Ancient Indian Coins: Decoding of their Indus-Brahmi Inscriptions with Special Emphasis on the Punch-Marked Coins

Authors (s): Sambhu Nath Mondal (Author)
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9789381209165
Pages: 400p., 19 Colour Plates; Bibliography; Index; 29cm.
Pub. date: 17.08.2013, 1st.ed.
Publisher: Punthi Pustak
Language (s): English
Bagchee ID: BB80327
List price: US $ 247,00
Bagchee price: US $ 222,30

The importance of the study of coins for the reconstruction of the lost history of ancient India is well known to the Indologists and Numismatists. A large number of kings along with the names of their capitals , dynasties and royal epithets are identified only from their coins who may or may not be mentioned in any Sanskrit or Pali or Prakrit text or in any Epigraphic inscriptions.

A Coin , being a metal , survives for one or two millennia with distinct legible symbols punched on it and serves as a still photography of the contemporary periods and is the most dependable of all elements of History. But India's Historiography is incomplete without the proper decoding of the Indus script and the punch-marked coins of the historic period inscribed with Indus-Brahmi legends, instead of haphazardly inscribed and oriented at random.

From the author's exact decoding it reveals that an archaic form of Brahmanism with Paisachi Prakrit-dominated proto-sanskrit, the mother of the Indo-European languages, prevailed from the Oxus valley in the north to the Kaveri valley in the south, the epicentre of which was Ganga-saraswati Basin. From the decodings of the punch-marked coins , the true identities of the Monarchs like Prasenjit of Sravasti and Udaybhadra, Sisunaga , Mahapadma Nanda , Chandragupta Maurya of Magadha as well as Pandukabhaya and Mutasiva of Sri Lanka etc, should be re-written .

The famous three-queen punch-marked silver coin of Maurya emperor, ashoka bearing their names have been unearthed from Mir Zaka of Afghanistan and those unearthed from Kerala and Ruhuna of South eastern sri Lanka reveal that both " Keralaputa and Tambapanni(Sri Lanka) ' were his conquered provinces and those found from Wari Bateshwar of Bangladesh mention that he was the overlord of Pundra country.

For more information, or to order, see:Ancient Indian Coins: Decoding of their Indus-Brahmi Inscriptions with Special Emphasis on the Punch-Marked Coins(www.bagchee.com/books/BB80327/ancient-indian-coins-decoding-of-their-indus-brahmi-inscriptions-with-special-emphasis-on-the-punch-marked-coins)