A Note on an Early Indian Coin

Abstract

The Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for 1936–7 contains, among other interesting matter, a report by the late Mr. N. G. Majumdar on the excavation of a large and evidently important building at Lauriya Nandangarh, which seems to date from at least the second century B.C. Among the many things found here is a square leadin coin or token with the mould in which it was cast (pp. 49 f., pl. xxiv, 2–4). This bears on one side the device of the tree in rail and on the other taurine symbol surmounted by a legend in Brāhmī script of about the first century B.C., a ya ri ta sa, which Mr. Majumdar interpreted as Aya Ritasa, Pkt. corresponding to Skt. Ārya Rtasya, and meaning “Of the Honourable Rta”. He remarks that this “does not sound like a king's name …. It is thus possible that the lead piece represents a token and not a coin. Otherwise it would be hard to explain the discovery of a coin mould in the remains of religious establishment”. He thus seems inclined to regard it as a token issued by or for some religious teacher named in Skt. Rta and in Pkt. Rita.