei, amounting, it is said, to five coolie loads, were unearthed near Kannanur: most emperors between Augustus, 29 B.C., and Antoninus Pius, A.D. 161, were represented. Cf. “Remarks on Some Lately Discovered Roman Coins,” J.A.S.B., 1851, p. 371.
[40] This attribution is somewhat doubtful.
[41] The attributes of the two seated figures are sometimes those of Śiva, sometimes those of Vishṇu; there is some difficulty in distinguishing between the coins of Devarāya I (1406-1410) and Devarāya II (1421-1445).
[42] Durgi = belonging to durga, a hill fort. The coins are said to have been struck at Chitaldrūg.
[43] With a reference to Ḵẖ̱wāja Mu’īnu-d-dīn Chishtī, buried at Ajmer, A.D. 1236.
[44] By the abjad system of reckoning, the letters of Jahāngīr and Allāhu Akbar both make up 288.
[45] The first year of the Hijrī era begins on Friday, July 15th-16th, A.D. 622.
[46] The variation is due to the fact that silver and copper only form a homogeneous alloy when mixed in the ratio of 71·89 of the former to 28·11 of the latter. This fact was certainly unknown at this period. Cf. J.A.S.B., N.S., XXXV, p. 22, “The Currency of the Pathan Sultans,” by H. R. Nevill.
[47] Cufic is the earliest rectilineal form of Arabic script.
[48] Tankah is an Indian name applied to coins of various weights and metals at different periods. For example, to the large silver and gold pieces of Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd, and later to a special copper issue of the Mug̱ẖal Akbar.
[49] The correct form of the Sultan’s name is Īltutmish; Altamsh is a popular corruption.
[50] Two gold coins of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad are the earliest known Muhammadan coins of this shape. Cf. Num. Chron., 1921, p. 345.
[51] J.A.S.B., N.S., XXXV, p. 25.
[52] A single specimen is known of the reign of Balban.
[53] The fine calligraphy, however, caused the coin to be reduced in size: all succeeding Sultans reproduced these small thick gold and silver pieces, but not the fine script, with the unfortunate result that the mint name which appears in the margin is frequently missing.
[54] I am indebted to Colonel H. R. Nevill and Mr. H. N. Wright for this information.
[55] Excluding the Forced Currency types.
[56] The chronology of these Sultans, long in doubt, has now been fixed. Cf. J.R.A.S., 1918, p. 451.
[57] Two gold coins are also known of these kings; one is in the British Museum.
[58] The name is derived from the port Lār, on the Persian Gulf, where this coin was first struck.
[59] For inscription, cf. Key to Plate X, 1.
[60] If the area is circular the Hindī inscription appears in the margin.
[61] The tolah in Jahāngīr’s time weighed probably between 185 and 187 grains.
[62] Cf. Lahore Museum Catalogue (Mug̱ẖal Emperors), Pl. XXI, iv.
[63] This starts from 28th Rab’ī II, A.H. 963, the first year of his reign, but was not instituted until the 29th year. The earliest known coin dated in this era is of the year 31.
[64] By S. H. Hodivala, Historical Studies in Mug̱ẖal Numismatics, Memoir No. II, Numismatic Society of India, Calcutta, 1923.
[65] In the possession of Mr. H. Nelson Wright, I.C.S.
[66] Jahāngīr used a solar era of his own, starting from the date of his accession. The years on Shāh Jahān’s coins are lunar. Cf. Hodivala, loc-cit.
[67] This Nepālī or Newār era was introduced by Rāja Rāghavadeva in A.D. 879.
[68] This was to stop peculation on the part of money-changers, bankers and even revenue collectors, who made a rebate on all rupees not of the current year.
[69] On the Banāras coins the actual regnal date, i.e. of Shāh ’Ālam II, is added beneath the conventional date 17; this was not adopted for other mints.
[70] The 20-cash piece had been struck by Ḥaidar ’Alī in the last two years of his reign, A.H. 1195-96. Cf. J. R. Henderson, The Coins of Ḥaidar ’Alī and Tīpū Sultān, Madras, 1921, p. 5.
[71] The Samvat, which corresponds with the Vikrama era, begins in 58 B.C.
[73] The two parts of this legend are quite separate in sense.