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Title: The coins of India
Author: C. J. Brown
Release date: March 6, 2025 [eBook #75542]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Oxford University Press, 1922
Credits: Aaron Adrignola and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
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Transcriber’s Notes:
Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
in the original text.
Equal signs “=” before AND after a word or phrase indicate =bold=
in the original text.
Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.
Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.
Deprecated spellings have been preserved.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
THE HERITAGE OF INDIA SERIES
_Joint_ { The Right Reverend V. S. AZARIAH, Bishop of Dornakal.
_Editors_ { J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A., D.Litt. (Oxon.).
_Already published._
The Heart of Buddhism. K. J. SAUNDERS, M.A.
Asoka. J. M. MACPHAIL, M.A., M.D.
Indian Painting. PRINCIPAL PERCY BROWN, Calcutta.
Kanarese Literature, 2nd ed. E. P. RICE, B.A.
The Sāṁkhya System. A. BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., D.Litt.
Psalms of Marāṭhā Saints. NICOL MACNICOL, M.A., D.Litt.
A History of Hindī Literature. F. E. KEAY, M.A., D.Litt.
The Karma-Mīmāṁsā. A. BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., D.Litt.
Hymns of the Tamil Śaivite Saints. F. KINGSBURY, B.A.,
and G. E. PHILLIPS, M.A.
Rabindranath Tagore. E. J. THOMPSON, B.A., M.C.
Hymns from the Rigveda. A. A. MACDONELL, M.A., Ph.D., Hon. LL.D.
Gotama Buddha. K. J. SAUNDERS, M.A.
_Subjects proposed and volumes under preparation._
SANSKRIT AND PALI LITERATURE.
Anthology of Mahāyāna Literature.
Selections from the Upanishads.
Scenes from the Rāmāyaṇa.
Selections from the Mahābhārata.
THE PHILOSOPHIES.
An Introduction to Hindu Philosophy. J. N. FARQUHAR
and PRINCIPAL JOHN MCKENZIE, Bombay.
The Philosophy of the Upanishads.
Śaṅkara’s Vedānta. A. K. SHARMA, M.A., Patiāla.
Rāmānuja’s Vedānta.
The Buddhist System.
FINE ART AND MUSIC.
Indian Architecture. R. L. EWING, B.A., Madras.
Indian Sculpture.
The Minor Arts. PRINCIPAL PERCY BROWN, Calcutta.
Burmese Art and Artistic Crafts. PRINCIPAL MORRIS,
Insein, Burma.
BIOGRAPHIES OF EMINENT INDIANS.
Rāmānuja.
Akbar. F. V. SLACK, M.A., Calcutta.
Tulsī Dās.
VERNACULAR LITERATURE.
The Kurral. H. A. POPLEY, B.A., Madras, and K. T. PAUL, B.A.,
Calcutta.
Hymns of the Āḷvārs. J. S. M. HOOPER, M.A., Nagari.
Tulsī Dās’s Rāmāyaṇa in Miniature. G. J. DANN, M.A., (Oxon.),
Patna.
Hymns of Bengali Singers. E. J. THOMPSON, B.A., M.C., Bankura.
Kanarese Hymns. MISS BUTLER, B.A., Bangalore.
HISTORIES OF VERNACULAR LITERATURE.
Bengali. C. S. PATERSON, M.A., Calcutta.
Gujarātī.
Marāthī. NICOL MACNICOL, M.A., D.Litt., Poona.
Tamil.
Telugu. P. CHENCHIAH, M.A., Madras, and RAJA BHUJANGA RAO,
Ellore.
Malayālam. T. K. JOSEPH, B.A., L.T., Trivandrum.
Urdū. B. GHOSHAL, M.A., Bhopal.
Burmese. PROF. TUNG PE, Rangoon.
Sinhalese.
NOTABLE INDIAN PEOPLES.
The Rājpūts.
The Syrian Christians. K. C. MAMMEN MAPILLAI, Alleppey.
The Sikhs.
VARIOUS.
Modern Folk Tales. W. NORMAN BROWN, M.A., Ph.D., Philadelphia.
Indian Village Government.
Poems by Indian Women. MRS. N. MACNICOL.
Classical Sanskrit Literature.
Indian Temple Legends. K. T. PAUL, B.A., Calcutta.
Indian Astronomy and Chronology. DEWAN BAHADUR L. D.
SWAMIKANNU PILLAI, Madras.
The Languages of India. PROF. R. L. TURNER, London.
EDITORIAL PREFACE
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honourable, whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
No section of the population of India can afford to neglect her ancient
heritage. In her literature, philosophy, art, and regulated life there
is much that is worthless, much also that is distinctly unhealthy; yet
the treasures of knowledge, wisdom, and beauty which they contain are
too precious to be lost. Every citizen of India needs to use them, if
he is to be a cultured modern Indian. This is as true of the Christian,
the Muslim, the Zoroastrian as of the Hindu. But, while the heritage of
India has been largely explored by scholars, and the results of their
toil are laid out for us in their books, they cannot be said to be
really available for the ordinary man. The volumes are in most cases
expensive, and are often technical and difficult. Hence this series of
cheap books has been planned by a group of Christian men, in order that
every educated Indian, whether rich or poor, may be able to find his
way into the treasures of India’s past. Many Europeans, both in India
and elsewhere, will doubtless be glad to use the series.
The utmost care is being taken by the General Editors in selecting
writers, and in passing manuscripts for the press. To every book two
tests are rigidly applied: everything must be scholarly, and everything
must be sympathetic. The purpose is to bring the best out of the
ancient treasuries, so that it may be known, enjoyed, and used.
THE HERITAGE OF INDIA SERIES
THE COINS OF INDIA
BY C. J. BROWN, M.A.
READER IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, LUCKNOW UNIVERSITY;
MEMBER OF THE NUMISMATIC SOCIETY OF INDIA.
With Twelve Plates
“Time, which antiquates antiquities, and hath an art to make
dust of all things, hath yet spared these minor monuments.”
—SIR THOMAS BROWNE, _Hydriotaphia_.
ASSOCIATION PRESS
(Y.M.C.A.)
5, RUSSELL STREET, CALCUTTA
LONDON: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK, TORONTO, MELBOURNE,
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS
1922
_The Right of Translation is Reserved._
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION 7
ABBREVIATIONS 11
I. THE EARLIEST COINAGE OF INDIA 13
II. COINS OF THE INDO-GREEKS, THE ŚAKAS AND PAHLAVAS 22
III. COINS OF THE KUSHĀṆA KINGS 33
IV. THE COINAGE OF THE GUPTAS 40
V. THE MEDIÆVAL COINAGES OF NORTHERN AND CENTRAL
INDIA TILL THE MUHAMMADAN CONQUEST 50
VI. THE COINAGE OF SOUTHERN INDIA 56
VII. THE MUHAMMADAN DYNASTIES OF DEHLĪ 67
VIII. THE COINAGES OF THE MUHAMMADAN STATES 78
IX. COINS OF THE SŪRIS AND THE MUGHALS 89
X. CONTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS OF THE MUGHALS 100
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 110
PRINCIPAL COLLECTIONS OF INDIAN COINS 112
INDEX 113
LIST OF PLATES
PLATE NEAR PAGE
I. EARLIEST COINS OF INDIA 20
II. COINAGE OF THE INDO-GREEKS, ETC. 21
III. COINAGE OF THE INDO-SCYTHIANS, ETC. 30
IV. KUSHĀṆA COINS 31
V. COINAGE OF THE GUPTAS 38
VI. MEDIÆVAL COINAGE OF NORTHERN INDIA 39
VII. SOUTH INDIAN COINS 48
VIII. COINS OF THE SULTANS OF DEHLĪ 49
IX. COINS OF MUHAMMADAN STATES 54
X. SŪRI AND MUGHAL COINS 55
XI. MUGHAL COINS 64
XII. COINS OF POST MUGHAL DYNASTIES, ETC. 65
_The Key to each Plate will be found on the page facing it._
INTRODUCTION
This little book has been written as an introduction to the study
of the subject with which it deals, and is intended primarily for
Indian readers. At the same time the writer trusts it may be of some
service to students and collectors, in India and elsewhere, as giving
a general conspectus of all the more important series of Indian coins.
