PARATA RAJAS Koziya circa 230-270 AD drachm

Description

The Paratarajas were local rulers around Quetta, in Balochistan in southern Pakistan during the decline of Scythian power.

I had been in the habit of using R.C. Senior’s Scythian books for attribution, in which he attributed this to one Spajhama, c. 10 BC. I was advised of the more current attribution, which is this.

The earliest ancient Indian coins were the “bent bar” punchmarked silvers of the Achaemenid Persians occupying Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. By the 3rd century BC coins were in general use in most of India and Ceylon, and in subsequent centuries struck round coins in gold, silver, and copper came into use throughout the subcontinent and beyond to Southeast Asia and Pacific islands to Java and beyond.