PANCHALAS of AHICHHATRA, small copper, circa 200-340 AD

DescriptionPanchala and the Panchalas lived in northern India in the Ganges plain as far west as the Yamuna River. It was a Vedic state, then an independent Janapada before being absorbed into the Mauryan Empire. After the fall of the Sungas the Panchalas emerged into two independent kingdoms. Ahichhatra was the capital of the northern kingdom. The Panchala states were later absorbed into the Gupta Empire.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.