excerpts from chapter 8

8/6/2019 Excerpts From Chapter 8

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/excerpts-from-chapter-8 1/3

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beyond that. This mathe denominations.

1 /8th Pana [1.3893 g

Amongst 1 /20th central circle is fullyseen. On 1 /40th KārshāpHistoric India, ReeshaAncient Trade andLondon, 2004], even taddition to the replacof ‘arms’ from six to fo

Mount

Mountainpassage

Moun

But the symbappears in silver coinMichael Mitchiner [with Schlumberger [though the drawing [

be introduced intentionally as a mark to disti

1 /20th Pana [0.5 g] 1 /40th

Kārshāpana coins, we can come across a syabsent. Even then, a dot in between the outeana [579a, plate 6, Dilip Rajgor, Punch-markeBooks International, California, 2001; 2164 &

Early Coinage, Michael Mitchiner, Hawkie spokes outside the circles towards the centr

ment of the central circle with a dot and cuttiur.

in

Passagethrough plains

tain

ol which really astonished me is the one gi# 2062 in page # 676 of Ancient Trade and Eawkins Publications, London, 2004] which953] 26 and Bopearachchi & Ur Rahman [age 109, Dilip Rajgor, Punch-marked Coins o

guish between

ana [0.25 g]

bol where ther circles can be

Coins of Early2165, page 678,s Publications,e are omitted in

g short the no.

en above. Thisrly Coinage bylso bears index 1995] 10. Evenf Early Historic



India, Reesha Books International, California, 2001] is not true to the original, thephotograph provided in plate 6 displays this coin as type 582. This ‘geometricsymbol’ seems to be a peculiar one without symmetry. When we think of thatintentional lack of symmetry, then only could we get the message out of it. Unlikethe unifaced bent-bar coins of Sindhu, this dumpy circular coin from ChamanHazouri hoard has symbols on both the sides. The weight 9.7 g of this coin is at par with the light weight standard of 10.003 g which is reflecting a later stage.

Inside the checkered lines, the central symbol can be identified as atraditional representation of flower, depiction of which can be convincingly traced

back to the third millennium BC as is evident from the tablet with Proto-Elamiteinscriptions on it. The two solid triangles, one at the top and the other at thebottom, represent mountains on north and south sides. The checkered lines denotethe boundary with respect to the direction. The symbol on the left side denotes thelandmark in the western side, which can be understood as a mountain, but with apassage through [towards Bactria]. The symbol on the right side is different fromthat on the left side, which is the most critical feature of the pictorial representationas a whole. The symbol on the right side is denoting the passage through the plainson the eastern side [towards Sindhu].

This geographical location perfectly matches with the Gāndhāra of thosetimes, which we have discussed earlier.

Faces of the tablet depicting theoldest Elamite script, known asProto-Elamite, first appeared in

about 2900 BC in Suse [Susa], the capital of Elam, in south-western Persia [modern Iran]. Ithas yet to be deciphered, and the language it represents is unknown [Simon Ager, Elamitescripts.htm, www.omniglot.com] .

excerpts from chapter 8

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