1: The Mahawanso mentions the existence of coined metals in India in the tenth year of the reign of Kalasoka, a century from the death of Buddha, ch. iv. p. 15. According to Hardy, in the most ancient laws of the Buddhists the distinction is recognised between coined money and bullion,—Eastern Monachism, vol. vii. p. 66.
2: The coins mentioned in the Mahawanso, Rajaratnacari, and Rajavali are as follows: B.C. 161, the kahapanan (Mahawanso, ch. xxx. pp. 157, 175), which TURNOUR says was a gold coin worth ten massakan or massa. The latter are "the pieces of gold formerly current in Ceylon," a heap of which, according to the Rajaratnacari (p. 48), was seen by King Bhatia Tissa when he was permitted to penetrate into the chamber of the Ruanwellé dagoba, A.D. 137. The silver massa, according to TURNOUR, was valued at eightpence. These are repeatedly mentioned in the Rajaratnacari (A.D. 201, p. 60, A.D. 234, p. 62, A.D. 1262, p. 102, A.D. 1301, p. 107, A.D. 1462, p. 113). The Rajavali speaks of "gold massa" as in circulation in the time of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 161 (p. 201). The word masa in Singhalese means "pulse," or any description of "beans;" and it seems not improbable that the origin of the term as applied to money may be traced to the practice in the early Indian coinage of stamping small lumps of metal to give them authentic currency. It can only be a coincidence that the Roman term for an ingot of gold was "massa" (Pliny, L. xxxiii. c. 19). These Singhalese massa were probably similar to the "punched coins," having rude stamps without effigies, and rarely even with letters, which have been turned up at Kanooj, Oujein, and other places in Western India. A copper coin is likewise mentioned in the fourteenth century, in the Rajavali, where it is termed carooshawpa; the value of which UPHAM, without naming his authority, says was "about a pice and a half."—p. 136.
3: Woo hëö pëen "Records of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1522, B. lxviii. p. 5. Suh Wan heen tung kaou, "Antiquarian Researches," B. ccxxxvi. p. 11.
4: Two gold coins of Lokaiswaira are in the collection of the British Museum, and will be found described by Mr. VAUX in the 16th vol. of the Numismatic Chronicle, p. 121.
5: There is a Singhalese coin figured in DAVY'S Ceylon, p. 245, the legend on which is turned upside down, but when reversed it reads "Sri Pa-re-kra-ma Bahu."
6: Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xvi. p. 124
Coin showing the Trisula.
The Kandyans, by whom these coins are frequently found, give the copper pieces the name of Dambedenia challies, and tradition, with perfect correctness, assigns them to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the kings of that period are believed to have had a mint at Dambedenia.
A quantity of coins similar in every respect to those dug up in Ceylon have been found at Dipaldinia or Amarawati, on the continent of India, near the mouth of the Kistna; a circumstance which might be accounted for by the frequent intercourse between Ceylon and the coast, but which is possibly referable to the fact recorded in the Mahawanso that Prakrama I., after his successful expedition against the King of Pandya, caused money to be coined in his own name before retiring to Ceylon.[1]