Two objects have been kept prominently in view: (1) to describe
the evolution of the coinage itself, (2) to show its importance as
a source of history, or as a commentary upon economic, social and
political movements. In attempting this, certain limits have naturally
imposed themselves. Coins purely foreign in fabric, as those of the
Græco-Bactrian kings, of the Portuguese, and of the various European
trading companies, even when struck and current in India, have been
rigidly excluded: this exclusion does not, however, extend to money
issued by resident foreigners with the permission and in the style of
Indian rulers. For a cognate reason the year 1857 has been fixed as
the downward limit in this survey. Again, for the sake of simplicity,
technical topics, such as weight-standards and metallurgy, have only
been touched upon where discussion appeared unavoidable.
The chief desire of the writer has been to arouse in Indians an
interest in their country’s coinage, in the study of which so many
fields of research lie as yet almost untouched. Although India has
no coins to show comparable to the supreme artistic conceptions of
the Sicilian Greeks, the study of her coinage, in addition to its
exceptional importance as a source of history, is attended by peculiar
advantages, not the least of which is the fact that materials for study
lie, as it were, almost at one’s door. In nearly every Indian bazar,
even the smallest, in the shops of the _Sarrafs_ or money-changers,
gold, silver and copper coins are to be had, sometimes in plenty, and
can be bought cheaply, often at little more than the metal value. There
is even the chance of obtaining for a few coppers, and—a far more
important consideration—saving from the melting pot, a coin which may
add a new fact, or a name, or a date to history.
A detailed description will be found opposite each of the plates,
giving transliterations and translations of the coin legends; and
these, with the list of selected authorities at the end of the book,
should provide the key to a fuller knowledge of the subject. To almost
all the works mentioned in the latter the writer is indebted, although
it has been impossible to acknowledge all obligations in detail.
Mention must also be made of Dr. George Macdonald’s fascinating little
study, _The Evolution of Coinage_ (The Cambridge Manuals of Science
and Literature), as well as of the late Dr. Vincent Smith’s _Oxford
History of India_, which has in general been accepted as the authority
for the historical facts and dates, somewhat plentifully incorporated
throughout the book.
In conclusion, I am under special obligation to Mr. John Allan, of
the Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum, for continual
assistance, for kindly reading through my manuscript and offering
numerous useful suggestions, and particularly for his help in getting
casts prepared for the plates, all of which have been taken from coins
in the British Museum; to Mr. H. Nelson Wright, I.C.S., who also
kindly read through the manuscript, gave me invaluable assistance
in the transliteration of the coin legends, and freely placed at my
disposal his exact and extensive knowledge of the Muhammadan coins of
India. To Mr. J. H. Waller, Secretary of the Association Press, I am
also considerably indebted for the infinite trouble he has taken in
supervising the preparation of the blocks for both figures and plates
which illustrate this little volume.
C. J. BROWN.
_Ranikhet,
May, 1921._
NOTE.—_The Cambridge History of India_, Volume I, Ancient
India, appeared while this book was in the press.
Fortunately, it has been possible to incorporate the
conclusions arrived at in that work, which have been
accepted for the period which it covers. The view of the
Indo-Greek and later coinages taken by Professor Rapson in
Chapters XXII and XXIII has also been generally accepted
as a working hypothesis.
ABBREVIATIONS
Anno Domini A.D.
Copper Æ.
Hijrī Year A.H.
Silver AR.
Gold AV.
Billon Bil.
_British Museum Catalogue_ _B.M.C._
Grains Grs.
_Indian Antiquary_ _I.A._
_Indian Museum Catalogue_ _I.M.C._
_Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ _J.A.S.B._
_Journal of Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society_ _J.B.B.R.A.S._
_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ _J.R.A.S._
_Numismatic Chronicle_ _Num. Chron._
_Numismatic Supplement to the J.A.S.B._ _Num. Supp._
Obverse Obv.
_Catalogue of Coins in the Panjāb Museum, Lahore_ _P.M.C._
Regnal Year R.
Reverse Rev.
Samvat Year S.
Weight Wt.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. _Phagunimitrasa_ in Early Brāhmī Script. Cf. Pl.
I, 4.]
I
THE EARLIEST COINAGE OF INDIA
Among primitive peoples trade was carried on by barter, that is,
exchange in kind. Gradually, with the spread of civilising influences
the inconvenience of promiscuous exchange made itself felt, and certain
media were agreed upon and accepted by the community at large. Wealth
in those early times being computed in cattle, it was only natural
that the ox or cow should be employed for this purpose. In Europe,
then, and also in India, the cow stood as the higher unit of barter.
At the lower end of the scale, for smaller purchases, stood another
unit which took various forms among different peoples—shells, beads,
knives, and where those metals had been discovered, bars of copper or
iron. In India the cowrie-shell, brought from the Maldive Islands, was
so employed, and is still to be seen in many bazars in the shops of the
smaller money-changers. The discovery of the precious metals carried
the evolution of coinage a stage further: for the barter unit was
substituted its value in metal, usually gold. The Greek _stater_ and
the Persian _daric_ certainly, and possibly the Indian _Suvarṇa_, so
frequently mentioned by Sanskrit authors, was the value of a full-grown
cow in gold, calculated by weight. However this may be, in ancient
India gold dust, washed out of the Indus and other rivers, served the
purposes of the higher currency, and from 518 B.C. to about 350 B.C.,
when an Indian province or satrapy was included in the Achæmenid Empire
of Persia, 360 talents in gold dust was, Herodotus tells us,[1] paid
annually as tribute from the province into the treasury of the Great
King.
[1] Herod III, 94. Quoted in Cunningham, _Coins of Ancient India_, p.
12.
Silver from natural sources was at that time less plentiful in India,
but was attracted thither in large quantities in exchange for gold,
which was cheaper there than elsewhere in the ancient world. The
transition from metal weighed out to the required amount to pieces of
metal of recognized weight and fineness regularized by the stamp of
authority is not difficult of explanation. The great convenience of
the latter would recommend them at once to the merchant, and to the
ruler as the receiver of tribute and taxes. Both in Asia and Europe
this transition can be illustrated from extant specimens; but, whereas
in Europe and Western Asia, from the inscriptions which appeared early
on the coins themselves and from outside evidence, we know the origin
of the earliest coins and the names of the cities or districts which
issued them, the origin of India’s earliest coinage, like so much of
her early history, is still shrouded in mystery.
This much can be said, that in its earliest stages the coinage of
India developed much on the same lines as it did on the shores of
the Aegean. Certain small ingots of silver, whose only mark is three
circular dots, represent probably the earliest form: next in order are
some heavy bent bars of silver with devices stamped out with a punch
on one side.[2] These two classes of coins are computed to have been
in circulation as coins at least as early as 600 B.C., but they have
not been found in any quantity. The time as well as the territory in
which they circulated was probably therefore restricted. On the other
hand, from almost every ancient site in India, from the Sundarbans in
Bengal to Kābul, and as far south as Coimbatore, have been recovered
thousands of what are known to numismatists as “Punch-marked coins”
and to Sanskrit authors as _Purāṇas_ (“ancient”) or _Dharaṇas_. These
are rectangular (Pl. I, 2) and circular (Pl. I, 1) flat pieces of thin
silver (much alloyed), or more rarely copper, cut from a hammered sheet
of metal and clipped to the proper weight. One side (the obverse)
is occupied by a large number of symbols impressed on the metal by
means of separate punches. In the oldest coins the other, the reverse
side, is left blank, but on the majority there appears usually one,
sometimes two or three, minute punch marks; a few coins have both
obverse and reverse covered with devices. These devices appear in
wonderful variety—more than three hundred have been enumerated; they
comprise human figures, arms, trees, birds, animals, symbols of
Buddhist worship, solar and planetary signs. Much further detailed
study of these coins will be needed before anything can be definitely
stated about the circumstances under which they were minted. It seems
probable that in India, as in Lydia, coins were first actually struck
by goldsmiths or silversmiths, or perhaps by communal gilds (_seṇi_).
