1 Karshapana - Shaishunaga Dynasty

The Shaishunaga dynasty ruled Magadha during a period when coinage in the Indian subcontinent was still developing its own logic entirely independent of Greek or Persian influence. These punch-marked pieces were struck — or more accurately, punched — by applying individual dies to the silver blank in sequence, which is why the symbols read as a cluster rather than a unified design. The specific symbol combinations catalogued by Gupta and Hardaker allow attribution to issuing authority and approximate period, though the system remains only partially decoded.

Nanda rulers displaced the Shaishunaga line around 345 BC, but continued issuing nearly identical punch-marked currency, making terminal dating of this type genuinely difficult.