INDIAN COINS

The object of this contribution is to give an account from the historical point of view of all the known coinages of ancient and mediaeval India, beginning with the earliest times and extending in each particular instance to a period determined by the following considerations. In the case of the states of Northern India generally, and those also of Southern India which were situated to the north of the river Kistna, our subject is naturally bounded by those well-defined limits which are, as a rule, afforded by the introduction of the Muhammadan form of coinage as a result of the progress of Muhammadan conquest between C. 1000 and 1310 A. D. In the extreme south, where Muhammadan supremacy was never absolute, and where, consequently, no similar break of continuity occurs in the coinage, our survey will not extend beyond the rise of the kingdom of Vijayanagar in 1326 A. D. Ancient and mediaeval Indian coins, as thus defined, fall naturally into three main classes — (1) a primitive native coinage, which, so far as the present state of our knowledge will allow us to judge, seems to have been very widely used throughout India and in Ceylon; and, following this, the classes which numismatists have usually distinguished geo¬ graphically as (2) Northern, and (3) Southern. The book is the product of extensive study of this subject. It contains five plates to make the narrative more interesting.