Coins with devices on one side only are certainly the oldest type, as
the rectangular shape, being the natural shape of the coin when cut
from the metal sheet, may be assumed to be older than the circular;
on the other hand, both shapes, and also coins with devices on one
as well as on both sides, are found in circulation apparently at the
same time. It has also been recently shown[3] that groups of three,
four, and sometimes five, devices on the obverse are constant to
large numbers of coins circulating within the same district. It may
perhaps therefore be conjectured that the “punch-marked” piece was a
natural development of the paper _hundī_, or note of hand; that the
coins had originally been struck by private merchants and gilds and
had subsequently passed under royal control; that they at first bore
the seal of the merchant or gild, or combination of gilds, along with
the seals of other gilds or communities who accepted them;[4] and
that, when they passed under regal control, the royal seal and seals
of officials were first added to, and afterwards substituted for, the
private or communal marks. Be that as it may, we see here in the very
earliest coinage the commencement of that fascination which the square
coin seems to have exercised upon Indian moneyers of all periods; for
it continually reappears, in the coins of the Muhammadan kingdoms of
Mālwā and Kashmīr for example, in some beautiful gold and silver issues
of the Mughals, Akbar and Jahāngīr, and even in the nineteenth century
in copper pieces struck by the Bahāwalpūr State in the Panjāb. Most
writers agree, as indeed their shape, form, and weight suggest, that
the “punch-marked” coins are indigenous in origin, and owe nothing to
any foreign influence. In what part of India they originated we do
not know: present evidence and the little knowledge we possess of the
state of India in those times indicate some territory in the north. As
to the period during which they were in active circulation we are not
left so completely at the mercy of conjecture. Finds and excavations
tell us something: contemporary writers, Indian and foreign, drop us
hints. Sir John Marshall records, during the recent excavations round
Taxila, the find of 160 “punch-marked” coins of debased silver, with a
coin in fine condition of Diodotos of Bactria (circ. 245 B.C.).[5] Then
there is the interesting statement of the usually trustworthy Latin
writer, Quintus Curtius, that Omphis (Āmbhi) presented “Signati argenti
LXXX talenta”—“80 talents of stamped silver”—to Alexander at Taxila.
These and similar pieces of evidence show us that “punch-marked” coins
were well established in Northern India during the fourth and third
centuries B.C., when the great Maurya Empire was at the height of its
power. The large quantities continually being unearthed suggest a long
period of circulation, so that in their earliest forms “punch-marked”
coins may go back to the sixth century, and may have remained current
in some districts of the north as late as the second century B.C. At
some period, perhaps during the campaigns of the great Chandragupta
and the settlement of the Empire under his grandson Aśoka, these
coins became the established currency of the whole Indian peninsula,
and in the southern districts, at least, they must have remained in
circulation for three, perhaps four, centuries longer than in the
north, for in Coimbatore district “punch-marked” coins have been found
along with a _denarius_ of the Roman Emperor Augustus; and some of the
earliest individualistic coinages of the south, which apparently emerge
at a much later period, the so-called “padma-ṭaṅkas,” for instance,
seem to be the immediate successors of these “punch-marked” coins.
[2] Cf. _I.M.C._, p. 136, Nos. 1, 2, 3 (ingots), Nos. 4, 5, 6 (bars).
[3] By Dr. Spooner, Dr. Bhandarkar, and E. H. Walsh. Cf. _Journal of
the Bihār and Orissa Research Society_, 1919, pp. 16-72, 463-94.
[4] Even in Mughal times bankers were in the habit of placing their
mark on the rim or even on the face of coins which passed through their
hands.
[5] _Guide to Taxila_, p. 117.
Now the distinction between north and south which has just been drawn
in tracing the history of this primitive coinage is very important; for
this same distinction enables us to divide the remaining ancient and
mediæval Indian coins down to the fourteenth century into two classes,
northern and southern. The reason for this is that Northern India,
during that period, was subjected to a series of foreign invasions;
the indigenous coinages of the north were therefore continually
being modified by foreign influences, which, with a few exceptions
to be noted, left the coinages of the south untouched, to develop by
slow stages on strictly Indian lines. The coins of the south will be
described in a separate chapter.
To return to Northern India: at the time of Alexander’s invasion the
whole of North-Western India and the Panjāb was split up into a number
of small states, some, like the important state of Taxila, ruled by a
king, others governed by “aristocratic oligarchies.” Almost all the
coins about to be dealt with are either of copper or brass, and the
earliest of them were struck, doubtless, by the ruling authorities in
these states. Even after their subjection to the great Maurya Emperors
some of these states may have retained their coining rights, for it
is a salient fact in the history of coins that coinage in the base
metals in India and elsewhere has not, until quite recent times, been
recognized, like coinage in gold and silver, as the exclusive privilege
of the ruler. A striking example is afforded in the copper token money
issued by private tradesmen in England during the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. On the break up of the Maurya Empire, at the
close of the third century, a number of small independent kingdoms
sprang into existence, and these proceeded to issue coins, some bearing
evident traces of foreign influence, but on the whole following Indian
models closely enough to be included here.
No attempt can be made to deal with this class of coins exhaustively:
a few typical examples only can be selected for description and
illustration. The reader who wishes to pursue the subject further is
referred for guidance to the Bibliography at the end of this book; and,
since at present little attempt has been made to classify or examine
these coins in any detail, fewer fields of research are likely to yield
a richer reward to the patient student.
The earliest of these copper coins, some of which may be as early as
the fifth century B.C., were cast. The casting of coins by pouring
molten metal into a cavity formed by joining two moulds together must
have been a very ancient practice in India. Sometimes the moulds of
several coins were joined together for the casting process, and the
joins thus left are not infrequently found still adhering to the coins
(Pl. I, 3).[6] These coins are for the most part anonymous. Even after
striking from dies had superseded this clumsy method in the North-West,
we find cast coins being issued at the close of the third century by
the kingdoms of Kauśāmbī, Ayodhyā and Mathurā, some of which bear the
names of local kings in the Brāhmī[7] script.
[6] This process was in operation in Morocco until the middle of the
nineteenth century. Nearchus, the companion of Alexander, says that the
Indians used only cast bronze but not hammered. Strabo XV, C. 716.
[7] Brāhmī (Fig. 1), Phœnician in origin, was the native script of
Northern India, and was written from left to right. Kharoshṭhī (Fig. 2)
was a derivation from the Aramaic script, and was written from right
to left; it is believed to have been introduced during the Persian
domination of Western India, and continued in use on the North-West
frontier until about the fourth century A.D.
The earliest die-struck coins, with a device on one side of the coin
only, have been assigned to the end of the fourth century B.C. Some
of these, with a lion device, were certainly struck at Taxila, where
they are chiefly found. Others present various Buddhist symbols, such
as the _bodhi-tree_, _svastika_, or the plan of a monastery, and may
therefore belong to the time of Aśoka, when Buddhism first reached
the North-West, or Gandhāra, as the territory was then called. The
method of striking these early coins was peculiar, in that the die was
impressed on the metal when hot, so that a deep square incuse, which
contains the device, appears on the coin. A similar incuse appears on
the later double-die coins of Pañchāla (Pl. I, 4), Kauśāmbī, and on
some of Mathurā. This method of striking may have been introduced from
Persia, and was perhaps a derivative from the art of seal-engraving.
