Coins of the Indian kingdom of the Western Kshatrapas. Brāhmī numerals

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The Western Satraps, or Western Kshatrapas — were Indo-Scythian rulers of the western and central parts of India, between 35 and 415 A.D.

  

It is difficult to say with certainty who the Western Kshatrapas really were. On the one hand, Indo-Scythian roots are traced, and they allegedly belonged to the Saka tribes, the appearance of which is also a debatable issue up to the present time. They were called Western to avoid confusion with the Northern Satraps who ruled the Punjab and Mathura as early as the 2^nd century BC. The Hindus called the rulers of the Western Kshatrapas the Sakas, whereas Ptolemy in his «Geographical Guidance» in the 2^nd century A.D. mistakenly continued to call them «the Indo-Scythians». We know them now as the Western Kshatrapas.

The word Kṣatrapa has the same origin as the word satrap and are both descended from Median «xšaθrapāvan-» (hasharapavana), which means viceroy or governor of a province. According to the scientists, the word kṣatrapa means the viceroy of the «King of kings». At the time of the birth of the state of the Western Kshatrapas, the dominant power in that region was the Kushan Empire, whose vassals were probably the first Kshatrapas. The founder of the ruling dynasty of the Western Kshatrapas was a former Kushan viceroy named Chashtana, who was the first to use the title «Mahakṣatrapa», i.е. «Great Satrap». Ptolemy in his writings refers to Chashtana as Tiastanēs, who ruled over considerable territories in western Hindustan, and especially singling out the region of Ujjain. The city of the same name would become the capital of the state under Rudradaman I. A series of military defeats at the hands of the Western Kshatrapas' eternal rival, the Satavahana Empire, led to the weakening of the state. After a brief return to their former greatness under Rudrasena III, the Kshatrapas suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire, and by the end of the 3^rd century they were rapidly declining, unable to recover from the damage they had inflicted.

The coins of the Western Kshatrapas have a unique feature for their time: the legends mention not only the name of the current ruler, but also the title and name of the predecessor. Because of this, historians have been able to recover the names of 27 (twenty-seven) independent rulers who ruled the state for ≈350 years. Edward J. Rapson has put it that way (see source [6], 1908, page CXC):

Since the reigns of Jivadaman and Rudrasimha I (175–199 A.D.), the coins began to bear the year according to the Saka era (SE), which further simplified attribution. The date began to be placed to the left of the portrait. Interestingly enough, the number system did not yet include 0 (zero). As a reminder, the SE era is counted from the year 78 of the Julian calendar. Another name is also used among Hindus: the Shaliwahana era. The beginning of this system of solar year reckoning was in honor of the military victory won by Gautamiputra Satakarni — who had the throne name Shalivahan and belonged to the Satavahana dynasty — over the semi-nomadic tribes of the Sakas. Let's summarize and write the formula for calculating the A.D. year for a given year of the Saka era (SE):

Year _A.D. = Year _SE + 78.

Some of the legends on the coins of the Western Kshatrapas (including the year of minting) are written in the Brāhmī script, which later became the ancestor of many scripts that developed in Hindustan.

The inscriptions to the right of the portrait of the ruler are an imitation of Greek writing and do not carry any semantic load; they are oftentimes called «blundered Greek legend». The Brahmi script evolved into a fully developed system in the 3^rd century BC. The decipherment of Brahmi texts was actively pursued by the British in the early 19^th century. The Brahmi script was deciphered by James Prinsep (1799–1840), secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in a series of scientific articles printed in the Society's journals.

Let us also draw the reader's attention to the strange figure at the center of the Brahmi legend. Among the group of symbols representing the sun, crescent moon and river, there is one which has the name «chaitya», i.e. the crescented three-arched hill. This symbol may have appeared as far back as the reign of the Mauryas, i.e. in the 3^rd to 2^nd centuries BC. «Chaitya» is also a type of Buddhist architecture — with distinctive arched vaults.

You can find instructions on how to read the coin legends in the «SOURCES» section down below:
[3] (pp. 3–5);
[4] (pages specified in the «SOURCES» section);
[5] (all specified pages, esp. 378–379).

