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| Sunday, 25 December 2005 |
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Unique 'Buddhist Cakram' coin Lecture delivered by Wg. Cdr. Rajah Wickremesinhe, President of the Sri Lanka Numismatic Society on the occasion of its 29th Anniversary-2005.
John Still has suggested that the Cakram appeared as a cattle brand mark, in the Anuradhapura district and was also used by Tamil farmers in Jaffna even in the early part of 20th Century. Prof. O. Bopearachchi in his analysis of Dr. Siran Dereniyagala's Addendum II of the pre-history of Sri Lanka 1992, which details the excavations at Anuradhapura at Salgahawatte, identifies this coin found in strata context No. 56 as a Pandyan inspired multi-type 'Caitya and fish'. The 3 cell Caitya on the coin shows the uppermost cell surmounted by a chatra. Bopearachchi agrees with M. M. Mitchiner who in his 'Ancient and classical coins' dates these coins to c. 210-170 B.C. However Dr. Siran Dereniyagala and Dr. Mohan Abeyratne in a paper presented jointly at the 14th International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists in Rome July 1997, radio-carbon dating the strata in which two coins of this type were found corroborating Codrington's dating to c. 100 B.C. Deraniyagala and Abeyratne date the elephant with symbols and railed swastika coins found in the lower strata to c 300-150 B.C., and the Tree and Railed Swastika coins to c 190-100 B.C.. The Mahavamsa chap. xxxiii v. 39 states that seven Damilas landed at Mahatittha and at v. 61 records that thereafter 5 Damila kings ruled for fourteen and a half years, being reckoned by historians as 102-89 B.C., after which time, king Vattagamini Abaya regained his throne. He thereafter built the Abhayagiri Vihara. C. H. Biddulph 1966 in his 'Coins of the Pandyans' mentions an invasion of the island by the Pandyans in the 1st Century BC and records the presence of Dravidian die-struck coins, similar to those current at the time on the mainland of India in the 'stylized fish' variety. He indicates that similar coins were struck for use in the island, in the Pandyan occupied territory, but with a lesser number of symbols. The writer has scrutinized 80 illustrations of Cakram coins, 25 from R. Krishnamurthy's 'Sangam coins', 23 from C. H. Biddulph's 'coins of the Pandyans' and 33 from M. Mitchiner's 'Ancient and classical coins'-600 B.C. to A.D. 640, and has personally examined 4 Cakram coins, during the past 40 years of research on ancient Sri Lankan numismatics. It is my finding that the symbols on the obverse of coins discovered locally, as from finds at Anuradhapura and Kandarodai in Jaffna, confirm the lesser number of symbols on the Sri Lanka variety, as expressed by Biddulph. The primary symbol on the obverse of the coin is an elephant with trunk pendant, standing left (more coins with elephant to right being found among the South Indian coins). The secondary symbols, are usually about 4 from among (i)tree (Bodhi tree) in a 4, 6 or 8 compartment railing (ii) 3 arch Caitya or mountain at time surmounted by a chatra (iii) triangle - headed standard (iv) swimming fish in a river (v) Temple of Vesta and (vi) a tortoise. The reverse of the coin portrays a single Cakram (Stylised fish). The coins found in South India, particularly from Tinnavelly and the Madura region generally display up to 9 symbols, which often include a trisula, usually displayed on the top and right margins of the coin. I present here a unique 'Cakram' coin acquired by me from a collector for over 50 years, from the Negombo district, see fig. 1 and insert of the countermark. At fig. 2 is a typical South Indian Cakram coin (for the purpose of comparison.) D. P. E. Hettiarchchi has examined 2 Pandyan inspired Cakram coins which resemble this unique coin in the 'Sir Paul E. Pieris Felicitation volume' published by the Royal Asiatic Society. The coin under review has a very distinct and clear counter-mark, which obliterates the upper portion of the 3 arch Caitya, over which it is stamped. This counter mark portrays a Bo tree with branches, unlike in any other coin examined. At the top of the coin is a tree within a six compartment enclosure, the compartments in the enclose unlike normally being slanted. The bottom centre of the coin displays an elephant with trunk pendant facing left, with a triangle-headed standard in front. Above the elephant is a very large tortoise. I venture to suggest that this counter-mark is peculiar to Sri Lanka, and that it was introduced by king Vattagamini Abhaya after he regained his throne in 89 B.C. from the Pandyans, and having built the Abhayagiri dagoba. It is my conjecture that the obliterated counter-mark is a 3 arch Caitya identical to that on the coin published by Hettiarachchi. V. A. Smith's suggestion that the Dravidian rectangular copper coins may have been concurrent with silver punch-mark coins throughout the Indian sub-continent and also in Sri Lanka in the period 100 B.C.- A.D. 200 can be accepted in the light of the Anuradhapura Salagaha Watta excavations and my analysis."
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Codrington
in his 'Coins and currency of Ceylon' adopts this description, as given by
Loventhal in his 'Coins of Tinnevelly' to describe a Pandyan, square copper
coin. The Cakram was described as consisting of two lines forming an acute
angle, the apex being uppermost within two crossed lines parallel to the
sides of the angle which they join, all four lines ending at the bottom on
the same level. 
