Part 2

To return to Northern India: at the time of Alexander’s invasion the whole of North-Western India and the Panjāb was split up into a number of small states, some, like the important state of Taxila, ruled by a king, others governed by “aristocratic oligarchies.” Almost all the coins about to be dealt with are either of copper or brass, and the earliest of them were struck, doubtless, by the ruling authorities in these states. Even after their subjection to the great Maurya Emperors some of these states may have retained their coining rights, for it is a salient fact in the history of coins that coinage in the base metals in India and elsewhere has not, until quite recent times, been recognized, like coinage in gold and silver, as the exclusive privilege of the ruler. A striking example is afforded in the copper token money issued by private tradesmen in England during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. On the break up of the Maurya Empire, at the close of the third century, a number of small independent kingdoms sprang into existence, and these proceeded to issue coins, some bearing evident traces of foreign influence, but on the whole following Indian models closely enough to be included here.

No attempt can be made to deal with this class of coins exhaustively: a few typical examples only can be selected for description and illustration. The reader who wishes to pursue the subject further is referred for guidance to the Bibliography at the end of this book; and, since at present little attempt has been made to classify or examine these coins in any detail, fewer fields of research are likely to yield a richer reward to the patient student.

The earliest of these copper coins, some of which may be as early as the fifth century B.C., were cast. The casting of coins by pouring molten metal into a cavity formed by joining two moulds together must have been a very ancient practice in India. Sometimes the moulds of several coins were joined together for the casting process, and the joins thus left are not infrequently found still adhering to the coins (Pl. I, 3).[6] These coins are for the most part anonymous. Even after striking from dies had superseded this clumsy method in the North-West, we find cast coins being issued at the close of the third century by the kingdoms of Kauśāmbī, Ayodhyā and Mathurā, some of which bear the names of local kings in the Brāhmī[7] script.

[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.

The earliest die-struck coins, with a device on one side of the coin only, have been assigned to the end of the fourth century B.C. Some of these, with a lion device, were certainly struck at Taxila, where they are chiefly found. Others present various Buddhist symbols, such as the _bodhi-tree_, _svastika_, or the plan of a monastery, and may therefore belong to the time of Aśoka, when Buddhism first reached the North-West, or Gandhāra, as the territory was then called. The method of striking these early coins was peculiar, in that the die was impressed on the metal when hot, so that a deep square incuse, which contains the device, appears on the coin. A similar incuse appears on the later double-die coins of Pañchāla (Pl. I, 4), Kauśāmbī, and on some of Mathurā. This method of striking may have been introduced from Persia, and was perhaps a derivative from the art of seal-engraving.

In the final stage of die-striking, devices were impressed on both sides of the coin, and the best of these “double-die” coins show not only greater symmetry of shape, either round or square, but an advance in the art of die-cutting. Some of the earliest of this type have been classed as gild tokens. The finest were struck in Gandhāra: among these one of the commonest, bearing a lion on the obverse, and an elephant on the reverse (Pl. I, 5), is of special importance, since an approximate date can be assigned to it, for it was imitated by the Greek princes, Pantaleon (Pl. II, 2) and Agathokles, who reigned on the North-West frontier about the middle of the second century B.C. In the execution and design of some die-struck coins from the North-West there are undoubted traces of foreign influences: but such devices as the humped bull, the elephant and the religious symbols are purely Indian. There is, on the other hand, little foreign influence traceable in the die-struck coins, all closely connected in point of style, which issued during the first and second centuries B.C. from Pañchāla, Ayodhyā, Kauśāmbī and Mathurā. A number of these bear Brāhmī inscriptions, and the names of ten kings, which some would identify with the old Śuṅga dynasty, have been recovered from the copper and brass coins of Pañchāla, found in abundance at Rāmnagar in Rohilkhand, the site of the ancient city Ahichhatra. Similarly twelve names of kings appear on the Mathurā coins, but we have little knowledge of these kingdoms beyond what the coins supply. Certain devices are peculiar to each series: thus most of the Ayodhyā coins have a humped bull on the obverse, the coins of Kauśāmbī a tree within a railing.

