Karshapana

Kārshāpaṇa (Sanskrit: कार्षापण), according to the Ashtadhyayi of Panini, refers to ancient Indian coins current during the 7th and the 6th century BCE onwards, which were unstamped and stamped (āhata) metallic pieces whose validity depended on the integrity of the person authenticating them. Parmeshwari lal Gupta states that there is no proof that such coins were first issued by merchants and traders but adds that they did contribute to the development and spread of coin usage. Kārshāpaṇas were basically silver pieces stamped with one to five or six rūpas ('symbols') originally only on the obverse side of the coins initially issued by the Janapadas and Mahajanapadas, and generally carried minute mark or marks to testify their legitimacy. Silver punch-marked coins ceased to be minted sometime in the second century BCE but exerted a wide influence for next five centuries.

The period of the origin of the punch-marked coins is not yet known, but their origin was indigenous. The word, Kārshāpaṇa, first appears in the Sutra literature, in the Samvidhān Brāhmana. Coins bearing this name were in circulation during the Sutra and the Brāhmana period and also find a mention in the early Buddhist (Dhammapada verse 186) and Persian texts of that period. Patanjali in his commentary on the vārttikas of Kātyāyana on Aṣṭādhyāyī uses the word, "Kārshāpaṇa", to mean a coin –

while explaining the use of the suffix – शस् taken up by Pāṇini in Sutra V.iv.43, in this case, कार्षापण + शः to indicate a "coin". The Shatapatha Brahmana speaks about Kārshāpaṇas weighing 100 ratis which kind were found buried at Taxila by John Marshall in 1912. The Golakpur (Patna) find pertains to the period of Ajātaśatru. The Chaman – I – Hazuri (Kabul) find includes two varieties of punch-marked Indian coins along with numerous Greek coins of 600-500 BCE, thereby indicating that those kind of Kārshāpaṇas were contemporaneous to the Greek coins and in circulation as legal tender.

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