1865.] Ancient Indian Weights. 23 



incidentally portrayed. So that the Vedas proper, as might be antici- 

 pated, furnish but few references to money, and Manu confines his 

 notices to the formal letter of the law, though that brings within its 

 circle even the definition of the lowest rate of wages, which is fixed at 

 one pana a day, with an allowance of grain, &c. (vii. 126). The 

 Buddhist legends, on the contrary, abound in illustrations of every-day 

 life, including ordinary commercial dealings, frequent mention of 

 charitable donations and distributions ; and in one instance they have 

 preserved a record of the quaint item, that the Anonyma of her day, 

 in the ancient city of Mathura, estimated her favours at 500 puranas 

 (about £16). Burnouf, who cites this anecdote, has further collected 

 in his " Introduction a l'Histoire de Buddhisme," numerous passages 

 mentioning suvarnas, puranas, Jcalcini (ratis), and kdrshdptanas* and 

 among other things he reproduces a tale which exemplifies the curious 

 custom of the women of the period indulging in the habit of ornament- 

 ing the skirts of their garments with karshapanas. The notice of 

 Dindrsf has already been referred to, but the most important passage 

 under the numismatic aspect, in the Buddhist literature, is to be found 

 in the text of the " Mahawanso," where it is stated that the Brahman 

 Chanakya, the adviser of Chandra Gupta, " with the view of raising 

 resources, converted (by recoining) each haha pana into eight, and 

 amassed eighty hotis of kalidpanasy% 



If the Buddhist legends are to be taken as in any way correct ex- 

 ponents of the state of civilisation existing at the period to which they 

 professedly refer, it is clear that the act of recoining, and by conversion 

 and depreciation making each kdrshdpana into eight, would imply 

 unconditionally, not only that the art of coining had reached its most 

 advanced stage, but that the ideas and customs of the country had been 

 already trained by long usage, to identify the regal stamp with the 

 supposed assurance of fixed intrinsic value — a fallacy that was very early 



* Pp. 91, 102, 103, 145-7, 236, 238, 243, 245, 258, note 329, note 597. 



f Ibid, 423. 



% Tumour's " Mahawanso," Ceylon, 1837, p. xl. : and M. Miiller, " Sanskrit 

 Lit." 289. The Ceylon writers wrote according to their own lights, as unlike 

 the people of India Proper, who seem to have reserved the term Karshapana 

 for the copper coinage. The inhabitants of Ceylon and the Western coasts 

 appear to have coined both gold and silver into Karshapanas, Mdshas, and 

 other established weights ; though the generic term Kdrshdpana in books and 

 inscriptions usually indicates copper coin in the absence of any specification to 

 the contrary. 



