Kosala State Region : C. 600 - 470 BC Silver Punchmarked Coinage

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Paul Laurence Murphy, born in 1949 at Reading (England), has worked in numerous countries in varied business and technological carriers. He is presently working as the Director for a Pan-European Internet provider. His main interests outside business life are History in all aspects and Numismatics in particular. He is especially interested in symbols and historical mapping which eventually led to the special interest Mike Indian Purchmarked coins. He is the originator and founder member of the Mau Project, which aims at providing a classification for the Indian Punchmarked coins and their symbols. He is a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society and a member of the Oriental Numismatic Society. He is married with three children of school age and resides in the Netherlands.

Kosala State - is part of the overall CD-ROM project on Ancient Indian silver punchmarked coinage (PMC).

The CD-ROM project has been given the code name `AHATA', which is the Sanskrit word for punchmarked. Each off-print from the CD-ROM project will be issued as enough material is available. The Kosala State on CD-ROM format is expected to be issued by the year 2002, with update releases issued thereafter as new material demands. Other contents of other States maybe added if the material is advanced enough for publishing. Thus the CD-ROM contents are the living input vehicle and the off-print is a snapshot of the contents at the time of print. The whole work should be considered as a research platform for numismatists and interested parties. The intention is to price each off-print at the lowest viable cost.

The CD-ROM project aims are:
• Coverage of Ancient Indian States silver coinage
• Photo image of each type coin, where possible
• Unique numbering and matrix tables of the symbols
• Unique numbering and matrix tables of secondary (banker marks) symbols
• Matrix tables on weights, dimensions and metal contents, where known
• Short history of each Ancient State, where known
• Related theories to the coinage.
• Detailed reference list of publications on the subject with eventually a short commentary of contents

The main symbols table and the bankers mark table will be in accumulative tables for the whole PMC series. Therefore in an off-print for a particular State, 'symbols will be listed in these tables of others States as well. Each off-print will contain:
• Book 1- Coins found in the suspected State concern
• Book 2 - Accumulative symbol tables
• Version number of edition.

Advantages of numismatic material on the CD-ROM format are:
• Material can be copied to hard disk and edited for an individual’s use
• Presentation of the material greatly improves
• Easier to release updates at low costs as against glossy reprints
• Easier cross referencing e.g. Bankers marks to coin types

The following off-prints are expected to be covered:
• General introduction guide to the PMC series
• Archaic series
• Regions of Andhra, Anga, Asmaka, Avanti, Dakshina Panchala (Patha), Kalinga, Kashi, Kosala, Kuru, Surasena, Taxilla-Gandhara (Pushkalavati), Vanga, and Vatsa.
• Tribal States and related subjects.

The Magadha and Mauryan series will remain being handled by Dr. P. L. Gupta and T. R. Hardaker. The symbols from these series will though appear in the symbol tables of the Ahata project.

The printed contents may change depending on the material per volume per off-print. Hence certain off-prints maybe combined.

Readers are encouraged to provide new numismatic input or recommendations to the Ahata project via the Email address: [email protected]

Any reader's input used, will be acknowledged in the CD-ROM release on "Ancient Indian silver punchmarked coinage" or off-prints.

I apologies if in this publication anyone is not properly or correctly credited for his or her work. Please notify the writer so that corrections can be made in the next edition. Any errors in this work, I am solely to blame. I would be obliged if the errors were notified to the writer.

The Ahata project team at present consists of:

You will see their endeavours in future publications and CD-ROM issues. It is hoped that the output will be forthcoming over the next ten years. All members can only provide the time they can afford. Therefore, there is no strict deadline to the project as a whole. This will be a continuous process, as material becomes available. It is hoped that the readers will provide the vital gaps in the information needed.

The study of punchmarked coins is perhaps the most dynamic of all coin series, insofar as new types and varieties are being continuously reported and published. Thus, the researcher is confronted with an ever-burgeoning volume of data. Such new varieties are, however, published as singular finds or reports in various journals/periodicals originating in different parts of the world, and it is not always possible to keep track of these reports.

The original draft was aimed at Kosala contents only. It soon became apparent that the early symbols of Kosala State involve symbols that have previously been attributed to the Kashi State. Both these States have been inter-twined in their history. At present, there is no clear indication to classify parts of the coinage of Kosala to be Kashi. Therefore the study was expanded for this publication in order to provide the reader with the best overview possible for the classifications.

This offprint on Kosala punchmarked has tapped all possible resources/publications to arrive at an excellent product on the types/varieties of punchmarked coins attributable to Kosala Janapada area. The assigning of specific numbers to the symbols, classified into Geometric, Nature and Manmade symbols, naturally facilitates cross-referencing and updates later.

Considering that the data on Kosala punchmarked coins is in a fluid state with reports of new finds/varieties still coming in, this work has made provisions for such additions by keeping certain symbols as "reserved". Future updates will thus be made much easier, particularly in the CD-ROM format, as against the conventional method of going in for cumbersome reprints. The work has also made an effort to attribute certain bankers' marks to specific coin-types. Such an attempt may eventually lead to some sort of chronological arrangement of the Kosala punchmarked coins vis-a-vis the banker's marks.

The project as a whole has several advantages over the print media, and we are, at Indian Institute of Research in Numismatic Studies (IIRNS), very pleased to be associated with Paul Murphy, whose years of experience in the information field has given shape to an endeavour of this nature. For the completion of the whole silver punchmarked coinage of the ancient Indian states would represent in excess of 5,000 symbols. There is considerable data in the Photo Archives and print library at the Institute, and it has been a matter of happiness and pleasure for us at IIRNS to offer all possible inputs, both print and electronic, towards this meritorious work. By its very nature, and with the meticulous classification system adopted, the present work has done full justice to the available input data, and placed the relevant material at IIRNS within easy access of the researcher.

We look forward to the subsequent volumes in this series on punchmarked coins, as also to the final product of the series in CD-ROM format. It would no doubt be a step forward for research on the subject.

I encourage any reader of this publication, who can provide new input for this project, to do so. If you have new varieties, please do not hesitate to contact the writer or the IIRNS. Please provide a photograph of the obverse and reverse of the coin, on a white background. The weight information and the coin origin would also be provided, if possible. Your name will be recorded to our coin type files, unless you state otherwise. All information gathered helps the future research students.