In the coins of Eraṇ[8] we have an illustration, as Rapson says, “of the development of the punch-marked system into the die system.” These coins are rectangular copper pieces (Pl. I, 6), and the device on each consists of a collection of symbols like those which appear on the “punch-marked” coins, but struck from a single die. They are specially interesting in that they represent the highest point of perfection reached by purely Indian money. Some of these, in common with a class of round coins found at Ujjain (Avanti), display a special symbol, the “cross and balls,” known from its almost universal occurrence on the coins of ancient Mālwā as the Mālwā or Ujjain symbol.

[8] Eraṇ, or Erakina, the capital of the ancient East Mālwā kingdom, in the Saugor district, Central Provinces.

KEY TO PLATE I

1. Round punch-marked coin. AR. Wt. about 50 grs. Obv., an animal, solar symbol, etc. Rev., three symbols.

2. Rectangular punch-marked coin. AR. Obv., bull, solar symbol, etc. Rev., several indistinct symbols.

3. Pair of cast coins, showing join. Æ. Obv., three-arched chaitya, crescent above. Rev., elephant to left.

4. Pañchāla: Phalgunīmitra. Æ. Wt. about 220 grs. Obv., figure standing on lotus, to left a symbol. Rev., in incuse, in early Brāhmī, _Phagunimitrasa_ “(Coin) of Phalgunīmitra”; above 3 symbols.

5. Taxila; double-die coin. Æ. Wt. about 180 grs. Obv., elephant to right, above a chaitya. Rev., in incuse, lion standing to left, above swastika, to left chaitya.

6. Eraṇ; punch-marked. Æ. Obv., various symbols, including an elephant and the Ujjain symbol.

7. Andhra: Gotamīputra Viḷivāya kura. Bil. Wt. about 200 grs. Obv., chaitya within railing, above swastika, to right a tree. Rev., bow and arrow; around _Raño Gotamiputasa Viḷivāyakurasa_ “(Coin) of Rāja Gotamīputra Viḷivāyakura.”

8. Mathurā; Rājuvala, satrap. Bil. Wt. 38 grs. Obv., diademed bust of king to right; corrupt Greek legend. Rev., Pallas with ægis and thunderbolt to left; Kharoshṭhī legend, _Apratihatachakrasa chhatrapasa Rajavulasa_ “(Coin) of the satrap Rājavula, invincible with the discus.” Kharoshṭhī letters in field.

_Note._—Where it has been impossible to ascertain the weight of the particular coin illustrated, the average weight of coins of its class has been given; all such weights are qualified by the word “about.”

KEY TO PLATE II

1. Sophytes (Saubhūti). AR. Drachm. Wt. 58·3 grs. Obv., helmeted head of king to right. Rev., cock to right, above caduceus; in Greek, _Sophutou_.

2. Pantaleon. Æ. Wt. about 160 grs. Obv., in incuse, lion to right. In Greek, _Basileōs Pantaleontos_ “(Coin) of king Pantaleon.”[9] Rev., Indian dancing girl. In Brāhmī, _Rajane Patalevasha_.

[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.

3. Apollodotos. Æ. Wt. 235-255 grs. Obv., Apollo clad in chlamys and boots standing to right, holding an arrow. In Greek, _Basileōs sōtēros Apollodotou_; monogram to left. Rev., tripod, Kharoshṭhī letters in field. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa tratarasa Apaladatasa_. “(Coin) of the king, the saviour, Apollodotos.”

4. Menander. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 37·7 grs. Obv., diademed bust of king to left, thrusting javelin with right hand. In Greek, as No. 3, but _Menandrou_. Rev., Pallas to left with ægis on outstretched arm, hurling thunderbolt with right hand. Monogram to right. In Kharoshṭhī as No. 3, but _Menadrasa_.

