 Reference Base  Catalogue of the coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta: in... |
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Smith, V.A., 1906. Catalogue of the coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta: including the cabinet of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Oxford, Henry Frowde
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India |
| Subject: |
Culture |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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[132] Punch-marked coins.
The animal devices I am very curious and interesting. It is a well-known that up to comparatively recent times the rhinoceros was widely distributed in the Gangetic plain. The coins bear testimony to the fact that this great beast was a familiar object in ancient India. Three examples are recorded in the catalogue, numbers 48, 58, 59. The last mentioned going was found in the Gaya district, Bihar
[145] Local coins
These coins, described by Cunningham under the name of Ujjain, I’m better referred to the country Avanti, of which Ujjain was the most notable city. The legend on number 27, which seems to read Runamisa or Runamasa, is puzzling. The two horned rhinoceros on number 28 is interesting. It is very curious to notice how the devices used on the Punch marked coins are combined on the dies of the Ujjain coins, the animals and symbols characteristic of the earlier series being repeated on the later. But to what rhinoceros is represented only on number 28. The animal depicted on the Punch marked coins and on an Ujjain coin in Theobald’s cabinet is single-horned, either R. indicus all the lesser species, R. sondaicus, the range of goods extended to the Punjab as late as the time of babar.
[154] No.28. Two horned rhinoceros standing right.
Footnote: the coin being worn, I get a sketch. The animal seems to be Rhinoceros Sumatranus, which is still found in some and Burma. The late Mr J.Cockburn “came across an injured drawing of the two-horned rhinoceros” in a cave somewhere in the Kainur Hills Woods extend to the south of Allahabad (JBAS 1890, p.16). This fact indicates that the R. Sumatranus once had a wider range in India than it now has, and helps to explain the appearance of the animal on this Avanti coin.
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