INDIA

Historic significance in seven volumes. He also synthesized the development of indigenous states in his major work, The Indianised States of Southeast Asia.

Coinage In any society, a system of currency is clear evidence for economic complexity, and coinage is often associated with the development of trade and acts as a stimulant to trade.

INDIA

The study of Indian coins began in the early years of the 19th century, when James Tod had local people collect them after the rains had caused erosion at mathura and other sites in the area. He reported coins of the Indo-Greek king Menander (r. 150-135 B. C.E.). Westerners in India were also interested in Roman coinage. A hoard of 522 coins of the Julio-Claudian dynasty was found at Vel-laloor in 1842. A massive collection of gold coins from the Roman empire was discovered by chance in 1847 in a brass vessel near Calicut. They were in mint condition, and according to a contemporary report, they comprised “five coolly loads.” From 1850 numismatists turned their attention to Indian coins, largely after the decipherment of the BRAHMI script, which made it possible to read the INSCRIPTIONS. JAMES PRINSEP made the early observation that the Indian issues were based on bactrian Greek models. This is only partially true. In India the earliest coins date to the end of the sixth century b. c.e. and took the form of rectangular pieces of silver on which a design was punched. Hence they are known as punch-marked coins, and the designs usually incorporated animals and plants, human figures, trees, and hills that follow a definite pattern. They were almost certainly issued by the rulers of janapadas, or early states, but some could have been made by craft or merchant guilds. The punch-marked coins found in central India, for example, bore specific designs that include a sphere in a pentagon specific to this area. Early examples of punch-marked silver coins are from a hoard found at Chaman Huzuri that contained 43 silver punch-marked coins together with coins minted in Athens and the Achaemenid empire. The Kalinga janapada issued a punch-marked coin almost square in form, but with one-quarter circular. An important hoard discovered in 1924 at the bhir mound, taxila, modern Pakistan, contained more than 1,000 worn punch-marked coins in association with two coins of ALEXANDER THE GREAT in mint condition. Taxila was the center for the issue of a particular type of punch-marked coin known as the satamana (100 units) bent bar. These coins have a consistent weight of 100 rattis of silver; a ratti weighs 0.11 gram. In due course early Indian coinage was denominated on the basis of one karshapana, or 32 rattis. The unique shape and the regional forms of the silver punch-marked coins, together with their early date, make a local origin of coinage likely.