5. Hippostratos. AR. Didrachm. Wt. 143·2 grs. Obv., diademed head of king to right. In Greek, _Basileōs megalou sōtēros Hippostratou_ “(Coin) of the great king, the saviour H.” Rev., king in full panoply on horse to right, monogram to right. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa tratarasa mahatasa jayaṁtasa Hipustratasa_ “(Coin) of the king, the great saviour, the conqueror Hippostratos.”

6. Menander. Æ. Wt. 38 grs. Obv., elephant’s head with bell round neck. Rev., club of Herakles with two symbols. Legends as No. 4.

7. Philoxenos. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 27·3 grs. Obv., helmeted bust of king to right. In Greek, _Basileōs anīkētou Philoxenou_. Rev., king on horseback; to right, Greek letter S, and monogram. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa apaḍihatasa Philasinasa_ “(Coin) of the unconquered king Philoxenos.”

8. Antialkidas. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 37·9 grs. Obv., bust of king to right wearing flat “kausia.” In Greek, _Basileōs nīkēphorou Antialkidou_. Rev., Zeus on throne bearing Nikē on outstretched right hand; elephant, retiring to left, has snatched away her crown. Monogram in field. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa jayadharasa Aṁtialikitasa_. “(Coin) of the victorious king, Antialkidas.”

9. Hermaios and Kalliope. AR. Hemidrachm. Obv., conjugate busts of king and queen to right; in Greek, _Basileōs sōtēros Hermaiou kai Kalliopēs_. Rev., king on prancing horse to right. Monogram below. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa tratarasa Heramayasa Kaliyapaya_.

10. Strato I with Strato II. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 37 grs. Obv., diademed bust of aged king. In Greek, _Basileōs Sōtēros Strātōnos uiou Strātōnos_. (Meaning doubtful.) Rev., Pallas to left with ægis and thunderbolt. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa tratarasa Stratasa potrasa chasa priyapita Stratasa_, “(Coin) of king Strato Sōtēr and of his grandson, Strato Philopatēr.”

11. Nahapāna. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 29·2 grs. Obv., head of satrap to right. Corrupt Greek legend. Rev., thunderbolt and arrow. In Brāhmī, _Raño Chhaharatasa_; in Kharoshṭhī, _Nahapanasa_, “(Coin) of the Kshaharāta king Nahapāna.”

Though its territory lay partially in Southern India, it will be convenient to include here the coinage of the great Andhra dynasty, since several of its issues are closely connected with the currency of the north. The Andhras probably became independent about the year 230 B.C., and their rule lasted for four and a half centuries. Their coins of various types have been found in Mālwā, on the banks of the Krishna and Godavari rivers, the original home of the race, as far south as Madras, in north Konkan, and elsewhere in the Deccan and the Central Provinces. The earliest to which a date can be assigned are those bearing the name of a king Śrī Sāta, about 150 B.C. Most Andhra coins are either of billon[10] or lead, with Brāhmī legends on both obverse and reverse, and characteristic devices are the elephant, _chaitya_ (Buddhist chapel), and bow (Pl. I, 7). Sometimes the “Ujjain symbol” appears on the reverse. One issue, in lead, of Vasishṭhīputra Śrī Pulumāvi (about A.D. 130) is interesting, in that it has on the obverse a ship with two masts, and was evidently intended for circulation on the Coromandel coast. Coins have been assigned to seven Andhra kings, the latest of which, Śrī Yajña Sātakarṇī (about A.D. 184), struck not only the usual lead and billon coins, but restruck and imitated the silver hemidrachms of the satrap Nahapāna (Pl. III, 1). The Andhra lead coinage was copied by one or two feudatory chiefs in Mysore and North Kanara.

[10] Billon, or potin, is a mixture of silver and copper in varying proportions.

