1/4 Karshapana - Sunga Kingdom

The Shunga dynasty came to power in 185 BC when the general Pushyamitra Shunga assassinated the last Mauryan emperor Brihadratha during a military parade — a coup that also reversed many of the Buddhist patronage policies of the Mauryan court. Coinage of this period retained the punch-marked technical tradition inherited from Mauryan mints but with noticeably reduced silver use, copper fractional issues becoming far more prevalent in everyday exchange.

The karshapana as a weight standard had roots several centuries deeper than the Shunga state itself, which makes attribution of these fractional coppers genuinely difficult — many circulated well beyond the dynasty's collapse around 73 BC.