Rupee
common name for several currencies
Rupee (UK: , US: ) is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, Burma, German East Africa (as Rupie/Rupien), and Tibet. In Indonesia and the Maldives, the unit of currency is known as rupiah and rufiyaa respectively, which are cognates of the word rupee.
The Indian rupee and Pakistani rupee are subdivided into one hundred paise (singular paisa) or pice. The Nepalese rupee (रू) subdivides into one hundred paisa (singular and plural) or four sukaas. The Mauritian, Seychellois, and Sri Lankan rupees subdivide into 100 cents.
Etymology
The Hindustani word rupayā (रुपया) is derived from the Sanskrit word rūpya (रूप्य), which means "wrought silver, a coin of silver", in origin an adjective meaning "shapely", with a more specific meaning of "stamped, impressed", whence "coin". It is derived from the noun rūpa (रूप) "shape, likeness, image".
History
The history of the rupee traces back to ancient India circa 3rd century BC. Ancient India was one of the earliest issuers of coins in the world, along with the Lydian staters, several other Middle Eastern coinages and the Chinese wen.
The term is from rūpya, a Sanskrit term for silver coin, from Sanskrit rūpa, beautiful form.
Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, chief adviser to the first Maurya emperor Chandragupta Maurya (c.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rupee” as common name for several currencies. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q178843. The Library of Congress control number is sh85115878. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rupee” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.