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Coinage of India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  Outline of South Asian history

  History of Indian subcontinent

Stone age (7000 – 3000 BC)[show] 

Bronze age (3000 – 1300 BC)[show] 

Iron age (1700 – 26 BC)[show] 

Middle Kingdoms (1 – 1279 AD)[show] 

Late medieval age (1206 – 1596 AD)[show] 

Early modern period (1526 – 1858 AD)[show] 

Other states (1102 – 1947 AD)[show] 

Colonial period (1505 – 1961 AD)[show] 

Kingdoms of Sri Lanka[show] 

Nation histories[show] 

Regional histories[show] 

Specialised histories[show] 

Coinage of  India, issued by Imperial dynasties and smaller  middle kingdoms of India beganduring the 1st millennium BCE, and consisted mainly of  copper and silver coins in its initialstage.[1] Scholars remain divided over the origins of Indian coinage.[2] 

In recent discoveries punched mark 'Mudras'(Coins) of stone have been found in lost city ofDwaraka. Which is said to be existed at least 5000 years ago. What is known, however, isthat metal currency was minted in India well before the Mauryan empire (322 –185 BCE),[3] andas radio carbon dating indicates, before the 5th century BCE.[2] 

The tradition of Indian coinage was further influenced by the coming

of  Turkic and Mughal conqurors in India, their main influence on Indian coinage was the useof  Arabic script.[4] The East India Company introduced uniform coinage in the 19th century, andthese coins were later imitated by the modern nation states of  Republic of India, Pakistan, SriLanka, and Bangladesh.[5] Numismatics plays a valuable role in determining certain period ofIndian history.[5] 

Contents

[show] Post Maha Janapadas period (400 BCE—200 CE)[edit] 

See also: Punch-marked coins

Early coins of India (400 BCE—100 CE) were made of  silver and copper, and bore animal andplant symbols on them.[1] Coinage of  Indo-Greek kingdom began to increasingly influence coinsfrom other regions of India by the 1st century BCE.[1] By this time a large number of tribes,dynasties and kingdoms began issuing their coins; Prākrit legends began to appear .[1] TheMauryan coins were punch marked with the royal standard to ascertain theirauthenticity.[6] The  Arthashastra, written by Kautilya, mentions minting of coins but also indicatesthat the violation of the Imperial Maurya standards by private enterprises may have been anoffense.[6] Kautilya also seemed to advocate a theory of bimetallism for coinage, which involvedthe use of two metals, copper and silver, under one government.[7] 

The extensive coinage of the Kushan empire (1st –3rd centuries CE) continued to influence the

coinage of the Guptas (320 to 550 AD) and the later rulers of  Kashmir .[1] 

During the early rise of  Roman trade with India up to 120 ships were setting sail every yearfrom Myos Hormos to India.[8] Gold coins, used for this trade, was apparently being recycled by theKushan empire for their own coinage. In the first century CE, the Roman writer  Pliny theElder complained about the vast sums of money leaving the Roman empire for India:

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“  "India, China and the Arabian peninsula take one hundred million sesterces from our empire per

annum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For what percentage

of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the dead?" - Pliny,  Historia

 Naturalis 12.41.84. ” 

The trade was particularly focused around the regions of  Gujarat, ruled by the Western Satraps, and the tip of the Indian peninsular in Southern India. Large hoards of Roman coins have beenfound and especially in the busy maritime trading centers of South India.[9] The South Indian kings

reissued Roman-like coinage in their own name, either producing their own copies or defacing realones in order to signify their sovereignty.[10] 

Early Common Era—Middle Ages (200—1300 CE)[edit] 

The Gupta Empire produced large numbers of gold coins depicting the Gupta kings performingvarious rituals, as well as silver coins clearly influenced by those of the earlier Western Satraps.[1] 

The percentage of gold in Indian coins under the reign of Gupta rulers showed a steady financialdecline over the centuries as it decreases from 90% pure gold under  Chandragupta I (319-335CE) to a mere 75-80% under  Skandagupta (467 CE).[11] Chandragupta I's coins also depict thethen queen of India, Kumaradevi, a Licchavi princess, whose name is also written on the same

coin.[12]

The more aggressive Samudragupta (335 – 380 CE) is shown as an archer, and holding abattle axe, while Sanskrit verses praise him as an invincible warrior .[12] The Gupta emperorscontinued to issue coinage until the 6th century, until waves of invasions from the Huns boughttheir reign to an end.[1] These Huns themselves issued coinage which was imitated from the earlierprototypes.[1] 

 Allan & Stern (2008) report on Indian coinage of the Middle Ages:[1] 

A notable adaptation of a Hun design was the neat silver coinage of the Shahis of  Gandhara of the "bull and

horseman" type in the 9th and 10th centuries, extensively imitated by the Muslim conquerors of India and

the contemporary minor  Hindu dynasties. The other type favoured by the medieval Hindu dynasties for their

gold coinage was that of a seated goddess — going back to a Gupta reverse — and an inscription with the

king's name on the other side.

