DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

8.6J POWER OF GUILDS 273
out of them the viaticum money. And at the village of Chikhala-padra in the Kapura
district have been given 8000 rooted coconut trees; and all of this has been
proclaimed and registered at the assembly hall of the town (nigama-sabha), on the
record tablet (phalaka-vara)”.
The kahapana of the time was of good silver, as proved by the
Joghaltembhl hoard with coins of Nahapana, many counterstruk by
the conqueror Gotamiputra Satakani whose dynasty rarely bothered
to mint its own silver; the weight is about 32 grains, while - the total
number (22,000 estimated, never counted) far surpasses any other hoard
reported. There is no doubt of the prosperity of the kingdom, in so far as
it may be measured by coin in circulation. Lead coins, however, were
struck for this region, down to the early British period. The lead was
imported, and perhaps specially preferred by tribesmen, through the
casuistry of monks forbidden to touch gold and silver might also
explain this peculiar currency. Other guilds made donations or entered
into similar financial agreements with princes : potters, braziers, corndealers,
oil pressers, water-engineers, bamboo-workers, fishermen (dasaka,
through the head, Mugudasa, cave 8 at Nasik). The word koli still
describes weavers (now also kosti) in the same province, but they
have for centuries become a low caste without guild unity, scattered thinly
about the countryside. That the monks handled the silver directly,
instead of receiving such robes as they needed, points to a slackening
of Vinaya rules.
The coconut trees are still more important, for they alone made the
coastal agrarian settlement possible. The tree has manifold uses : the
fronds are plaited to make partitions, used thus or directly to thatch the
huts ; the wood makes good rafters, the butt end of the tree the narrowest
fishing boats. The coir is good for ropes. Most paying of all is the fruit,
which can be eaten before ripening, but when ripe and dry yields
excellent food-oil. The nut itself with its hard shell, three ‘eyes’ (of
which one is easily pierced through by the emergent sprout), and hair
left on at husking, displaced the “jar filled with water” (udakumbha) at
all Hindu ceremonials, without benefit of scriptural sanction. The
coconut has now replaced the former bel (bilva=Aegle marmalos)
wood-apple as daksina gift to brahmins. It is offered to the gods,