Monetising India's Past -A Survey of the Evolution of Indian Money (original) (raw)
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Monetisation of Hindu Rāṣṭram, from Vedic times
Rāṣṭram vasu, dāmōdara, बहु--सुवर्णक, pre- & post-Mauryan wealth revealed by monetised Bhāratam ancient coins (321-185 BCE) How vasu ‘wealth’ of rāṣṭram was created in Ancient Bhāratam India has successfully cleaned up her monetary system thanks to demonetisation from Nov. 8, 2016. Monetisation refers to the conversion of an object, e.g. a plate of metal, into money, which means that the chosen object is accepted as a medium of exchange. Such a substitution is called pratinidhi in Tantra Yukti research methodology of Bhāratam. Metals monetized as coins are a remarkable episode in the story of civilizations narrated in the oldest human document, the Rigveda. Standardisation of the coins in weight and accepting the coins as money is a process which can be traced from ancient texts, Indus Script Corpora and ancient coins of Bhāratam Janam. Ancient history of the nation offers many lessons on an idea of the wealth of the rāṣṭram. Over 8000 inscriptions in Indus Script Corpora are metalwork catalogues. Many hypertexts and hieroglyphs which get punch-marked or impressed on tens of thousands of punch marked and cast coins of ancient Bhāratam are also metalwork catalogues. Both these types of catalogues are a way of documenting the artha, ‘wealth’ of the Rāṣṭram created by artisans and traders of the nation. Tens of thousands of coins of a variety of metals of Ancient Bhāratam are representations of Pre- & Post-Mauryan wealth -- monetised Bhāratam ancient coins (321-185 BCE). These coins constitute the data mines of the wealth of the Rāṣṭram, detailing the wealth using hypertexts and hieroglyphs in the Indus Script tradition. Indus Script tradition itself is a continuum of Veda cultural tradition which documents nigama, naigama (with two meanings: veda text; company of merchants); kārṣāpaṇá and s’atamāna शत--मान [p= 1050,1] m. any object made of gold which weighs a hundred मानs S3Br. Ka1tyS3r.; m. n. a weight (or gift) of a hundred मानs in gold or silver ( -दक्षिण ) मान n. a partic. measure or weight (= कृष्णत or रक्तिका ; accord. to Sch. on TS. and Ka1tyS3r. 100 मानs = 5 पलs or पणs) कृष्णल [p= 308,1] n. rarely ([ Ya1jn5. i , 362]) m. (g. सिध्मा*दि) the black berry of the plant Abrus precatorius used as a weight (the average weight being between one and two grains) Ka1t2h. TBr. Mn. Ya1jn5. Comm. on Ka1tyS3r. &c; a coin of the same weight Mn. Ya1jn5.; a piece of gold of the same weight TS. Kaus3. Nya1yam.; f. Abrus precatorius (a shrub bearing a small black and red berry = गुञ्जा , रक्तिका) L. The story of a civilization, the monetisation of the wealthiest nation on the globe from ca. 8th millennium BCE has yet to be fully narrated. This is a start by collating the available resources made available by archaeology, numismatics and historical studies of the civilization. This monograph demonstrates that the continuum of the monetary system is traceable from the evidence of Indus Script Corpora. Many hieroglyphs of the script continue to signify symbols on early monetary system (punch-marked and cast coins) managed by śreṇi guilds of Takshasila mints and hundreds of other mints of the nation.