In the final stage of die-striking, devices were impressed on both
sides of the coin, and the best of these “double-die” coins show not
only greater symmetry of shape, either round or square, but an advance
in the art of die-cutting. Some of the earliest of this type have been
classed as gild tokens. The finest were struck in Gandhāra: among these
one of the commonest, bearing a lion on the obverse, and an elephant on
the reverse (Pl. I, 5), is of special importance, since an approximate
date can be assigned to it, for it was imitated by the Greek princes,
Pantaleon (Pl. II, 2) and Agathokles, who reigned on the North-West
frontier about the middle of the second century B.C. In the execution
and design of some die-struck coins from the North-West there are
undoubted traces of foreign influences: but such devices as the humped
bull, the elephant and the religious symbols are purely Indian. There
is, on the other hand, little foreign influence traceable in the
die-struck coins, all closely connected in point of style, which issued
during the first and second centuries B.C. from Pañchāla, Ayodhyā,
Kauśāmbī and Mathurā. A number of these bear Brāhmī inscriptions,
and the names of ten kings, which some would identify with the old
Śuṅga dynasty, have been recovered from the copper and brass coins of
Pañchāla, found in abundance at Rāmnagar in Rohilkhand, the site of the
ancient city Ahichhatra. Similarly twelve names of kings appear on the
Mathurā coins, but we have little knowledge of these kingdoms beyond
what the coins supply. Certain devices are peculiar to each series:
thus most of the Ayodhyā coins have a humped bull on the obverse, the
coins of Kauśāmbī a tree within a railing.
In the coins of Eraṇ[8] we have an illustration, as Rapson says, “of
the development of the punch-marked system into the die system.” These
coins are rectangular copper pieces (Pl. I, 6), and the device on each
consists of a collection of symbols like those which appear on the
“punch-marked” coins, but struck from a single die. They are specially
interesting in that they represent the highest point of perfection
reached by purely Indian money. Some of these, in common with a class
of round coins found at Ujjain (Avanti), display a special symbol, the
“cross and balls,” known from its almost universal occurrence on the
coins of ancient Mālwā as the Mālwā or Ujjain symbol.
[8] Eraṇ, or Erakina, the capital of the ancient East Mālwā kingdom, in
the Saugor district, Central Provinces.
KEY TO PLATE I
1. Round punch-marked coin. AR. Wt. about 50 grs.
Obv., an animal, solar symbol, etc.
Rev., three symbols.
2. Rectangular punch-marked coin. AR.
Obv., bull, solar symbol, etc.
Rev., several indistinct symbols.
3. Pair of cast coins, showing join. Æ.
Obv., three-arched chaitya, crescent above.
Rev., elephant to left.
4. Pañchāla: Phalgunīmitra. Æ. Wt. about 220 grs.
Obv., figure standing on lotus, to left a symbol.
Rev., in incuse, in early Brāhmī, _Phagunimitrasa_
“(Coin) of Phalgunīmitra”; above 3 symbols.
5. Taxila; double-die coin. Æ. Wt. about 180 grs.
Obv., elephant to right, above a chaitya.
Rev., in incuse, lion standing to left, above swastika,
to left chaitya.
6. Eraṇ; punch-marked. Æ.
Obv., various symbols, including
an elephant and the Ujjain symbol.
7. Andhra: Gotamīputra Viḷivāya kura. Bil. Wt. about 200 grs.
Obv., chaitya within railing, above swastika, to right a tree.
Rev., bow and arrow; around _Raño Gotamiputasa Viḷivāyakurasa_
“(Coin) of Rāja Gotamīputra Viḷivāyakura.”
8. Mathurā; Rājuvala, satrap. Bil. Wt. 38 grs.
Obv., diademed bust of king to right; corrupt Greek legend.
Rev., Pallas with ægis and thunderbolt to left; Kharoshṭhī
legend, _Apratihatachakrasa chhatrapasa Rajavulasa_
“(Coin) of the satrap Rājavula, invincible with the discus.”
Kharoshṭhī letters in field.
_Note._—Where it has been impossible to ascertain
the weight of the particular coin illustrated, the
average weight of coins of its class has been given; all
such weights are qualified by the word “about.”
[Illustration: PLATE I]
[Illustration: PLATE II]
KEY TO PLATE II
1. Sophytes (Saubhūti). AR. Drachm. Wt. 58·3 grs.
Obv., helmeted head of king to right.
Rev., cock to right, above caduceus; in Greek, _Sophutou_.
2. Pantaleon. Æ. Wt. about 160 grs.
Obv., in incuse, lion to right.
In Greek, _Basileōs Pantaleontos_
“(Coin) of king Pantaleon.”[9]
Rev., Indian dancing girl. In Brāhmī, _Rajane Patalevasha_.
[9] In these bilingual coins, unless otherwise noted, the same
inscription is reproduced in both languages. Technically the reverse of
this coin is the obverse, as being the impression from the lower die.
3. Apollodotos. Æ. Wt. 235-255 grs.
Obv., Apollo clad in chlamys and boots standing to right,
holding an arrow. In Greek, _Basileōs sōtēros Apollodotou_;
monogram to left.
Rev., tripod, Kharoshṭhī letters in field. In Kharoshṭhī,
_Maharajasa tratarasa Apaladatasa_.
“(Coin) of the king, the saviour, Apollodotos.”
4. Menander. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 37·7 grs.
Obv., diademed bust of king to left, thrusting javelin with right
hand. In Greek, as No. 3, but _Menandrou_.
Rev., Pallas to left with ægis on outstretched arm, hurling
thunderbolt with right hand. Monogram to right. In Kharoshṭhī
as No. 3, but _Menadrasa_.
5. Hippostratos. AR. Didrachm. Wt. 143·2 grs.
Obv., diademed head of king to right. In Greek,
_Basileōs megalou sōtēros Hippostratou_
“(Coin) of the great king, the saviour H.”
Rev., king in full panoply on horse to right, monogram to right.
In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa tratarasa mahatasa jayaṁtasa
Hipustratasa_
“(Coin) of the king, the great saviour, the conqueror
Hippostratos.”
6. Menander. Æ. Wt. 38 grs.
Obv., elephant’s head with bell round neck.
Rev., club of Herakles with two symbols. Legends as No. 4.
7. Philoxenos. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 27·3 grs.
Obv., helmeted bust of king to right. In Greek,
_Basileōs anīkētou Philoxenou_.
Rev., king on horseback; to right, Greek letter S, and monogram.
In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa apaḍihatasa Philasinasa_
“(Coin) of the unconquered king Philoxenos.”
8. Antialkidas. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 37·9 grs.
Obv., bust of king to right wearing flat “kausia.” In Greek,
_Basileōs nīkēphorou Antialkidou_.
Rev., Zeus on throne bearing Nikē on outstretched right hand;
elephant, retiring to left, has snatched away her crown.
Monogram in field. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa jayadharasa
Aṁtialikitasa_.
“(Coin) of the victorious king, Antialkidas.”
9. Hermaios and Kalliope. AR. Hemidrachm.
Obv., conjugate busts of king and queen to right; in Greek,
_Basileōs sōtēros Hermaiou kai Kalliopēs_.
Rev., king on prancing horse to right. Monogram below. In
Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa tratarasa Heramayasa Kaliyapaya_.
10. Strato I with Strato II. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 37 grs.
Obv., diademed bust of aged king. In Greek, _Basileōs Sōtēros
Strātōnos uiou Strātōnos_. (Meaning doubtful.)
