1 Karshapana - Ajatasatru

Ajatasatru, who seized the Magadhan throne around 492 BC by imprisoning and starving his own father Bimbisara, aggressively expanded the kingdom through nearly three decades of warfare — most notably a sixteen-year campaign against the Vajjian Confederacy, which he finally broke by deploying a catapult-like weapon and armed chariots described in Pali sources. The punch-marked karshapana issued under Magadhan authority during this period circulated across a trade network that stretched well into the Gangetic plain, financing both military logistics and the emerging urban economies of early northern India.

Attribution to specific rulers within the janapada punch-marked series remains genuinely difficult; the GH#126 designation anchors this piece to a symbol set associated with the Magadhan sequence, but individual reign attribution is still contested among specialists.