Survival of Hieroglyphs on Punch Marked Coins

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Survival of Sarasvati hieroglyphs on punch-markedcoins

The survival of Sarasvati hieroglyphs is demonstrated in many symbols on early punch-marked coins. That the hieroglyphs are related to the work in mints indicate that thefunction and meanings of the hieroglyphs are linked with early metallurgy and inventionof alloys.In his 1890 monograph, Theobald lists 312 symbols. He revises the list to 342 symbols inhis 1901 monograph. It should be noted that many of the symbols recorded on punch-marked coins also survive on later coinages, in particular of Ujjain and Eran and on manycast coins of janapadas. DR Bhandarkar’s view is that the early punch-marked coinage inHindustan is datable to 10

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century BCE though the numismatists claim that the earliestcoinage is that of Lydia of 7

th

century BCE.“The coins to which these notes refer, though presenting neither king’s names, dates of inscription of any sort, are nevertheless very interesting not only from their being theearliest money coined in India, and of a purely indigenous character, but from their beingstamped with a number of symbols, some of which we can, with the utmost confidence,declare to have originated in distant lands and in the remotest antiquity…The coins towhich I shall confine my remarks are those to which the term ‘punch-marked’ properlyapplies. The ‘punch’ used to produce these coins differed from the ordinary dies whichsubsequently came into use, in that they covered only a portion of the surface of the coinor ‘blank’, and impressed only one, of the many symbols usually seen on theirpieces…One thing which is specially striking about most of the symb ols representinganimals is, the fidelity and spirit with which certain portions of it may be of an animal, orcertain attitudes are represented…Man, Woman, the Elephant, Bull, Dog, Rhinoceros,Goat, Hare, Peacock, Turtle, Snake, Fish, Frog, are all recognizable at a glance…First,there is the historical record of Quintus Curtius, who describes the Raja of Taxila (themodern Shahdheri, 20miles north-west from Rawal Pindi) as offering Alexander 80talents of coined silver (‘signati argenti’). Now what other, except these punch-markedcoins could these pieces of coined silver have been? Again, the name by which thesecoins are spoken of in the Buddhist sutras, about 200 BCE was ‘purana’, which simplysignies ‘old’, whence the General argunes that the word ‘old as applied to the indigenous‘karsha’, was used to distinguish it from the new and more recent issues of the Greeks.Then again a mere comparison of the two classes of coins almost itself suffices to refutethe idea of the Indian coins being derived from the Greek. The Greek coins present uswith a portrait of the king, with his name and titles in two languages together with a greatnumber and variety of monograms indicating, in many instances where they have beendeciphered by the ingenuity and perseverance of General Cunningham and others, thenames of the mint cities where the coins were struck, and it is our ignorance of thegeographical names of the period that probably has prevented the whole of themreceiving their proper attribution; but with the indigenous coins it is far otherwise, as they

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2display neither king’s head, neame, titles or mongrams of any description…It is true thatGeneral Cunningham considers that many of these symbols, though not monograms in astrict sense, are nevertheless marks which indicate the mints where the coins were struck or the tribes among whom they were current, and this contention in no wise invalidatesthe supposition contended for by me either that the majority of them possess an esotericmeaning or have originated in other lands at a period anterior to their adoption for thepurpose they fulfil on the coins in Hindustan.” (W. Theobald, 1890, Notes on some of thesymbols found on the punch-marked coins of Hindustan, and on their relationship to thearchaic symbolism of other races and distant lands,

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bombay Branch (JASB),

Part 1. History , Literature etc., Nos. III & IV, 1890, pp.181 to 184)W. Theobald, Symbols on punch-marked coins of Hindustan (1890, 1901) http://www.scribd.com/doc/12919753/theobaldpunchmarkedsymbolshindustan W. Theobald, 1890, Notes on some of the symbols found on the punch-markedcoins of Hindustan, and on their relationship to the archaic symbolism of otherraces and distant lands,

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bombay Branch(JASB),

Part 1. History , Literature etc., Nos. III & IV, 1890, pp. 181 to 268,Plates VIII to XIW. Theobald, 1901, A revision of the symbols on the ‘Karshapana’ Coinage,described in Vol. LIX,

JASB

, 1890, Part I, No. 3, and Descriptions of manyadditional symbols,

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bombay Branch(JASB), No. 2, 1901

(Read December, 1899).Plates VIII to XI of Theobald, 1890 listing symbols on punch-marked coins:

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