Yaudheyas
Topic: Post-Mauryan India: Shungas to Kushanas · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"
Meaning
The Yaudheyas were a tribal republic, or gana, in Punjab and Haryana. A gana was a state run by a group of leading clan members rather than by a single king. Around the 1st century CE they issued their own coins. Archaeologists have found several thousand of their copper coins. These coins show that the Yaudheyas were active in trade and exchange, just like the kingdoms around them.
Example
Yaudheya copper coins, c. 1st century CE, often carry the war god Kartikeya. They also bear the words "victory to the Yaudheya gana". Rudradaman's Junagadh inscription boasts of defeating the Yaudheyas, which shows that they were a strong military power.
Don't confuse with
- Kushana coins: these were gold coins issued by kings. Yaudheya coins were copper and were issued by a republic, not a monarch.
- Punch-marked coins: these are much older, from c. 6th century BCE. They carry stamped symbols, not the name of a gana.