Karshapana

Karshapana (कार्षापण, IAST: Kārṣāpaṇa), according to the Ashtadhyayi of Panini, refers to ancient Indian coins current during the 6th century BCE onwards, which were unstamped and stamped (āhata) metallic pieces whose validity depended on the integrity of the person authenticating them. It is commonly supposed by scholars that they were first issued by merchants and bankers rather than the state. They contributed to the development of trade since they obviated the need for weighing of metal during exchange. Kārṣāpaṇas 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 punch-marked coins were called "Kārṣāpaṇa" because they weighed one kārsha each. The period of the origin of the punch-marked coins is not yet known, but their origin was indigenous. The word, Kārṣāpaṇa, 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): Na kahapana vassena titti kamesu vijjati appassada dukha kama iti vinnaya pandito. "Not by a shower of coins can sensual desires be satiated; sensual desires give little pleasure and are fraught with evil consequences (dukkha)." and Persian texts of that period. Patanjali's mid 2nd century BCE commentary, Mahabhashya, on vārttikas of Kātyāyana, on Pāṇini's, c. 400 BCE, Aṣṭādhyāyī, likely composed at Salatura, in the Achaemenid satrapy of Gandāra, uses the word, "Kārṣāpaṇa", to mean a coin – कार्षापणशो ददाति "He gives by the Kārṣāpaṇa coin" or कार्षापणम् ददाति "He gives a Kārṣāpaṇa", while explaining the use of the suffix – शस् taken up by Pāṇini in Sutra V.iv.43, in this case, कार्षापण + शः to indicate distributivity.