JOURNAL 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Part I.— HISTORY, LITERATURE, &c. 



No. II.— 1865. 



Ancient Indian Weights, No. III. — By E. Thomas, Esq. 

 [Eeceived 15th March, 1865.] 

 THE EARLIEST INDIAN COINAGE. 



So many questions connected with the earliest form of Indian money 

 have been incidentally adverted to in the examination of the weights 

 upon which it was based, and from whose very elements as divisional 

 sections of metal, all Indian coinages took their origin, that but little re- 

 mains to be said in regard to the introductory phase of local numismatic 

 art, beyond a reference to the technic details, and a casual review of the 

 symbols impressed upon these normal measures of value. The con- 

 trast, however, between the mechanical adaptations of the east and 

 west may properly claim a momentary notice, with the view of testing 

 the validity of the assumption I have previously hazarded respecting 

 the complete independence of the invention of a metallic circulating 

 medium by the people of Hindustan.* 



Many years ago the late Mr. Burgonf correctly traced, from the then 

 comparatively limited data, the germ and initial development of the 

 art of coining money in Western Asia, describing the process as ema-. 



* Num. Ohrtra., N. S., vol. ill note, p. 226; and more in detail in my edition 

 of Prinsep's "Essays" (Murray, London, 1858), vol. i. p. 217. 

 f Numismatic Jourual, 1837, vol. i. p. 118. 



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