The Coinage of Northern India


Book Description

The Present Thesis Fulfils A Long Felt Desideratum In The Field Of Numismatical Studies In India. So Far Our Knowledge About Early Medieval Coinage Of India Has Been Very Poor And Pragmentary. A Systematic And Comprehensive Study Of Sporadic Materials Has Been, For The First Time, Successfully Attempted In This Subject. The Author With Industry And Intelligence Has Collected Thematerials, Sorted And Collated Them And Reconstructed The Structure Of His Subject. It Is Based On The Discovery Of New Facts And Fresh Interpretation Of Already Known Facts And Current Theories. It Is Both Exhaustive And Critical. It Positively Forms A Valuable Contribution To The Literature Of Numismatics And Tends Generally To The Advancement Of Knowledge.The Present Work Shows The Painstaking Labour, A Critical Study Of The Subject, And Above All Original Suggestions Which Undoubtedly Enhance The Value Of The Dissertation Like The Present One. The Up-To-Date Bibliography Shows An Extensive Range Of Study In The Political History Of The Dynasties As Well, Without A Thorough Knowledge Of Which The Present Attempt Could Hardly Have Been Possible. The Author Has Rightly Rejected The View Of D.W. Macdowall, On The Coins Of Gangeyadeva. D.W. Macdowall Is No Doubt A Great Numismatist, And I Am Glad To See That A Young Scholar Is Not Afraid To Criticise Eminent Authorities Here As Well As Elsewhere And His Criticisms Are Just And Reasonable. The Magadh University Should Undertake The Task Of The Publication Of This Valuable Work.




Ancient Indian Coins


Book Description

This important contribution about ancient coins in India has been written jointly by Osmund Bopearachchi and Wilfried Pieper. It is an impressive volume of 289 pages with 59 plates which presents a private collection of ancient coins patiently gathered trough the years. In Part one, W.Pieper develops a historical commentary about the earliest coinages of India, the imperial period of late Magadha and Maurya rule ( ca late IVth-early IInd centuries B.C.), Ujjain and Eran, the Satavahanas (ca Ist century B.C.-early IInd century A.D.), and tribal republics and kingdoms in post-Mauryan northern India ( ca 200 B.C-ca 300 A.D.). This commentary is followed by a detailed catalogue with very precise drawings of more than 600 coins and punch-marked coins. Part two by o. Bopearachhi is organized on the same pattern: a historical commentary about foreign powers in ancient northern India, from the Bactrian Greeks untill the time of the early Kushans followed by a precise catalogue presenting Greek, Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian, and early Kushan coins (in fact, more than 300 specimens). The commentary intends to give a general overview of the coins concerned and of their historical context with a more extensive discussion of the series best represented in the collection. For the indigenous Indian coins this is specially true for the coinages of Ujjain, Eran, Taxila and Kausambi, many of which are new and published here for the first time.




Encyclopaedia of Indian Coins


Book Description

This book deals with the fact that coins form an important source of the history of ancient India; in fact, for certain periods, like those of the Indo-Greeks, the Saka-Pahlavas, and the Western Kshatrapas, monetary issues are almost the only source of our information.







Living Without Silver


Book Description

This book is concerned with money as an indicator of economic activity. It makes a comprehensive examination of the use of money from Afghanistan to Bihar, and from Kashmir to Malwa, during the period AD 750-1250. Its major premise is that the patterns of production, exchange, and dispersion of money over time can be used to define the economic systems of early medieval North India. This book explains and interprets the economic history of the period, using current models of feudalization, decentralization, trade, and commerce. The author rejects the common perception that money during this period was scarce, primitive, and debased, by analysing the evidence of surviving coin hoards. His findings suggest a considerably greater reliance on money, closer co-ordination of its use, and its wider circulation in larger quantities, than is consistent with many current models of the early medieval Indian economy.
















Early Coins of North India


Book Description