The coins of the period are :
(i)
Eldling, Purana or Kahapanas ;
(ii)
Single-die coins in silver and copper ;
(iii)
Early Pandyan ;
(iv)
Coins of various obverse types and railed swastika reverse ;
(v)
Rectangular " Bull type "
(vi)
The " Mane-less Lion " type, which can be fixed definitely as
being in use in the reign of Mahasen A.D.277-304 (G.315-325) ;
(vii)
Plaques of the Lakshmi and Swastika (viii) Roman, the majority of which
are " third brass " of Constantine the Great and his successors' . to
the reign of Theodosius II ;
(viii)
Indo-Roman, of native make, the best imitations being of the fifth or
even fourth centuries while the most degraded nay date from the sixth ;
(ix)
Miscellaneous, comprising among others two stray. Parthian drachmas, a
few Sassanian copper coins and late Gupta hemi drachms of the Rudradamaka
kahapana types. ELDLINGS
ELDLINGS
2. The punch-marked coins called in Sanskrit
Purana “old,” - Englished as "eldlings", are found in Ceylon
as well as throughout India. They may be recognized in the " signatum
argentum " offered a tribute to Alexander at Taxila, but in all
probability their origin must be sought in a remoter past, The Persian Empire
was bounded by the Indus from the end of the sixth century, and a money of this
early type is not likely; to have been initiated when a far superior model was
furnished by the darics and sigli ; if the Buddhist scriptures
are to be trusted, the beginnings of the eldling coinage must be anterior to
the tine of Gautama. Although they do not seem to have been current in the
North much after the beginning of our era, they continued in circulation in the
South for some two centuries later according to Mr. Vincent A. Smith (Imperial
Gazetteer of India, Vol. II. p. 150).Mr. Loventhal, in his "Coins of
Tinnevelly, " would extend the period of their use to about A.D. 300. The
reasons adduced by Mr. Still (J.R.A.S., C.B., Vol. XIX, No. 58, 1907, p.
191,ff) to prove the circulation of this class of money in Ceylon about A.D.
1000 appear to be inadequate; the currency of the Island was closely connected
with that of South India, and in all probability the employment of the eldling
ceased in both countries about the same.
The eldlings were manufactured by subdividing
bars of metal or strips cut from a hammered silver, weight being adjusted where
necessary by clipping the corners of each coin so formed. The obverse is
usually covered with punch marks, often overlapping and clearly impressed at
different times; the marks on the reverse, on the other hand, are usually fewer
in number, in the great number of cases one only, are less distinct, and
frequently smaller. These archaic coins were probably issued " by local
authorities-money-changers or merchants and were submitted by then for the approval
of the local king or governor, whose stamp appears on the reverse-. The punch
marks on the other side, once blank, being those of the successive
money-changers, through whose hand they passed in the course of circulation
(Theobald, Notes on some Symbols; Rapson, Counter-marks). In Ceylon these marks
are absent from the obverse of the majority of the later dumpy pieces. On none
of the eldlings found locally have I been able to trace on the reverse any
constantly recurring symbol which can be attributed to the Island, such as the
railed swastika of the copper die-struck issues I am, therefore, inclined to
the belief that all eldlings current in Ceylon were imported from India. If the
Arthasastra is to be credited, in Magadha in the time of Candragupta there were
coined, at least in theory, in addition to the silver pana or eldlings,
its half, quarter, and eighth, and in copper the ,whole and half mashaka,
corresponding with Manu’s karshapana, and its quarter and eighth, the whole and
half kakini (op cit., Bk. I,Chap.12 ). As Canakya, before his master's
accession to the throne, is said to have amassed treasure by re-coining (Chap.
II, sec. I) the introduction of a State mint, perhaps, may have been due to the
policy of the founder of the Maurya Empire. The standard of the silver eldling is the dharana of 32 gunjas; in
the South it is said by Elliot to have been the kalanju seed, but in
practice there was little or no difference, even if the two standards were not
identical.
