22 
Notes on Indian Currencies. 
[no. 1, NEW SERIES, 
other people, while another part is devoted to a description of the 
provisions to be observed in suits for recovery of debts and such 
actionable matters, all of which are enumerated with the most 
punctilious nicety. 
In a chapter"^ on Judicature and on Law, Private and Criminal, it 
is ordered, that " a false witness speaking falsely through covetous- 
ness shall be fined a 100 />a«a5, through distraction of mind 250." 
Such examples may be multiplied ad libitum through the 12 books 
of the Institutes : when we have thdse illustrations so to speak, 
depicting the highly civilized and social position of the Hindoos 
certainly 3,000 years ago, to hope for any tK'istworthy accounts of 
what may have taken place anterior t(^ that' period respecting even 
so obvious and familiar a topic as money would be vain. 
One thing is certain, a very advanced state of civilization obtain- 
ed among Hindoos in very ancient times, certainly before Troy 
was besieged, probably when Theseus reigned in Athens, or when 
Abraham visited Egypt, and the further into antiquity the thread 
of their history extends, we are less likely to find any trusty infor- 
mation of their adoption of a circulating medium and the surround- 
ing causes that led to it. 
All that can now confidently be asserted is, that the precious 
metals were anciently found in India in great abundance, and that 
when in the course of nature the want of a currency made itself 
felt, a wide choice of qualified substances was available. 
Without drawing at present upon the earlier accounts which 
pretty generally hold India to be the fountain of everything pre- 
cious, ther^ are to be found in more modern times numerous allu- 
sions in the manifold histories of India to the existence of its riches, 
and to mines of precious ores and stones. 
Abul Fazl (Akbar's Prime Minister) in the Ayeen II, p. 47 speaks 
of the iron mines of Gwalior, of the profitable and rich copper works 
of Beerat and of a silver mine not worth mentioning. 
* Ch. -viii. para 120. 