Also for clarity, here is a color illustration describing the meaning of the symbols on the coins of the Western Kshatrapas:

Brahmi numerals were written and read from left to right (→), with hundreds first, then tens, and then finally ones. Numerals have had their own symbols for the values 1 to 9, 10 to 90, and are also known forms for the following numerals:
100; 200; 300; 400; 500; 700;
1,000; 2,000; 3,000; 4,000; 5,000; 6,000; 8,000;
10,000; 20,000; 70,000.

During the existence of the kingdom of the Western Kshatrapas, as well as in the period preceding it, the form of writing of Brahmi numerals varied, and modern researchers record a variety of these forms. The following are variations taken from various research sources on the topic at hand.

Source [5], p. 378:

Source [6], p. CCVIII:

Source [3], p. 6:

Source [7], pp. 22–25:

Source [9], pp. 188–193:

The date on many coins of the Western Kshatrapas was often missing the flan, or was only partially legible. Thus, the coins where the symbols of the year were fully present are fairly infrequent.

Let us illustrate the theory described above with the images of several coins on which the symbols of the year have fully fit the coin flan:

Example №1. Silver drachma, year SE 153, i.e. 153 + 78 = 231 A.D.

Left image without rotation; right image with ≈90° clockwise rotation, Brahmi numerals standing for year 153 (i.e. 100, 50, and 3) are outlined in blue. The coin has been minted in the name of Damasena, the ruler of the Western Kshatrapas who was in power in 223–232 A.D. Reference in literature: source [6], coin №388 [p. 110 (description), Plate XIII (image of the coin)].

Example №2. Drachma, year SE 189, i.e. 189 + 78 = 267 A.D. Ruler Rudrasena II (reigned 255–277 A.D.). Reference: Zeno 344093.

Example №3. Drachma, year SE 292, i.e. 292 + 78 = 370 A.D. Ruler Rudrasena III (reigned 348–378 A.D.). Reference: Zeno 189201.

SOURCES:

1. Article on the coins of the Western Kshatrapas posted on November 15, 2024, in the VK community «Excursions into the past» (written in Russian language).

2. Article «Coins from ancient India» from the web-site sullacoins.com.

3. Article: Pankaj Tandon — «How to read the legends on coins of the Western Kshatrapas. A beginner's guide» (the date of publication of the article is unknown).

4. Robert C. Senior (Bob Senior) — the four parts of his handbook «Easy Finder» for the coins of the Western Kshatrapas. These guides were published in 1996 in the Oriental Numismatic Community newsletters (Oriental Numismatic Society (ONS)):
Part 1 of 4: Newsletter 147, pp. 4–6;
Part 2 of 4: Newsletter 148, pp. 16–17;
Part 3 of 4: Newsletter 149, pp. 9–10;
Part 4 of 4: Newsletter 150, pp. 15–17.

5. John S. Deyell — A guide to the reading of ancient Indian coin legends (Part 2: Brahmi) — Numismatics International Bulletin. Dallas, Vol. 10, No. 11 (Nov. 1976), pp. 371–384. See file 1 or file 2.

6. Edward James Rapson (1861–1937) — A Catalogue of Indian Coins in the British Museum (1908). In particular:
  ▪ letters of the Brahmi alphabet as they appear on the legends of the coins of the Western Kshatrapas: pp. CXCV–CXCIX;
  ▪ list of rulers' names (in Latin script): pp. CCIII–CCVII;
  ▪ Brahmi numerals: p. CCVIII;
  ▪ Western Kshatrapas coin images in black and white format: at the end of the book on the Plates with numbers: X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, and XVII.

7. David Eugene Smith (1860–1944), Louis Charles Karpinski (1878–1956) — The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911), in particular: various forms of writing Brahmi numerals (pp. 22–27).

8. The page «Brahmi numerals» on Wikipedia.

9. Stephen Chrisomalis — Numerical Notation: A Comparative History (2010), section «Brāhmī» (pp. 188–193).

This article was published on December 03^rd, 2024, updated on December 06^th, 2024.