2021-05-14 Fri

Sixth century B.C. was the period of great turmoil in the society. Economy boomed like never before, and the necessity of standard payment option was felt. Thus the earliest coins series of India started with the silver punched marked coin. These coins are broadly divided into two categories - the janapada series (6 B.C. – 4 B.C.) and Imperial Magadha series (4 B.C. – 2 B.C.). The punching devices of these coins have no inscriptions; instead they have a number of symbols.

There were five symbols on the imperial series and the weight was standardized to 3.02 grams for all the coins. These coins bear varying symbols comprising of different animals, plants, geometric designs, everyday objects and variety of religious symbols like the sun, taurine, chakra etc. were common occurrence. The representation of the human figure has aroused special interest.

Anthropomorphic figurines occur in groups or individually. These are probably all are intended to represent deities than living individuals. Scholars have assigned one such individual with chakra to be Vishnu or Krishna. Another one human has been identified as Karttikeya and Shiva, coin with symbol of mother and a child, suggests mother goddess.

Some of the punched marked coins are masterpiece of designs. The human figurine only shows symbolic poses and not skillfully engraved like the following Indo-Greek coins. Some have exaggerated designs on head like ornaments which indicate they were meant to be deities. What opinion you have about these figurines were they deities or mere human representation?