No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Upon The Contextual Significance of Centain Groups of Ancient Indiān Signs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
IT is more than 20 years since Durga Prasad published his ‘ Observations on different types of silver punch marked coins, their periods and locale ’1. In this lengthy paper one section was devoted to demonstrating that certain signs can be regarded as Mauryan royal marks (pp. N 61-7). This conclusion and the many probabilities it raises have long been widely accepted in India, but in Europe acceptance has been more reserved. We are not here concerned with Prasad' main argument but with the section indicated above, our purpose being to restate that part of the evidence and consider its probable meaning. From some points of view Prasad's advocacy was imperfect, for in presenting his case he made certain assumptions which we are unable to accept, and thus weakened the force of his argument.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , October 1959 , pp. 548 - 555
- Copyright
- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1959
References
page 548 note 1 JASB, 3rd Ser., III, 1937, Num. Suppl., N 51–92.
page 548 note 2 ARASI, 1907–8, 181 ff. The mortises of both pillars are clearly visible, pls. LXVI and Lxvna.
page 548 note 3 ASR, xvi, 1883, 112–13.
page 549 note 1 ARASl, 1912–13, pl. XLIX.
page 549 note 2 J. Allan, loc. cit., 1936, lxxiv–lxxvii.
page 550 note 1 Two coins were found at or near the base of the Aśokan column at sārnāth (ARASI, 1927–8); others in the ‘Mauryan level’ at Bulandibāgh; at Hastināpur B. B. Lal reports similar coins throughout his period III, dated by the presence of NBP ware (Ancient India, 10–11, 1954–5, 102–3); at Taxila their chief occurrence was in Bhir mound I and II (Marehall, Taxila, 1951, 756–63); at Maheshwar related types are found in levels producing NBP (Sankalia, Subbarao, and Deo, Excavations at Maheshwar, 1958, 66–72); and at Ahicchatrā, Rupar, and Ujjain they occur in equivalent levels (Ancient India, 9, 1953, 138 and 124, and Indian Archaeology, 1956–7, 23). Allan lists many other find spots. Srnce this páper went to press I have received a copy of S. C. Ray's Stratigraphic evidence of coins in Indin excavations and some allied issues (Numismatie Notes and Monographs, No. 8), Banaras, Numismatie Society of India, 1959. In this interesting study Ray shows with considerable detail the occurrence of cast copper coins in many recent excavations. Their earliest appearance is almost invariably in what we may call the period of the NBP, but other examples-often one suspects of clearly later types-occur consistently into the first century A.D.
page 550 note 2 They are at present housed in the Patna Museum.
page 550 note 3 O. Waage, Antioch-on-the-Orontes, iv, 1948, fig. 4, etc.
page 551 note 1 B. B. Lal, loc. cit., 57, for an example in NBP from the eaily part of period III at Hastināpur; for other examples in NBP from Rupar Rājgir, see Ancient India, 9, 1953, fig. 5, 127, and fig. 2, 120.
page 551 note 2 See particularly chapters 39–41 of Marshall's Taxila.
page 551 note 3 NIA, iv, 1941, 1–35 and 49–76; JBBRAS, XXIV–XXV, 1948–9, 33–47'.
page 551 note 4 Ep. Ind., XXII, 3, and Durga Prasad, loc. cit., N 61.
page 551 note 5 JASP, I, 1956, 109–20.
page 551 note 6 In Marshall's Taxila, 1951, 854–5.
page 552 note 1 JASB, xxx, 1934, Num. Suppl., N 5–59.
page 552 note 2 Śrī Parameśvarī Lal Gupta, numismatist of the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, has for some years been engaged in such a study and the publication of the results of his work is eagerly awaited.
page 552 note 3 Lal, loc. cit., 102.
page 552 note 4 Sharma, Y. D., Aneient India, 9, 1953, 123.Google Scholar
page 552 note 5 Sankalia, loc. cit., 66–70.
page 552 note 6 Here too, Ray (loc. cit.) has now provided a detailed study of the fmds in many recent excavations, and this bears out our contention regarding the relationship of these coins to the period of the NBP, just as it did for the cast copper coins.
page 552 note 7 Sircar, D. C., Select inscriptkms, 1952, 82–3 and 85, with further bibliography.Google Scholar
page 553 note 1 Altekar, A. S., JNSI, ix, 2, 1947.Google Scholar
page 554 note 1 Durga Prasad, loc. cit., N 63. Thus ‘ arms and allied objects are to be marked with the royal mark (narendrāṅka) and kept in the magazine ’, Arthaśāstra, v, 3.
page 555 note 1 Arthaśāstra, II, 12. Durga Prasad states (loc. cit., N 45) that the ‘ chemical quantitative analyeis ’ of a coin bearing the hill-with-creseent symbol showed percentages of silver, copper, and base metal which ‘ tallied very nearly ’ with the ideal proportions laid down by Kau⃛ilya in that chapter. This suggestive claim needs to be backed by more exhaustive chemical analysis if it is to be accepted. A similar investigation of the copper coins should now be made.