Numismatic Sources on The Early History of Western Himalayas

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The Western Himalayas have always remained a theatre for all human activities-social and cultural and the ideal of human aspirations-religious and spiritual from the very dawn. of civilization in the Indian sub-continent. It is from this perennial source that all the socio-religious currents have flown and spread to the rest of the sub-continent and beyond eastward where they subsequently developed into multiforms. The cultural strata of the Western Himalayas has, thus, been composed of the sedimentary layers of diverse ethnic influences and socio-religious systems which, in the course of time, got blended and crystallised into a distinct cultural entity. Most of those raciocultural strains have remained obscure through ages and, to discover them has always been a challenge to the historians and the scholars. But traces of those strains of the hoary past are preserved as an integral part of the rich folk-lore and can be gleaned through the countless myths and legends in the epics and puranas. The early history of Western Himalayas has thus, remained shrouded and mystified and overburdened with folk imagery and fantasy.

In order to wean the grains out of chaff, it is imperative that those legends and traditions recorded in the Epics and puranas and the folk-lore are conscientiously evaluated and analysed in the context of the extant archaeological evidences, which al- though fragmentary and scarce in this region, are of cardinal importance for eliciting historical account of that age. The numismatic evidences of the ancient republics which held sway in this region in the remote past are so far the only means by which the literary references and the folk traditions can be systematically examined for their historical credence.

Shri O. C. Handa's publication Numismatic Sources on the Early History of Western Himalaya is an original work of research which traces the history of this mountainous region from very remote past and highlights complicated mythological beliefs and varied culture of its inhabitants. With his inborn, keen and penetrating insight, Shri Handa has made the best use of various rare coins to throw ample light on the history of this region which, otherwise, has remained shrouded in darkness to date. He has discussed coins of many ancient republics -the Auduthbaras, the Vamakis, the Trigartas, the Kulütas, the Kupindas and the Yaudheyas as well as the punch-marked coins and the medieval ones and copper nugget-money which hitherto had escaped notice of the scholars and, thus has squeezed out valuable history out of them.

Shri Handa carried out extensive exploration at many place in this region out of which Dundi ruins at Dhabas in Chaupal. old settlement at Dattanagar, ancient temple-sites at Auhar and Bilaspur and old capital at Siwa-Binaul in Mandi deserve mention. He is very widely travelled person who has covered the entire region crossing almost all the high passes and valleys in pursuit of his studies and has, thus, collected huge field-data and documented meterial. But for this present work which makes use of a part of his collection, his wanderings in the interiors would have remained forgotten and unproductive of the benefits to the historians of this region.

His extensive expeditions, mostly on foot, to places of historic importance in the remoter regions beyond high passes and tough terrains, some of them right on the borders of Tibet, have made possible the execution of this incompararable work which embodies his new interpretation and findings about the origin of the Trigartas and the Kulütas and an in-depth study of the socio-economic structure of the Kupindas.

**Contents and Sample Pages**