II

COINS OF THE INDO-GREEKS, THE ŚAKAS AND PAHLAVAS

We have seen in the last chapter how foreign influences gradually began to make themselves felt in the fabric and design of the purely native coins of the North-West. These influences gradually widened until the whole of Northern, Western and parts of Central India were affected. Through eight centuries these foreign types were reproduced on the coins of those territories; and we can observe the gradual debasement of the original models as they become less and less intelligible to successive strikers, until they disappear in the general cataclasm that succeeded the terrible inroads of the Huns in the sixth century. In the secluded kingdom of Kashmīr one type did indeed survive as late as the fifteenth century, a mere shadow of a shade, from which all form and feature had vanished. The coins included in this chapter and the next are those of the invaders who brought about this important change.

But a further and a greater importance attaches to them. Since the important discovery, in 1824, by Colonel Tod, that Greek coins had once been struck in India, the names of thirty-three Greek and twenty-six[11] Indo-Scythia nor Śaka and Indo-Parthian or Pahlava princes, ruling territories round the Indian frontier, have gradually been recovered from coin legends, and not more than half-a-dozen of these are known from other sources. Even the names of the later Kushāṇa kings were first deciphered from their coins. Thus coins alone have been responsible for the recovery of a whole period of Indian history.

Probably no class of Indian coins has attracted more attention or been subjected to more patient examination than these, which mark the first intermingling of Eastern and Western culture in India; yet, as the relationship of the different kings and dynasties who minted them, their dates, and the territories over which they ruled are still largely matters of conjecture, it will be well to sketch in outline the probable course which events took in Northern India and the adjacent countries from the time of Alexander to the first century of our era.

In October, 326 B.C., Alexander began his retreat from the Panjāb. To commemorate his victories he struck a medal;[12] about the same time an Indian prince, Sophytes (Saubhūti), struck a silver coin (Pl. II, 1) in the Greek style; with these two exceptions scarcely a mark or lasting trace of his invasion remained. Eleven years after Alexander’s death his general, Seleucos, founded the Seleucid kingdom of Syria. Between the years 250-248 B.C. two of the chief Syrian provinces revolted and became independent kingdoms, Bactria under Diodotos and Parthia under Arsakes, both events fraught with important consequences for India and her coinage. The fourth Bactrian king, Demetrios (c. 190-150 B.C.), son of Euthydemos, as the Mauryan Empire fell into decay, was able to extend his kingdom as far as the Panjāb, and assumed the title of “King of the Indians.” But about the same time he was confronted with a rival, Eukratides (c. 175-155 B.C.), who deprived him of his Bactrian dominions, and even of a portion of Gandhāra (the present districts of Peshāwar and Rawalpindi). Henceforward there were two rival Greek dynasties, the house of Eukratides, including the princes Heliokles, Antialkidas and Hermaios, ruling in Kābul, Kandahār and Gandhāra, and the house of Euthydemos, of whom the principal rulers were Apollodotos, Menander, Strato I, Zoilos and Hippostratos, in East Gandhāra and the Panjāb. Pantaleon, Agathokles and Antimachos, of the latter family, appear to have been petty princes ruling north of Kābul (c. 155-140 B.C.), and there must have been similar small principalities elsewhere, whose rulers were contemporary. About the year 135 B.C. Heliokles, the last king of Bactria, was driven out of that country by a Scythian tribe, the Śakas, and fixed the headquarters of his rule at Kābul, and here his descendants continued to reign till some time after 40 B.C., when the last of them, Hermaios, was driven out by the Pahlavas. Meanwhile, in about the year 126 B.C., the Śakas, pressed in their turn by another nomadic tribe from Central Asia, the Yueh-chi, were driven out of Bactria, and invaded India by way of Ariāna (Herāt) and Drangiāna (Seistān), fixing their headquarters in Sind (Śakadvīpa). Moving thence up the Indus valley, about the year 75 B.C., their chief, Maues, captured Pushkalāvatī (Peshāwar), and thus drove a wedge in between the dominions of the two Greek houses. His successor, Azes I, the possible founder of the Vikrama era in 58 B.C., finally crushed the house of Euthydemos, in the person of Hippostratos, in the Eastern Panjāb, some time after 40 B.C. Closely related to the Śakas were the Pahlavas. The earlier Pahlava princes, Vonones, Spalahores, and Spalirises ruled in Drangiāna and Arachosia (Kandahār), whence, as already related, they overran Kābul. Later on, in the first century A.D., probably through a family alliance, they succeeded the Śakas in northern India and we find the great king Gondopharnes (A.D. 19-45) ruling in Taxila. Associated with the Śaka and Pahlava kings were a number of military governors, such as Aspavarma and Sasas, whose names appear on coins with those of their suzerains. Other rulers like Miaos are more difficult to place.