Rev., Pallas to left with ægis and thunderbolt. In Kharoshṭhī,
_Maharajasa tratarasa Stratasa potrasa chasa priyapita
Stratasa_,
“(Coin) of king Strato Sōtēr and of his grandson,
Strato Philopatēr.”
11. Nahapāna. AR. Hemidrachm. Wt. 29·2 grs.
Obv., head of satrap to right. Corrupt Greek legend.
Rev., thunderbolt and arrow. In Brāhmī, _Raño Chhaharatasa_;
in Kharoshṭhī, _Nahapanasa_,
“(Coin) of the Kshaharāta king Nahapāna.”
Though its territory lay partially in Southern India, it will be
convenient to include here the coinage of the great Andhra dynasty,
since several of its issues are closely connected with the currency of
the north. The Andhras probably became independent about the year 230
B.C., and their rule lasted for four and a half centuries. Their coins
of various types have been found in Mālwā, on the banks of the Krishna
and Godavari rivers, the original home of the race, as far south as
Madras, in north Konkan, and elsewhere in the Deccan and the Central
Provinces. The earliest to which a date can be assigned are those
bearing the name of a king Śrī Sāta, about 150 B.C. Most Andhra coins
are either of billon[10] or lead, with Brāhmī legends on both obverse
and reverse, and characteristic devices are the elephant, _chaitya_
(Buddhist chapel), and bow (Pl. I, 7). Sometimes the “Ujjain symbol”
appears on the reverse. One issue, in lead, of Vasishṭhīputra Śrī
Pulumāvi (about A.D. 130) is interesting, in that it has on the obverse
a ship with two masts, and was evidently intended for circulation on
the Coromandel coast. Coins have been assigned to seven Andhra kings,
the latest of which, Śrī Yajña Sātakarṇī (about A.D. 184), struck not
only the usual lead and billon coins, but restruck and imitated the
silver hemidrachms of the satrap Nahapāna (Pl. III, 1). The Andhra lead
coinage was copied by one or two feudatory chiefs in Mysore and North
Kanara.
[10] Billon, or potin, is a mixture of silver and copper in varying
proportions.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Greek Script on Coin of Hippostratos. Cf. Pl.
II, 5.]
II
COINS OF THE INDO-GREEKS, THE ŚAKAS AND PAHLAVAS
We have seen in the last chapter how foreign influences gradually began
to make themselves felt in the fabric and design of the purely native
coins of the North-West. These influences gradually widened until the
whole of Northern, Western and parts of Central India were affected.
Through eight centuries these foreign types were reproduced on the
coins of those territories; and we can observe the gradual debasement
of the original models as they become less and less intelligible to
successive strikers, until they disappear in the general cataclasm that
succeeded the terrible inroads of the Huns in the sixth century. In the
secluded kingdom of Kashmīr one type did indeed survive as late as the
fifteenth century, a mere shadow of a shade, from which all form and
feature had vanished. The coins included in this chapter and the next
are those of the invaders who brought about this important change.
But a further and a greater importance attaches to them. Since the
important discovery, in 1824, by Colonel Tod, that Greek coins had
once been struck in India, the names of thirty-three Greek and
twenty-six[11] Indo-Scythia nor Śaka and Indo-Parthian or Pahlava
princes, ruling territories round the Indian frontier, have gradually
been recovered from coin legends, and not more than half-a-dozen of
these are known from other sources. Even the names of the later Kushāṇa
kings were first deciphered from their coins. Thus coins alone have
been responsible for the recovery of a whole period of Indian history.
Probably no class of Indian coins has attracted more attention or
been subjected to more patient examination than these, which mark the
first intermingling of Eastern and Western culture in India; yet,
as the relationship of the different kings and dynasties who minted
them, their dates, and the territories over which they ruled are still
largely matters of conjecture, it will be well to sketch in outline the
probable course which events took in Northern India and the adjacent
countries from the time of Alexander to the first century of our era.
In October, 326 B.C., Alexander began his retreat from the Panjāb. To
commemorate his victories he struck a medal;[12] about the same time an
Indian prince, Sophytes (Saubhūti), struck a silver coin (Pl. II, 1) in
the Greek style; with these two exceptions scarcely a mark or lasting
trace of his invasion remained. Eleven years after Alexander’s death
his general, Seleucos, founded the Seleucid kingdom of Syria. Between
the years 250-248 B.C. two of the chief Syrian provinces revolted and
became independent kingdoms, Bactria under Diodotos and Parthia under
Arsakes, both events fraught with important consequences for India and
her coinage. The fourth Bactrian king, Demetrios (c. 190-150 B.C.),
son of Euthydemos, as the Mauryan Empire fell into decay, was able
to extend his kingdom as far as the Panjāb, and assumed the title of
“King of the Indians.” But about the same time he was confronted with a
rival, Eukratides (c. 175-155 B.C.), who deprived him of his Bactrian
dominions, and even of a portion of Gandhāra (the present districts
of Peshāwar and Rawalpindi). Henceforward there were two rival Greek
dynasties, the house of Eukratides, including the princes Heliokles,
Antialkidas and Hermaios, ruling in Kābul, Kandahār and Gandhāra, and
the house of Euthydemos, of whom the principal rulers were Apollodotos,
Menander, Strato I, Zoilos and Hippostratos, in East Gandhāra and the
Panjāb. Pantaleon, Agathokles and Antimachos, of the latter family,
appear to have been petty princes ruling north of Kābul (c. 155-140
B.C.), and there must have been similar small principalities elsewhere,
whose rulers were contemporary. About the year 135 B.C. Heliokles, the
last king of Bactria, was driven out of that country by a Scythian
tribe, the Śakas, and fixed the headquarters of his rule at Kābul,
and here his descendants continued to reign till some time after 40
B.C., when the last of them, Hermaios, was driven out by the Pahlavas.
Meanwhile, in about the year 126 B.C., the Śakas, pressed in their
turn by another nomadic tribe from Central Asia, the Yueh-chi, were
driven out of Bactria, and invaded India by way of Ariāna (Herāt) and
Drangiāna (Seistān), fixing their headquarters in Sind (Śakadvīpa).
Moving thence up the Indus valley, about the year 75 B.C., their chief,
Maues, captured Pushkalāvatī (Peshāwar), and thus drove a wedge in
between the dominions of the two Greek houses. His successor, Azes I,
the possible founder of the Vikrama era in 58 B.C., finally crushed
the house of Euthydemos, in the person of Hippostratos, in the Eastern
Panjāb, some time after 40 B.C. Closely related to the Śakas were
the Pahlavas. The earlier Pahlava princes, Vonones, Spalahores, and
Spalirises ruled in Drangiāna and Arachosia (Kandahār), whence, as
already related, they overran Kābul. Later on, in the first century
A.D., probably through a family alliance, they succeeded the Śakas in
northern India and we find the great king Gondopharnes (A.D. 19-45)
ruling in Taxila. Associated with the Śaka and Pahlava kings were a
number of military governors, such as Aspavarma and Sasas, whose names
appear on coins with those of their suzerains. Other rulers like Miaos
are more difficult to place.
[11] Three fresh names have been added as recently as 1913.
[12] The sole example known is in the British Museum: it is figured in
Vincent Smith’s _Oxford History of India_, 1920, p. 63.
I. COINS OF THE INDO-GREEKS
The splendid series of portrait coins of the Greek kings of Bactria
does not come within the scope of this work: their gold and silver
pieces, struck on the Attic standard,[13] were never current in
India proper, where they are rarely found, and they really belong to
the history of Greek coinage. Nevertheless they are of the utmost
importance for our subject, for in following these models the
Indo-Greek kings introduced Greek types, and among them the portrait
head, into the Indian coinage, and their example was followed for
eight centuries. This word “type” needs some definition. Originally
it meant the particular mark of authority on a coin as distinct from
other marks, but it has come to imply a distinguishing device more or
less artistic in character. Such devices appear on all Greek and Roman
coins. In this sense the coins of the Muhammadans cannot properly be
said to display “types,” for both obverse and reverse are usually
occupied entirely by the inscription.
