Coins and Monetisation during the Pallava Period: A Study from Epigraphs

Numismatic evidence has played an important role in the reconstruction of the early history of the Indian subcontinent. It is primarily in the socioeconomic, religious and political discourses of a region that one is able to find the rightful place of coins. It would be, however, inappropriate on our part to believe that coins in the remote past were being ‘used exclusively for commercial, administrative or religious transactions’ (Hall 1999, p. 432). In fact, it is quite plausible that they were being ‘used for purposes with multiple and overlapping consequences’ (Hall 1999, p. 432).