[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.

I. COINS OF THE INDO-GREEKS

The splendid series of portrait coins of the Greek kings of Bactria does not come within the scope of this work: their gold and silver pieces, struck on the Attic standard,[13] were never current in India proper, where they are rarely found, and they really belong to the history of Greek coinage. Nevertheless they are of the utmost importance for our subject, for in following these models the Indo-Greek kings introduced Greek types, and among them the portrait head, into the Indian coinage, and their example was followed for eight centuries. This word “type” needs some definition. Originally it meant the particular mark of authority on a coin as distinct from other marks, but it has come to imply a distinguishing device more or less artistic in character. Such devices appear on all Greek and Roman coins. In this sense the coins of the Muhammadans cannot properly be said to display “types,” for both obverse and reverse are usually occupied entirely by the inscription.

[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.

Demetrios was the first Bactrian king to strike square copper coins of the Indian type, with a legend in Greek on the obverse, and in Kharoshṭhī on the reverse. His rival, Eukratides, struck these bilingual square copper pieces in greater abundance, as well as a very rare silver coin with inscriptions in both languages. The Gandhāra copper coinage of Agathokles and Pantaleon (Pl. II, 2) has already been alluded to. After the removal of the seat of government to territory south of the Hindu Kush, we find the coinage undergoing a radical change. The rare gold staters and the splendid tetradrachms of Bactria disappear. The silver coins of the Indo-Greeks, as these later princes may conveniently be called, are the didrachm (Pl. II, 5) and the hemidrachm. With the exception of certain square hemidrachms of Apollodotos and Philoxenos (Pl. II, 7), they are all round, are struck to the Persian (or Indian) standard, and all have inscriptions in both Greek and Kharoshṭhī characters. Copper coins, square for the most part, are very numerous (Pl. II, 6). The devices are almost entirely Greek, and must have been engraved by Greeks, or Indians trained in the Greek traditions, yet “the engravers ... were no slavish copyists of Western models, but were giving free and spontaneous expression to their own ideas.”[14] On the reverse is ordinarily to be found some god or goddess—Herakles, Zeus, Pallas, or some symbol of their worship; the “two piloi” (caps) of the Dioskouroi are of frequent occurrence. A notable square copper coin of Eukratides has the figure of a seated Zeus, accompanied by the legend in Kharoshṭhī, “_The city deity of Kāpiśī_,” suggesting that others of these deities may stand as the patrons of cities.[15] Other reverse devices are the tripod, a king on horseback, and various animals, including the specially Indian elephant and humped bull. The portraits on the obverse, especially on the fine didrachms, are realistic and boldly drawn, and show us clearly what manner of men these early European rulers in India were. On most of these coins and those of the Śaka rulers are found a great variety of monograms (Fig. 3) formed of Greek letters, but the significance of these has never been satisfactorily explained. From a study of monograms and types, and particularly from observing the gradual debasement in style which takes place, experts have been able to arrange these kings in chronological order. Such tests are sometimes, however, delusive; the king, Zoilos, for example, minted two types of hemidrachm, one in comparatively fine style, the other very debased.

[14] Marshall, _Guide to Taxila_, p. 27.

[15] For other city types see _Camb. History of India_, Vol. I, p. 557 _sq._