[13] On the Attic standard, adopted by Alexander, the Seleucid and
Bactrian kings, the drachm weighed 67·5 grains; on the Persian
standard, adopted by the Indo-Greeks (and hence in some works called
the Indian standard), it weighed 88 grains, but their coins rarely
reach the full weight. Mr. Whitehead, in a recent monograph, “The
Pre-Muhammadan Coinage of North-Western India” (_Numismatic Notes
and Monographs_, No. 13, The American Numismatic Society, New York,
1922), calls the two silver denominations of the Indo-Greeks drachms
and tetradrachms, thus supposing a separate Indian standard. I have
retained the hitherto accepted nomenclature, hemidrachms and didrachms
for convenience of reference to standard works.
Demetrios was the first Bactrian king to strike square copper coins
of the Indian type, with a legend in Greek on the obverse, and in
Kharoshṭhī on the reverse. His rival, Eukratides, struck these
bilingual square copper pieces in greater abundance, as well as a
very rare silver coin with inscriptions in both languages. The
Gandhāra copper coinage of Agathokles and Pantaleon (Pl. II, 2) has
already been alluded to. After the removal of the seat of government
to territory south of the Hindu Kush, we find the coinage undergoing a
radical change. The rare gold staters and the splendid tetradrachms of
Bactria disappear. The silver coins of the Indo-Greeks, as these later
princes may conveniently be called, are the didrachm (Pl. II, 5) and
the hemidrachm. With the exception of certain square hemidrachms of
Apollodotos and Philoxenos (Pl. II, 7), they are all round, are struck
to the Persian (or Indian) standard, and all have inscriptions in both
Greek and Kharoshṭhī characters. Copper coins, square for the most
part, are very numerous (Pl. II, 6). The devices are almost entirely
Greek, and must have been engraved by Greeks, or Indians trained in
the Greek traditions, yet “the engravers ... were no slavish copyists
of Western models, but were giving free and spontaneous expression to
their own ideas.”[14] On the reverse is ordinarily to be found some god
or goddess—Herakles, Zeus, Pallas, or some symbol of their worship;
the “two piloi” (caps) of the Dioskouroi are of frequent occurrence.
A notable square copper coin of Eukratides has the figure of a seated
Zeus, accompanied by the legend in Kharoshṭhī, “_The city deity of
Kāpiśī_,” suggesting that others of these deities may stand as the
patrons of cities.[15] Other reverse devices are the tripod, a king on
horseback, and various animals, including the specially Indian elephant
and humped bull. The portraits on the obverse, especially on the fine
didrachms, are realistic and boldly drawn, and show us clearly what
manner of men these early European rulers in India were. On most of
these coins and those of the Śaka rulers are found a great variety
of monograms (Fig. 3) formed of Greek letters, but the significance
of these has never been satisfactorily explained. From a study of
monograms and types, and particularly from observing the gradual
debasement in style which takes place, experts have been able to
arrange these kings in chronological order. Such tests are sometimes,
however, delusive; the king, Zoilos, for example, minted two types of
hemidrachm, one in comparatively fine style, the other very debased.
[14] Marshall, _Guide to Taxila_, p. 27.
[15] For other city types see _Camb. History of India_, Vol. I, p. 557
_sq._
The extreme rarity of the money of a few kings, like Apollophanes,
Polyxenos and Theophilos, leads us to suppose that they were
pretenders. The most important kings, judging from the large number of
their coin types, were Antialkidas, king of Taxila, circ. 155-130 B.C.,
Apollodotos, Menander and Strato I. Antialkidas appears on one of his
numerous silver types wearing the striking flat cap, called “kausia”
(Pl. II, 8). Apollodotos’ coinage is remarkable for the large variety
of its copper types. Particularly noticeable are the large round pieces
which he introduced (Pl. II, 3). Menander’s coins (Pl. II, 4) are found
all over Northern India in great quantities, and his didrachms, with
three distinct styles of portrait, are the finest of the series. The
heads of two queens, Agathokleia and Kalliope, are found conjoined,
the former with that of her son, Strato I, the latter with that of her
husband, Hermaios (Pl. II, 9), on a few rare coins. The debasement
which set in in Strato’s reign (Pl. II, 10) in the Eastern Kingdom,
and is evidenced not only in the poorness of design but even in the
striking of coins in lead, reached even a lower point in the coinage
of Hermaios. On one type of copper, with the head of Hermaios on the
obverse, the name of Kujūla Kadphises, the Kushāṇa, appears on the
reverse (Pl. IV, 1).[16]
[16] It is suggested (_Camb. History of India_, p. 561) that the
coins of Hermaios extended over a long period, and that it was these
degenerate posthumous coins which Kujūla Kadphises copied.
II. COINS OF THE ŚAKAS AND PAHLAVAS
After the conquest of Bactria by the Śakas in 135 B.C. there must
have been considerable intercourse, sometimes of a friendly,
sometimes of a hostile character, between them and the Parthians, who
occupied the neighbouring territory. This may account for the Parthian
influence which appears in certain features on the coins of the Śakas,
particularly in the title _Basileōs Basileōn_, “King of Kings,”
which all these kings, following the example of the Arsacid dynasty,
inscribed on the obverse of their coins.
Maues, whose coins are found only in the Panjāb, was the first king
of what may be called the Azes group of princes. His silver is not
plentiful; the finest type is that with a “biga” (two-horsed chariot)
on the obverse, and to this type belongs a square hemidrachm, the
only square Śaka silver coin known. His commonest copper coins, with
an elephant’s head on the obverse and a “caduceus” (staff of the god
Hermes) on the reverse (Pl. III, 4), are imitated from a round copper
coin of Demetrios. On another copper square coin of Maues the king is
represented on horseback. This striking device is characteristic both
of the Śaka and Pahlava coinage (Pl. III, 7); it first appears in a
slightly different form on coins of the Indo-Greek Hippostratos (Pl.
II, 5); the Gupta kings adopted it for their “horseman” type, and it
reappears in Mediæval India on the coins of numerous Hindu kingdoms,
and was even employed by Muhammadan invaders until the fourteenth
century.
Silver coins of Azes I and Azilises, especially of the former, are
abundant. As on Maues’ coinage, Greek gods and goddesses, Zeus,
Herakles, Pallas and Poseidon, appear on both silver and copper of
these two kings, but now for the first time an Indian goddess, Lakshmī,
is introduced. A favourite device on the silver of Azilises is the
Dioskouroi (Pl. III, 9).[17] His copper coins are all square, whereas
Azes’ commonest type is a large round coin with a bull on the observe
and a lion on the reverse (Pl. III, 5), unquestionably copied from
the large round coins of Apollodotos; for some of Azes I’s coins are
restruck on those of Apollodotos and Hippostratos. Another copper coin
shows the king Azes sitting cross-legged in the Indian fashion. On the
reverse of another copper coin, of the common “king on horseback” type,
appears the name of the Indian general, Aspavarma, which is also found
on some coins of the Pahlava Gondopharnes: this is a most important
piece of evidence, as it shows a connection between the two dynasties.
The earlier Pahlava kings, which we may call the Vonones group, were
evidently far less powerful than the Śaka rulers; their coins are
scarcer, didrachms particularly so, and are found only west of the
Indus valley. On no coins has the name of Vonones been found alone, but
always associated either with Spalahores, his brother, or his nephew,
Spalagadames; the names of the two latter are conjoined on another coin
(Pl. III, 10). A fourth prince, Spalirises, strikes coins of his own
and also in conjunction with Azes II.[18] All the silver coins of this
group are of the usual “king on horseback” type; their copper coins are
with one exception square.
