Hamsavati — identified with the Mon kingdom centered near modern Thaton in Lower Burma — issued these silver punch-marked pieces during a period when Indian mercantile and religious networks were actively reshaping political authority across mainland Southeast Asia. The ratti unit itself derives from the weight of the Abrus precatorius seed, a standard carried overland and by sea from the Subcontinent.
Mitchell's Eastern Attribution series remains the primary reference for this type, though attribution of specific pieces continues to generate scholarly disagreement over which issues belong to Hamsavati proper versus contemporaneous Mon polities in the same region.
Hamsavati — identified with the Mon kingdom centered near modern Thaton in Lower Burma — issued these silver punch-marked pieces during a period when Indian mercantile and religious networks were actively reshaping political authority across mainland Southeast Asia. The ratti unit itself derives from the weight of the Abrus precatorius seed, a standard carried overland and by sea from the Subcontinent.
Mitchell's Eastern Attribution series remains the primary reference for this type, though attribution of specific pieces continues to generate scholarly disagreement over which issues belong to Hamsavati proper versus contemporaneous Mon polities in the same region.