|
The coins contributed a great deal to the Indian history. The main sources of ancient Indian coins are treasure troves, excavations, riverbeds and rarely temple collections from devotees. All countries do have treasure trove laws and according to them, any coin, bullion, gold or silver article found hidden in the earth for which no owner can be found belongs to the crown or government. Even in ancient India claims of the king to the treasure troves were supported by the theory that he is the owner of the earth and its protector. The finder of the treasure was entitled to some compensation and Manu declared that the king obtains one half of the hoard. The owner of the land had no rights to the find since the land is the property of the king. During the Muslim rule finder of the treasure was its owner unless its value exceeded one lakh rupees. If the value exceeded one lakh rupees finder was advised to give part of it to charity. Finder of non-Islamic treasure like coins would get the intrinsic value plus 20%. The Indian treasure trove act was passed on 13th February 1978, which authorized the government to claim possession of any treasure unearthed that exceeded ten rupees in value. This act is still in force in various states as modified in September 1949. In its application to the Andhra Pradesh it is known as Indian treasure trove (Andhra Pradesh Amendment) act 1949. Hoard is a collection of coins left behind as savings, loot or treasure usually buried in receptacles like copper or clay pots. The coins found in such hoards end up in archaeological museums. Bayana hoard of 1821 Gupta gold coins were discovered in Baratpur district of Rajasthan, which yielded types of this dynasty's coins not seen before. The coins belonged to Chandra Gupta II (376-414 AD), Kumara Gupta I (415-450 AD) and Skanda Gupta (455-467 AD). Hence these coins were hoarded during the rule of Skanda Gupta and were discovered in 1946 AD. Another large hoard of Satavahana coins was found in Tarhala of Akola district of Maharashtra. This hoard had coins of all the later Satavahana rulers from Gautamiputra Satakarni onwards besides the coins of some rulers of this dynasty, which were missed out in the Puranas. Jogalthembi in Nasik district of Maharastra was another site of major hoard of 13250 silver coins. The coins solely belonged to Nahapana and Nahapana conis restuck by Gautamiputra Satakarni. Majority of coins housed in different museums of our country are these coins from hoards and they are available for academic research which enriches our history. Each museum keeps an inventory of the coin hoards prepared on the basis of treature trove files. Some museums do by some important coins from the market and some coins may come from voluntary donations. Andhra Pradesh Government museum has over 350000 coins in its cabinets and majority of these were procured from treasure troves and a few were donations from the Durbars of erstwhile princely states and some were given by other museums. Excavations are planned diggings and many sites may yield coins such as at Nagarjunakonda, Amaravati, Veerpuram, Kondapur etc. Bulk of coins found at these four sites were Ikshvaku, punch marked, Maharathi and Satavahana coins respectively. Besides the coins many other artifacts may be found in excavations. Coins found in stratified levels are of great importance in dating the stratum along with it all associated objects resting in the same stratum. Kondapur excavations were carried out in 1940s, which provided a wealth of information of significant historical importance. Coins of Satavahanas namely Gautamiputra and Pulumavi were found along with a datable Roman coin. There were also restruck Satavahana coins at this site. Coin moulds of various materials were found suggesting that this site could have been an ancient Satavahana mint town. Beads of various materials, decorated pottery, seals both inscribed and uninscribed, toys and metal implements were also recovered at this site. Dropping of coins into the rivers and fountains has been an age-old tradition all over the world especially into the rivers considered holy. Great many ancient coins have been found in the river beds and people search for them in summer months when water levels of rivers recede. Paithan, ancient Prathistan, on the banks of river Godavari yielded large number of Satavahana and other coins. In recent years Karur on the banks of Amaravathi in Tamil Nadu has been source of large number of Sangam age Tamil coins besides the coins of various. Middle East and European countries. Sometimes the coins may be found way down the riverbed from the site of offering. Majority of such coins ends up with coin collectors and large number of these coins are reported in our numismatic journals.
Last and unusual source of ancient coins is from the temple offerings
by the devotees. Tirupati being the most popular deity received large
numbers of gold coins besides the coins of silver and copper. Usually
the authorities sell away the coins of lower denominations and gold
coins have been made into chains, which adorn the deities. Late Dr.
Ramesan photographed these coin chains and before he could analyze them
and report the findings he passed away. There is staggering variety
of these gold coins, which were offered by the devotees over the years.
These coins belonged to Mughal rulers such as Akbar (1556-1605 AD),
Aurangzib (1658-1707 AD), Shah Alam (1707-1712 AD), and East India Company,
British India and very many foreign coins from Vatican, UK, Spain, South
Africa etc. The oldest of these coins belong to Akbar and it may be
worth noting that this temple became popular during the rule of later
Vijayanagar kings. The early Kings of Vijayanagar leaned towards Shaivism
while later kings were strong Vaishnavites. One king Venkatapati Raju
II even issued coins with 'namam' symbol. There is epigraphic evidence
that Krishnadeva Raya (1509-1529 AD) visisted the temple twice and presented
offerings to the deity. A detailed study of all the gold coins in the
temple may yield many interesting points of historical importance. In
many old temples one may find silver and gold coins struck around the
doors and floor of the site for decoration. Some tribal women folk like
Lambadas use coin pendants and coin chains as ornaments. Coin collection
is a hobby with many and the usual sources of coins are the jewelers,
saraffs and moneychangers. Rodgers describes beautifully how he was
able to collect large variety of rare ancient coins from these sources
in Amritsar in the last century where he spent three decades. In recent
years there are coin societies to serve the purpose of numismatics.
|