Srikshetra was once a powerful fortified city located in south central Burma reached its apex between the 5th-9th centuries. A peaceful and powerful people who culturally dominated the region of Southeast Asia from northern Burma to southern Vietnam. The details about the people of Pyu are far from understood. Little has been recovered from Pyu in terms of literature and archaeological evidence. Of the Pyu cities Srikshetra is thought to be the political and cultural capitol. The smaller cities of Pyu met an unfortunate end when in the mid 9th century AD Chinese invaders from the north east reportedly carried off the entire population to be used as slaves. Burnt timbers in the cities confirm a destruction by fire and warfare. Mean while Srikshetra seems to have been at its height at this time, and at some point the city declined rapidly and eventually was abandoned in the late 11th century. There doesn't seem any archaeological evidence to suggest that the city was overthrown violently. The Pyu had a long history of contact with India and both Buddhism and Hinduism played a key role in the cultural and aesthetic dominance of the people in the area for centuries. Around 832 AD a tribal people from southern China called Burmese rapidly populated the dry plains and eventually absorbed the Pyu people, culture and art into their society.The coins of Pyu cease to be made after this date. Coinage would not resume in Burma for almost 7 centuries. This is one of the last coins. Burma, The States of Pyu, The City of Srikshetra AR Full Unit (96 Ratti) s. 632-835 AD (Final Coinage 800-832 AD) 35 mm x 9.53 g obverse: Bhadrapitha Symbol. A Drum tied in the center with diadems. reverse: Srivatsa symbol (the Temple of Sri, fertility goddess) with sun and moon above, conch shell on the right and thunderbolt to the left.
Thanks for the wonderful response guys. I found the same kind of coin on the CNG auction and this is how they described it... BURMA, Pyu City-States. Kingdom of Sri Ksetra. Circa 610-835. AR Unit – 96 Rattis Third (Final) coinage. Struck circa 800-832. Damaru (ritual hand drum of Śiva); five triangular and globular ornaments above, nine wedge-shaped ornaments; all within beaded border / Stūpa (world-temple) containing the tree-of-life; vajra(thunderbolt symbol of Indra) to left, sankh shell (symbol of Viṣṇu) to right, the heavens (lunar and solar symbols) above, primordial ocean below. ATEC 5749-50; HCSEA 464-5; M&P 61-5; R&S 3.5.
Is there a reason coinage disappeared for 7 centuries after the Burmese took over the area? You would think that such a useful invention would not fall by the wayside for so long.
JA- Thats a great question that I do not have the answer too. This snippet is from a coinage survey of Myanmar... During the 9th century a new wave of migrants entered the Irrawaddy valley from the north. These people were the Burmans. The newcomers settled the central region of the valley around the present day city of Mandalay, about 350 miles north of Rangoon. The Burmans adopted some aspects of the culture of Mons and Pyus they displaced, but they did not pick up on the idea of coinage. The Burmans consolidated their holdings into a kingdom with a capital at Pagan, about 100 miles southwest of Mandalay on the Irrawaddy. The Pagan kingdom expanded south and west (the easy direction - eastward was mountainous jungle inhabited by fierce Shan mountaineers). Around 1044 the Burmese king Anawrahta captured the Mon kingdom of Thaton at the mouth of the Irrawaddy, thus gaining the possibility of international trade. The Harikela kingdom went belly up sometime during the 11th century. Much of its Burmese territory was taken by the ethnically Thai kingdom of Nanchao, centered in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. By this time the use of coinage had ceased throughout Burma. Trade was conducted by barter, partially accounted in cowries, and partly in metal ingots, including silver, gold, copper, lead, and tin. The Burmans brought with them a standard weight, the kyat, of a bit more than 16 grams, that has descended into the monetary denomination today. The Pagan kingdom fell victim to the southernmost foray of the Mongols. Pagan itself was taken and destroyed in 1287. The Mongols didn’t stay long. The steamy jungles did not suit them, and they were harried by the feisty Shan from their mountain strongholds. In the wake of the Mongol retreat various Shan principalities came and went in northern Burma, while in the south a new Mon kingdom coalesced, with its capital at Pegu in Tenasserim. In the Burmese context "Pagan" is a place rather than a religion. The first ethnically Burmese empire had its capital in the city of that name, enduring about three centuries before being extinguished by the Mongols. During the Pagan period Buddhism became firmly established as the majority religion, and many of the cardinal aspects of modern Burmese culture developed. Numismatically, the Pagan period has little to show. Stone inscriptions and the accounts of Chinese travellers state that trade was accounted in gold, silver, and copper, but these went by weight, the standard being the kyat of about 16 grams. Cowries are also mentioned. One 12th century Chinese account speaks of crescent shaped ingots, there is a record from the 16th century mentioning different shapes of silver ingots, and yet another mentioning some official regulation of the silver/copper ratio in circulating "money," but no examples of these things have come to light in modern times. Chinese coins did not seem to circulate in Burma, so for the long period from the 8th to the 17th century we have, from a collecting standpoint, more or less nothing.
So from what I gather they just didn't use coins. What do find quite amazing is that usually when coinage falls out of use it usually ends with rapid debasement and coins become small and crude, this is not the case here. Although in some parts of southeast asia wait for a full unit was reduced from 11 grams down to 7 grams. In Pyu the last and final coinage was quite pure in metal content, large and majestic.