 Arab campaigns in India led to a foothold in Sindh, where very small silver coins belonging tothe Umayyads are found.[1] The coinage of the Ghūrid invaders is mainly gold and silver coins,10.76 grams each.[1] 

Late Middle Ages—Contemporary History (1300—2000 CE)[edit] 

Further information: Indian rupee

Shēr Shāh of northern India issued massive silver currency bearing Islamic motiffs, later imitated

by the Mughal empire.[1]

 The coinage issued by emperors Akbar and Jahāngīr  bore intricateIslamiccalligraphy.[1] Srivastava & Alam (2008) comment on Indian coinage during Akbar's regime:[4] 

Akbar reformed Mughal currency to make it one of the best known of its time. The new regime possessed a

fully functioning trimetallic (silver, copper, and gold) currency, with an open minting system in which

anyone willing to pay the minting charges could bring metal or old or foreign coin to the mint and have it

struck. All monetary exchanges were, however, expressed in copper coins in Akbar's time. In the 17th

century, following the silver influx from the New World, silver rupee with new fractional denominations

replaced the copper coin as a common medium of circulation. Akbar's aim was to establish a uniform

coinage throughout his empire; some coins of the old regime and regional kingdoms also continued.

The Mughal coinage prevalent during Akbar's reign included the main small copper denomination,

the dām (Hindustani: دام/ ).[13] Dām is believed to be the source of the (originally British)

expression "to not give a damn" (i.e. to not care even a little).[14] The dām was also referred to as

the  paisa (  ,/ ).[13] In modern-day Hindustani, dām has become synonymous for priceہس

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and paisa is generically used as a word for money. There was a smaller copper coin, a "half dam"that replaced the bahloli  of the previous Lodi standard.

Trade-routes that spanned the Arabian Sea between India, the Arab regions and East Africaspread the usage of both Indian and Arabic currency terms across all these areas.[15] Several East African terms for money, including pesa and tickey  (from taka/tanka) originate from thisinteraction.[15] 

The Chinese maerchant Ma Huan (1413 –51) noted that gold coins, known as fanam, were issued

in Cochin and weighed a total of one fen and one li  according to the Chinese standards.

[16]

 Theywere of fine quality and could be exchanged in China for 15 silver coins of four-li  weighteach.[16] Indigenous coinage of India continued to be issued by the East India Company until 1858,and thereafter by the authorities of  British India, but a need for uniform coinage led to the curtailingof coins minted by the princely states in favor of an imperial coinage system.[1] The British startedissuing uniform coinage throughout India from 1835, after a proposal put forward by JamesPrincep. Princely states, however, continued to issue their own coinage in parallel, but in designsoften similar to the British standards. The modern nation states of  Republic of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka issued their own coinage by 1948.[1] Bangladesh soon followed on the 1 January1972.[1] 

In the Republic of India, the sole right of minting coins lies with the Government of India, as per the

terms of the Coinage Act, which has undergone several amendments since it was passed in1906.[17] Coins in denominations of, 50 paise, one rupee, two rupees, five rupees and ten rupeescame to be minted at the official Mints situated at Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Noida.[17]Thevarious operations related to coin circulation in the Republic of India are overseen by the ReserveBank of India.[17] 

Gallery[edit] 

 

Silver punch mark coin of the Maurya Empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd centuryBCE.

 

Silver coin ofChandragupta II of  Gupta Empire, 400 CE

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Gold coins ofChandragupta II of  Gupta Empire, 400 CE

 

Queen Kumaradevi and King Chandragupta I on a coin of their son Samudragupta 350 380CE.

 

Gold coin of  Gupta era, depicting a Gupta king holding a bow, 300 CE

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Maratha Empire,Chhatrapati Shivaji, Gold hon, c. 1674-80

 

Silver Rupee coin of Rudra Simha of  Ahom kingdom, 1696 AD

 

Maratha Kingdom of Baroda, Sayaji Rao III, 1870