Foreign Influence on Early Indian Indigenous Coins

In ancient India (c 550B.C. to 550A.D.), there are the coins of the foreigners such as the Persians, the Indo Greeks (Bactrian Greeks), the Indo-Scythians, the Indo-Pārthians, the Romans, the Kushāṇas, the Kidāras, the Western Kshatrapas, the Hūṇas. The Indo- Greeks introduced a sophisticated numismatic tradition, later continued by the Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians and Kushāṇas. The Kushāṇas made innovations influenced by Roman coinage. Later rulers like the Hūṇas borrowed Sassanian styles. On the other, the City coins; the Dynastic coins of the Nandas, Mauryas, Sātavāhanas, Īkshvākus etc.; the Local coins; the Tribal coins of the Ārjunāyanas, Audumbaras, Mālavas, Rājanyas, Yaudheyas etc. and the Imperial coins of the Guptas are the major coins of Indian indigenous rulers. A brief survey of ancient Indian Indigenous coinage with particular reference to tribal coins has been discussed in the first chapter. The second chapter deals with the age-old issue, Origin of Indian Coinage- whether it is indigenous or foreign. The following five chapters are termed as Device, Legend, Metrology, Manufacturing Technique and Denomination. These chapters delineate the question of foreign influence on those specific fields of Indian coinage. The status of indigenous versus foreign coins in inland trade and the status of Indian coins in foreign trade have been discussed in the eighth and ninth chapters. Then follows the epilogue wherein the conclusion of my study has been enumerated.