Post No.7914
Date uploaded in London – 2 May 2020
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
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If you read encyclopaedias they would tell you that Lydians or Phyrgians of Turkey and Greece used coins for the first time. They are wrong. It is true that they have some of the oldest coins in their museums with heads and animals portrayed. An amazing variety of coins with beautiful drawings! If you turn the leaves of book ‘Encyclopedia of Coins’ you would be wonder struck when you see the pictures; well preserved very good specimens are available.
But we have older coins as thin, small metal bits with five or six symbols punch marked on them from sixth or seventh century BCE. Our coins are very simple and not that attractive. We had beautiful gold coins in Rig Vedic time according to five foreign scholars who translated Rig Veda in European languages. But Hindu women have always been running after gold. There is nothing wrong in it. That is why I wrote scores of articles proving that India is the richest country in the world. I wrote those articles seven years ago. After my posts, Thiruvanathapuram (Kerala) Temple Treasures came to light. That one treasure trove would itself value more than all other treasures in the world!
Hindu women have a serious disease called ‘melting the gold’. They would always accumulate gold and never keep them intact. They would melt them and make new jewellery. Then again, they would melt them and make new jewellery. Like Hindus updated all their scriptures except the Vedas they kept on doing it. And the biggest beneficiaries were goldsmiths which gave them an opportunity to take some gold and charge the women for remaking. Even today Hindu women have the disease.
To cut it short 99 % of our gold and silver coins were melted. One percent are in British Museum and other museums and private collections. Every time I enter British Museum in London, I used to look at the Gupta gold coins displayed in the window cases. They have our biggest coin collection. Thanks to them they are still in the form of coins. In India they would have become necklaces.
Talking about neck—laces there is very interesting information in the oldest book in the world ‘Rig Veda’. According to Herman Jacobi and BG Tilak it is 6000 years old. According to Max muller and Wilson gang it is at least 4000 years old. The Rig Veda talks about Nishka. This is in the oldest portion of the Rig Veda. Nishka meant Necklaces and Nishka meant gold coins which were used as currency.
Vedic Index of Names and Subjects by AA Macdonell and A B Keith has the following information-
“Niska is frequently mentioned in the Rig Veda and later denoting a gold ornament worn as is shown by the two epithets ‘ niska-kantha and niska-griva’ having a gold ornament on the neck.
A Niska of silver is mentioned in the Panchavimsa Brahmana.
As early as Rig Veda, traces are seen of the use of Niskas as a sort of currency, for a singer celebrates the receipt of a hundred Niskas and a hundred steeds.; he could hardly require the Niskas merely for personal adornment. Later the use of Niskas as currency is quite clear.
RV -2-33-10; 8-47-15 etc.
AV 5-14-3; 7-99-1; 20-131-8
RV 5-19-3;
AV 5-17-14; 15-3
NISKA COINS – RV1-126-2; AV 20-127-3.
In addition, both of them give lot of references from Brahmanas, Srauta Sutras and Upanishads.
And in description of ‘Krsnala seeds, Mana, Satamana etc more details of coins and their weights are given. Before going in to Panini I would give my views-
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My Comments
1.Umpteen words for gold, reference of golden necklaces and gold coins explode the views that Vedic Hindus were nomads. When you read 1000s of terms from Agriculture, Mathematics and Metallurgy in the Rig Veda, you will know about the foreign jokers and will have a good laugh.
2.Niska jewellery is nothing but coin necklace. Even today it is used by Hindu women as Kasu Malai (In Tamil meaning coin neclace)
3.The word used by Vedic priests in Blessing Mantras (Satamanam Bhavtu) is 100 coins. Satamanam is 100 or 100 fold. When someone gives a gift to the couple they recite Satamanam bhavatu with two fold meaning.
Let the present/gift multiply in hundreds.
Let you live for 100 years. Since Hindus invented the decimal system and value of Zero they use 100 every day in their Prayers. Brahmins repeat it at least seven times in ONE mantra (in the afternoon oblation Pasyema saradas satam……..)
4.Mana- meaning ‘big’, ‘measure’ is in Sumeria and Tamil literature.
5.The biggest number is found in Vedic literature. Mahavir, the 24th Tirtankara of Jain religion was a businessman and a great mathematician; he improved upon the Vedic numbers and Jain literature later than the Vedas, has bigger numbers.
6.All the words regarding MONEY in history are from Sanskrit . Tamils use all those words even today.
Karsha Panam= Kasu, Panam
Cash = Karsha (panam)
Money = Panam , Sanskrit word (M and V are interchangeable in ancient languages)
Phoenicians = Vaniks/businessmen (M and V are interchangeable in ancient languages)
Mana (Sumerian, Tamil and Sanskrit) – in Sata Mana, Pramana , Pari mana and other words mean measure, quantity, size, fold
Rupee/ Rupai = Rupa in Sanskrit and Uruva in Tamilized Sanskrit is the figure on the coin.
Now let us look at Panini :–
The numismatic data of the Ashtadhyayi show that it is older than the Arthasasttra of Kautilya .
Kautilya wrote a book on economics and panini wrote a book on grammar; but Kautilya did not know about Panini’s Nishka ,Suvarna,
Saana and Satamana!!
Similarly Kautilya does not know of the significant coin names Vimsatika and Trimstaka mentioned in the Ashtadhyayi .
We have discovered the actual coins
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Satamana must have been in circulation at the time of Panini. This coin is mentioned in Vedic literature. Satapata brahmana and two other brahmanas refer to Satamana. The chronological inference is that the period of Satamana currency was confined to few centuries around 8th century BCE. Kauiya lived around 4th century BCE.
Panini knew two types silver coins including Vimsatika ; Kautilya never mentioned it . Nandas of 5 century BCE made new rules regarding coinage. So Panini must have lived before or during Nandas.
My Comments-
A book on economics did not even know the coinage mentioned by Panini. So, at least a few centuries must have elapsed between the two authors. More over 64 grammarians’ names are listed by Max Muller in the History of Sanskrit literature who lived between Yaska and Patanjali, a period of roughly 800 years. We did not know anything about their works. Panini himself mentioned ten of his predecessors. We couldn’t get a single book written by them.
His sutras about the first nakshatra/ star in the 27 stars of Hindu astronomy/astrology (Kartika and Dhanishta) also point out that he lived before the new system which placed Sravana and then Asvini.
If Panini had lived in 4th century BCE he would have mentioned Buddha or Mahavira. He never mentioned them by name or their creeds. Only guesses are made with certain words.
All these show that Panini lived in 8th century BCE as proved by Goldstucker and great Sanskrit scholars like Dr Bhandarkar.
tags –Panini, Kautilya, Coinage, Nishka, Karshapana, Satamana, Mana, part 1
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Tamil and Vedas 