Everybody loves collecting coins of India but many of them do not really
know how coinage evolved over the years in the Indian subcontinent. If you are
a true numismatist, you will take some efforts to understand this aspect about
Indian coins. It all started when cowrie shells and beads were used for
transactions. Barter system was prevalent before coinage was invented. Barter
had its own problems related to evaluating commodities. There was a need for a
uniform system that could value all kinds of items for transactions. It is
believed that the first coins of India were punchmarked Shatmana coins. They
were struck in silver and were rectangular in shape. They belong to Gandhara
Janapada and were issued between 600 t0 300 BC.
There were many other Janapadas out there which used to issue coins of
their own. These include Magadha, Magadha Mauryan, Ayodhya, Shakya, Kuntala,
Kashi etc. You should consider yourself to be lucky if you have an Indian coin
belonging to one of these Janapadas. Then there were great ancient empires like
Western Kshatrapas, Guptas, Satavahanas etc which also issued some absolutely
stunning Indian coins. Gold coins of Gupta period are sought after even today
and are sold for great prices at auction houses all over the world.
When it comes to ancient and early medieval kingdoms, Central India,
Malwa, Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Narmada valley are some of the prominent
territories which issued unique coins in India. Ancient coins of South India is a
completely different category altogether. The most famous among them are
Pandyas, Banawasi, Pallavas, Chera etc. The Indian subcontinent was attacked by
foreign invaders too since ancient times. They captured territories and started
ruling over them. Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythian and Kushan coins are also some of
the most desired coins of India in the world of numismatics. Apart from mighty
Kingdoms, there were independent city states as well like Mathura, Kolhapur,
Ayodhya, Taxila etc. Each of these city states also produced unique Indian
coins of their own.
We have only touched upon ancient coins as of now. There is a lot more
to explore when it comes to medieval and modern coins of India. You will start
falling in love with all of them when you start studying about the evolution of
Indian coinage.
No comments:
Post a Comment