[17] They are also represented on horseback as on Eukratides’ coins.
[18] This coin seems to provide the family link between the Śakas and
Pahlavas.
Like the Indo-Greeks, the Śakas use Greek for the obverse and
Kharoshṭhī for the reverse legend.
The most important of the later Pahlava kings was Gondophares, or
Gondopharnes, famous as the King of India mentioned in the traditional
stories connected with the Apostle St. Thomas. In the British Museum
there is a silver coin of his struck in the pure Parthian style, but
the rest of his didrachms—no smaller coins are known—are of billon (Pl.
III, 8). Several types of these are known, but all have the usual “king
on horseback” obverse. On the reverse of one type the god Śiva appears.
His copper coins, all of them round, have a bust of the king in the
Parthian style, with either a figure of Nike or Pallas on the reverse.
The coins of his successors or contemporaries, Abdagases, Orthagnes and
Pakores, closely follow in type those of Gondopharnes.
Connected with these later Pahlavas are a few princes who call
themselves “Satrap”—among these the most prominent is Zeionises, who
minted some rather striking didrachms in pure silver. His not uncommon
copper coins imitate the bull and lion type of Azes. Lastly, there are
a number of miscellaneous rulers, such as Miaos and Hyrcordes, whose
coins present features so heterogeneous that it has been impossible
hitherto to assign them ancestry, nationality or even an approximate
date. The most important of these is the “nameless king,” whose
superscription consists of the titles, “_King of Kings, the great
Saviour_,” written in Greek only. His coins, all of copper, are well
struck, especially the commonest type, which shows a diademed head of
the king on the obverse and a horseman on the reverse (Pl. III, 6). On
all appears his special symbol, a three-pronged fork (Fig. 3, v).[19]
[19] It has been suggested with great probability that the title _Sotēr
Megas_ (Great Saviour) was that of the military governor (_stratēgos_)
of Taxila under the Kushāṇas, and that these coins were the anonymous
issues of successive _stratēgoi_. Cf. _Camb. History of India_, Vol. I,
p. 581.
KEY TO PLATE III
1. Andhra: Gotamīputra Śrī Yajña Sātakarṇī, AR. Hemidrachm.
Wt. 34 grs.
Obv., head of king to right. In Brāhmī, _Raño Gotamiputasa
Siri Yaña Sātakaṇisa_.
Rev., Ujjain symbol and chaitya. In Southern Brāhmī,
_Gotam (a) putasha Hiru Yaña Hātakaṇisha_ (Hiru = Śrī).
2. Western Kshatrapa: Dāmasena. AR. Wt. 34 grs.
Obv., head of Satrap to right. Corrupt Greek inscription.
Date 100 + 50 + 3 to left.
Rev., chaitya, star and crescent. In Brāhmī,
_Raño Mahākshatrapasa Rudrasīhasa putrasa raño
Mahākshatrapasa Dāmasenasa_
“(Coin) of king Dāmasena, the great satrap, son of king
Rudrasiṁha, the great satrap.”
3. Odumbara: Dharaghosha, AR. Wt. 37·5 grs.
Obv., standing figure of Viśvāmitra(?). In Brāhmī, _Mahadevasa
Raña Dharughoshasa Odumbarisa_,
“(Coin) of the Mahadeva, king Dharughosha of Odumbara”;
across, in Kharoshṭhī, _Viśvāmitra_.
Rev., trident, battle-axe and tree within railing.
Brāhmī legend as on obverse.
4. Maues. Æ. Wt. about 130 grs.
Obv., head of elephant to right, bell suspended from neck.
Rev., caduceus and monogram. In Greek, _Basileōs Mauou_
“(Coin) of king Maues.”
5. Azes. Æ. Wt. about 220 grs.
Obv., humped bull to right, monogram above. In Greek,
_Basileōs basileōn megalou Azou_.
Rev., in Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa rajatirajasa mahatasa Ayasa_
“(Coin) of the great king of Kings, Azes.”
6. Nameless king: Sotēr Megas, Æ.
Obv., diademed and radiate bust of king to right holding
a lance: king’s special symbol to left.
Rev., king on horseback to right, symbol to right. In Greek,
_Basileus basileōn sotēr megas_, “King of kings,
the great saviour.”
7. Azes I. AR. Didrachm. Wt. 142 grs.
Obv., king on horseback to right, holding couched lance.
Kharoshṭhī letter “Sa” below. Legend as on No. 5.
8. Gondopharnes. AR (base). Didrachm. Wt. 142 grs.
Obv., king on horseback to right, right arm extended; king’s
special symbol to right. In Greek, _Basileōs basileōn
megalou Undopherou_.
Rev., Zeus standing to right, right arm extended; monogram to
right, Kharoshṭhī letters to left. In Kharoshṭhī, _Mahārāja
rajatiraja tratara devavrada Gudu-pharasa_, “The king of
kings, the great Gondopharnes, devoted to the gods.”
9. Azilises. AR. Didrachm.
Obv., king on horseback holding elephant-goad in right hand,
symbol to right. In Greek as on No. 5, but _Azilisou_.
Rev., Discouroi standing side by side, armed with spears.
Legend as No. 5, but _Ayilishasa_.
10. Spalyris with Spalagadames. Æ.
Obv., in square frame the king on horseback. In Greek,
_Spalurios dikaiou adelphou tou basileōs_
“(Coin) of Spalyris the just, the brother of the king.”
Rev., naked diademed Herakles, with club, sitting on a rock;
monogram to left. In Kharoshṭhī, _Śpalahoraputrasa
dhramiasa Śpalagadamasa_ “(Coin) of Śpalagadames,
son of Śpalahores (Spalyris) the just.”
[Illustration: PLATE III]
[Illustration: PLATE IV]
KEY TO PLATE IV
1. Hermaios and Kujūla Kadphises. Æ.
Obv., diademed bust of king to right. In Greek, _Basileōs
stērossu Hermaiou_. (Meaning obscure.)
Rev., Herakles facing, with lion’s skin and club. In Kharoshṭhī,
_Kujūla Kasasa Kushana yavugasa dhramaṭhidasa_
“(Coin) of Kujūla Kasa, chief of the Kushāṇas, steadfast
in the law.”
2. Kujūla Kadaphes—imitation of a Roman type. Æ.
Obv., diademed head to right. In corrupt Greek, _Khoranou zaoou
Kozola Kadaphes_.
Rev., king seated to right on a chair, behind him a monogram.
In Kharoshṭhī, ... _Kaphsasa[20] sachadhramaṭhitasa
Khushanasa yüasa_ “(Coin) of Kapsha, chief of the
Kushāṇas, steadfast in the true law.”
3. Vima Kadphises. AV. Double stater. Wt. 244·2 grs.
Obv., king seated cross-legged, wearing crested helmet and
diadem, thunderbolt in right hand; symbol to left. Legend in
Greek letters, _Basileus Ooemo Kadphises_.
Rev., Śiva radiate, standing in front of bull, long trident in
right hand; symbol to left. In Kharoshṭhī, _Maharajasa
rajadhirajasa sarvaloga iśvarasa Mahiśvarasa Vima Kaṭhphiśasa
tradara_ “(Coin) of the great king, the king of kings,
lord of the world, the Maheśvara, Vima Kaṭhphiśa,
the defender.”[21]
4. Kanishka. AV. Wt. 122 grs.
Obv., king radiate, standing to left sacrificing at a small
altar, spear in left hand. In Greek characters, _Shāonānoshāo
Kaneshki Koshāno_ “(Coin) of the king of kings, Kanishka
the Kushāṇa.”