3. In Ceylon very few copper eldlings appear to
be known other than the cores of silver coins, often with traces of the coating
still adhering: The majority of the silver pieces are much worn, and really
good specimens are rare. The coins fall into two main classes; (1) rectangular
and (2) roughly circular or oval ; each of these again has a cross division
into (a) thin and (b) thick. Though no clear line of separation exists, the
thickness varying from that of thin cardboard to about 0.12 inch, the
difference between the thin and wide coins, usually covered with punch marks,
which are the earliest (Pl 1 ; Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 43), and
the thick and rather Dumpy pieces or ingots, very often blank with a few
indentations (Pl. 2), is very marked. These latter are both, rectangular, and
circular, and seems to have been made in these shapes; the oval thin eldlings
appear to have been originally rectangular, and subsequently reduced to their
present shape by the process of clipping referred to. The available specimen of
the thin variety up to and including a thickness of 0.039 inch weigh from l4.9
(very worn) to 50.4 grains, the average of 36 being 30.5 grains; the seventeen
thinnest, however, ranging from 14.9 to 45.l grains only give an average of
26.6. The highest weight for the available thick rectangular coins is 48.7
grains and the lowest 20.7, of which last the size is only 0.51 by. 0.43 inch;
the average of twenty-one is 3.'4 grains, as against Parker's average of 32.9
for thirteen (Ancient Ceylon,p.472). The thick circular pieces, of which eight
average 33.8 grains, vary from 26 to 43.2 grains. The total average of
twenty-nine thick coins of both varieties is 34.3 grains. Inferences drawn from
these and similar figures to prove the duration of the use of the eldling currency
are apt to be fallacious, for the lighter coins may be the fractional pieces of
the Arthasrastra.
4. In process of time the punch marks, perhaps
only in certain localities and trough the state monopoly of coinage, become
fixed, though relative position slightly varied; rectangular eldlings of this
kind are figured in Loventhal's work in Pl. I, Nos, 4, 5, and 6. The only ones
reported from Ceylon bear on one side a. Three men or a man and two women
standing in a row, b. A Peacock on a Chaitiya, and c. A balance or scales (cf
Theobald Fig. 9) , arranged thus :-
(i)
Size: 0.62 x 0.43 x 0.078 in
Weight ; 46.1 gr
c b
a
(ii)
Size:0.61 x 0.47 x 0.118 in Weight ; 44.7gr (CA,I,iii, Pl.X ,nos 2,3 )
a
b c
a
On the reverse of both is symbol (b), Pieces
with these punch marks appear in I.M.C., I, p 138 Nos 37-40;No. 37 shown in Pl,
XIX, 3, is the same as (i) and weights 52.3 grains.
5. The double-die thick plaque, having on the
obverse a dagoba and on the reverse a bo-leaf, and weighing from 77 to 83
grains, with a size of 0.51 by 0.33 inch (Lowsley, Pl.VIII, 1) is probably a
votive offering as is also the plaque shown in the Taprobanian of June, 1888, p
53. Both seems to be modern. With them may be compared crystal seal described
by Mr. H. C. P. Bell in " Two Buddhist Seals " in the Ceylon
Antiquary Vol. III Pt 1, PI, VII.
Single-Die Coins
6.The next step is the union of various symbols
in one die, a good specimen of which process is seen in the “Elephant and
Swastika" double die large copper coins. At first, however, the die was
confined to one side the reverse being either blank or punch marked.
Silver-The only coins known are in the cabinet of Mr. Bell,
described by the present writer in the Ceylon Antiquary; Vol. I, pt. 3, p. 178.
One is a rectangular piece, 0.47 x 0.21 x 0.11 inch in size and 25.9 grains in
weight. “The design”, only half of which is on the flan, " seems to be a
solar emblem, consisting of a central ball or boss from which springs a
cross-wise, four lines ending in similar balls; in each space so formed in a
Taurine (CA, Pl X no 3). The reverse is blank, but possibly has one
indentation"- on the rest " the design consists of a bull, or such
animal, in the lower half of the area, and a (?) fish, from whose back spring
long rays upwards and , backward in upper half : both objects face to the right
and have before them three symbols , which appear to be (a) a crescent at the
top, (b) the sun, and at the bottom (c) a Taurine. “The die is all clearly
circular”.[For coins with circular die and rectangular flan, cf: C.C.A., Pl. X.
265 and 266 of Jayadaman, A.D, 124-150, and Pl V, GP5 of the Andhra dynasty].
Of the four known, two have the reverse blank, one has a few indentations. and
the remaining piece one , if not two, punch marks,
1.
