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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
COINS contemporary of Yaśahkarna, mentions kumara-gadiānaka1 which shows that the gadyānakas, were current in the north as they were in the south.2 According to the Līlāvati of Bhāskarāchārya (I, 3), a gadyānaka weighed 48 ratis. The large gold coins of the Gāhadavālas weigh from 59 to 68 grains. They may be taken to be gadyānakas, making allowance for the variation in the weight of the ratis and for the usual deviation from the standard type. The large gold coins of Gāngēya which were the proto-type of the Gāhadavala coinage seem, therefore, to have been known also as gadyānakas.3 Smaller denominations of half, quarter and one-eighth tanka (or gadyānaka), struck by Gāngēya, are also known. The half-tanka was probably known as dharana.4 Whether the lower denominations had any special names is not known. Gāngeya’s gold tankas are frequently met with in the southern and eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh and some have been found in Madhya Pradesh also.5 Of the lower denominations the quarter-tanka is sometimes found, but the half-tanka an one-eighth tanka described by Cunningham are believed to be rare.6 Silver coins were called drammas as they were struck to the weight-standard of the Attic drachma or 67. 5 grains, though they rarely reach that standard. The silver coins of Gāngēya are very rare, Vincent Smith says that all pieces which seem at first sight to be silver were perhaps regarded officially as gold.7 The Besani stone inscription of K. 958 mentions certain contributions in drammas.8 From the Sīyadōnī inscription we learn that a quarter-dramma was known as pañchīyakadramma, because it was equal in value to five vimśōpakas.9 In the same inscription a halfdramma is called drammārdha and a three-quarter dramma dramma-tri-bhāga. Copper coins were known as panas. This name also is not noticed in the records edited here, but the Kaman stone inscription mentions drammas and panas, of which the former were of silver and the latter of copper.10 The standard weight of the pana was a karsha or 80 raktikas (146. 4 grains), but the recorded copper coins of Gāngēyadēva do not weigh more than 60 grainss. Perhaps they were half-panas. The lower denominations of sliver drammas and copper panas are wanting
In the Numismatic Supplement, No. XVII (J.A.S.B. for 1912, p. 123, Pl. VI),
Mr. Nelson Wright has described 8 gold coins of Gangeyadeva which had been found in
the village Isurpur in tahsil Rehli of the Saugor District. These coins differed in fabric
from the usual coins of Gāngēyadēva. They were thick and in diameter half an inch. It
is, therefore, suggested that they were struck by Karna, the son of Gāngēyadēva. Except
for these, no coins struck by Gāngēya’s successors are known.
1Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 305. |
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