Numismatics
Topic: Studying Indian History: Sources, Dating and Historiography · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 4 "Timeline and Sources of History"; Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"
Meaning
Numismatics is the study of coins. Numismatists study a coin's metal, weight, script, images, the ruler's name and where the coin was found. Coins show who ruled where, how wide trade spread, and how rich a kingdom was. With inscriptions, texts and visual material, coins are one of the main kinds of evidence for early Indian history.
Example
Indo-Greek kings such as Apollodotus issued coins in about the 2nd–1st centuries BCE. These coins gave the king's name in both Greek and Kharosthi scripts. Because scholars could already read Greek, James Prinsep matched the letters and worked out how to read Kharosthi in the 1830s.
Don't confuse with
- Epigraphy: the study of inscriptions on stone, metal or pottery. Numismatics deals only with coins.
- Hoard: a store of coins or valuables hidden away in the past. A hoard is something numismatists study, not the name of the study.
Related concepts
- Sources of history
- Archaeology
- Archaeo-botany
- Underwater archaeology
- Literary sources
- Oral tradition
- Hagiography
- Kalhana
- Rajatarangini
- Indica of Arrian