Rectangular Size:0.39 x 0.37 x 0.07 in. Weight ;
24.4gr. Pl,3
2.
Do. Size : 0.41 x 0.33 x 0.07in. Weight : 24.7gr,
3.
Do. Size : 0.43 x 0.31 x 0.07 in Weight : 25.4
gr.
4.
(?)
Circular Size: 0.47 x .07 in Weight : 20.6 gr P1.4. (C.A.Pl.X,Nos.6-10)
A small silver coin in the same collection is
clearly of the same series, but is double-die. The obverse is the same as the preceeding;
the design on the reverse is, perhaps, similar to the solar emblem on the first
described piece but it is much worm, The coin is very thin, and may once have
been circular ; it is 0.33 inch in diameter 0. 49 grains in weight. In all the
above coins the design is deeply struck. The standard must be that of the
eldlings, the coin being halves, with the exception of the small piece just described,
which may be the eighth.
7. Copper.--These are oblong pieces, with
rounded corners, concave on one side and rough on the other The design is now
quite invisible. PI. 5.
1. Tirukketisvaram
Size : 0.62 X 0.51 X 0.15 in. Weight : 74.9
gr
2. Do. Size
: .0.53 x .0.39 x 0.13 in. Weight : 26.6 gr.
3. Anuradapura,
Buddhist Rail Size : 0.61 X 0.45 x
0..09 in. Weight : 24.2 gr.
4 Do. Size : 0.62 x 0.49 x 0.06 in.
Weight : 21.6 gr,
5 Do. Selacaitya Size : 0.55 x 0.50 x 0.06 in.
Weight : 16.5 gr.
A similar coin, but roughly circular and
lenticular, was found at the north end
of Vessagiriya, Anuradapura its diameter is 0.53 inch, and weight 29.8 grains.
Alleged similar pieces unearthed at Kantarodai in the Jaffna peninsular are
described by Mr. P. E. Pieris in his paper on " Nagadipa”,in J.R.A.S.,
C.8., Vol, XXVIII, No. 72 of 1919. Pl. XII, Nos. 18, 19,21,22,26, Most seem to
be the cores of eldlings, but one (No, 18) is distinctly concave: its size is
0.62 by 0.43 inch, and its weight is 28.6 grains, At Tirukketisvaram was also
found a flat rectangular piece with rounded corners. One side is apparently
blank; on the other is what seems to be a fish with long projecting fins, with
which design should be compared that of the silver coins described above. It
weighs in its broken condition 29.2 grains, and measures 0.49x 0.45x 0.11 inch.
From the same place come two circular coins, which may be noticed here. One is
thick, flat on one side, the design on which is undecipherable, and convex and
worn smooth on the other ; the second is, perhaps, blank on both sides. The
diameter and weight are 0.57 and 0.33 inch, and 3l.2 and 6.2 grains,
respectively. The single-die coins found at Anuradhapura have been described by
Mr. Still in J.R.A.S., C.B., Vol XIX No. 58, 1907, pp. 200, 201. The deductions
as to their age therein set forth cannot be maintained ; as, though they were
discovered at the same site as the fourth and fifth century Roman coins, there
is no evidence that they were actually found together,
8, The symbols appearing on the following coins
are- (1) An isosceles triangle, base uppermost, with a short horizontal line
crossing the apex and a short vertical line pendent there from.
(2) Variant of the last, but the triangle is on
its side ; in some instances a small vertical line projects from its side,
either above or below
(3) Nandipada symbol ; a trident head. with the
side prongs curved and longer than the central one, over a circle, from which
it is sometimes separated by a horizontal line,
(4) Horizontal line, from each end of which
rises a curved line, the two being back to back and. Crosses in the middle by
another horizontal line. There is usually a similar line above the *hole, In s
few instances this is doubled, the middle line being absent.
(5) A truncated cone, inverted and crossed at
the top, centre, and bottom by three bands, cf: Nasik -Nos. 13, 14
(Archeological Survey of Western India, Vol. IV). (6) Two isosceles triangles
placed vertically apex to apex with a bar across the junction ; the lower
triangle is the smaller. From the left side of the upper there projects a short
horizontal line. In .a variant the symbol assumes the shape of an hour glass
with a projecting line on either side of the centre, cf Kuda, No.26(op, cit.).