Rev., Buddha facing nimbate, wallet in left hand; to right
symbol. In Greek, _Boddo_.
5. Kanishka. AV. Wt. 30·8 grs.
Obv., half-length portrait of king to left, spear in left hand.
Legend as on No. 4.
Rev., bearded deity to left, with fillet in right hand and tongs
in left. To left symbol, to right _Athsho_.
6. Kanishka. Æ.
Obv., as No. 4, but legend _Shāo Kaneshki_.
Rev., Wind god, undraped and radiate, running to left; to left
symbol, to right _Oado_.
7. Huvishka. AV. Wt. 120·9 grs.
Obv., king riding on an elephant to right, holds sceptre and
elephant-goad. Legend as on No. 4, but _Oēshki_.
Rev., goddess to right, holding cornucopiae in both hands; to
right symbol, to left _Ardokhsho_.
8. Huvishka. AV. Wt. 123 grs.
Obv., king seated cross-legged, turning to left; goad in left
hand, sceptre in right. Legend as on No. 7.
Rev., bearded Herakles, with club and lion’s skin, standing,
apple in left hand; to left symbol, to right _Herakilo_.
9. Vasudeva. AV. Wt. 122·3 grs.
Obv., similar to No. 4, but king wears suit of chain-mail; also
name _Bazodēo_ in legend.
Rev., many-headed Śiva, standing in front of bull, trident in
left hand; symbol to right, to left _Oesho_.
10. Later Great Kushāṇa. AV. Wt. 121·4 grs.
Obv., as No. 4, but corrupt legend, Nāgarī letters, to left
“ha,” to right “vi.”
Rev., goddess seated on throne facing, holding noose in right,
cornucopiae in left hand; left, above symbol, below Nāgarī
“la”; to right _Ardokhsho_.
11. Yaudheya. Æ.
Obv., soldier standing, holding spear in right hand. In Brāhmī,
_Yaudheyagaṇasya iaya dvi_....
“Of the clan of Yaudheyas (?)”
Rev., standing figure, symbol on either side.
[20] Four different Kharoshṭhī forms appear on coins—Kasa, Kaphsa,
Kadapha and Kaü. It is uncertain how many persons they denote.
[21] Maheśvara (Mahesh) is a name of Śiva.
III. COINS OF THE WESTERN SATRAPS AND OTHER IMITATORS OF THE GREEK
MODELS
The coinage of the Indo-Greek kings made a deep impression upon their
successors and neighbours, just as the coinage of Bactria had impressed
the conquering Śakas, who copied it extensively in that country.
The crude coins of Miaos (or Heraos) and of Sapeleizes, two very
obscure rulers, are evidently modelled on the issues of Heliokles and
Eukratides. Śaka princes, like Maues, as we have seen, while adopting
many Greek features, employed a characteristic coinage of their own. On
the other hand, we find Rājuvula, one of the Śaka satraps who replaced
the Hindu kings of Mathurā in the first century A.D., slavishly copying
the billon hemidrachms of Strato II (Pl. I, 8). Nahapāna, a great
Śaka conqueror who founded a kingdom in the Western Ghats at about
the same period, also reproduced the Greek hemidrachm (Pl. II, 11),
as did the Andhra king, Śrī Yajña Gotamīputra (Pl. III, 1). Another
Śaka chieftain, Chashṭana, about A.D. 115, founded a kingdom in Mālwā,
striking hemidrachms like those of Nahapāna on the Greek model, and
resembling most nearly the coins of Apollodotos. The coins of both
these princes preserve the remains of Greek characters on the obverse,
and on the reverse are inscriptions in both Nāgarī[22] and Kharoshṭhī,
but after the death of Chashṭana the Kharoshṭhī inscription disappears.
His successors, known as the Western Satraps, extended his dominions
by conquests from the Andhras until they embraced all the flourishing
ports on the west coast with their valuable sea-borne trade. Their
hemidrachms are found in great abundance throughout Western India:
on the reverse of all appears the Buddhist _chaitya_ copied from the
Andhra coinage; the portraits on the obverse are distinctly Scythian in
appearance. These coins are of special historical importance; for in
the reign of the fifth satrap, Jīvadāman, dates in the so-called Śaka
era,[23] recording the year of issue, were added to the inscription
(Pl. III, 2); and these are of the greatest service in helping to date
events here and elsewhere in India down to the year A.D. 395, when the
Guptas conquered the country, and the long and monotonous series of
Western Satrap coins came to an end. The Guptas in their turn struck
silver of the same type; and these degenerate descendants of the Greek
hemidrachm had a further lease of life, when, imported by the Guptas
from their western (Pl. VI, 1) to their central dominions (Pl. VI, 2),
they were adopted by several minor dynasties, including the Maukharīs,
and were even struck by the invading Huns (Pl. VI, 7).
[22] Nāgarī is a later form of Brāhmī script.
[23] The Śaka era started in A.D. 78; this date is now considered to
mark the first year of Kanishka’s reign.
Imitation of both Greek and Śaka models is noticeable in the coins of
the Hindu state of Odumbara. (Pl. III, 3), the modern Pathānkot; both
these and the earlier silver coins of the Kuṇindas, who occupied hilly
districts near the river Satlej, have legends in Brāhmī and Kharoshṭhī;
both may be assigned to the first century B.C.
[Illustration: Fig. 3a. Kharoshṭhī Script on Coin of Hippostratos. Cf.
Pl. II, 5.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3b. Monograms on Indo-Greek Coins, etc.]
III
COINS OF THE KUSHĀṆA KINGS
_Note._—The monograms in Fig. 3b occur on coins
of the following: (1) Eukratides, (2) Apollodotos, (3)
Apollodotos, Maues, (4) Azes I, (5) Sotēr Megas, (6)
Gondopharnes and Aspavarma.
The Yueh-chi, who drove the Śakas out of Bactria about the year 126
B.C., were destined to create “one of the greatest empires of ancient
India.” At some date after A.D. 25, one of the five tribes of which
they were composed, the Kushāṇas, became supreme, and under the
leadership of the head of that tribe, Kujūla Kadphises, they passed
south of the Hindu Kush, and overwhelmed the Pahlavas, then ruling in
the Kābul valley. The deposition of Pacores, successor of Gondopharnes
to the Pahlava kingdom of Taxila, must have taken place between the
years A.D. 45 and A.D. 64, and was effected by Vima Kadphises, the
second Kushāṇa king. Henceforward there is less confusion of dynasties.
We know the names and the chronological order of these powerful Kushāṇa
princes—Kujūla Kadphises, Vima Kadphises, Kanishka, Huvishka, Vāsudeva;
the names of the three last are even recorded in several inscriptions.
It seems to be now generally accepted that Kanishka was the founder of
the so-called Śaka era, and that consequently his reign started in A.D.
78.[24] The chief remaining difficulty is the attribution of certain
copper coins bearing the title _Kujūla Kadaphes_ (Kharoshṭhī—_Kuyula
Kaphasa_); this must remain for the present unsettled.
[24] _Camb. History of India_, Vol. I, p. 583.
The commoner type of these Kadaphes coins deserves special attention
(Pl. IV, 2); for the head on the obverse is directly copied from the
coins of one of the earlier Roman Emperors, probably Augustus, and
bears evidence to that Roman influence which is so marked in the
gold coinage of the Kushāṇas, and which is partly traceable to the
intercourse between the Yueh-chi and the Roman Empire before their
invasion of India, an intercourse which resulted in Kushāṇa ambassadors
being actually sent to the court of Augustus. But the plentiful issues
in gold of Vima Kadphises and his two successors, all struck on the
same standard as the Roman _aureus_, are due also to other causes.
Exports from India to different provinces of the Roman Empire, carried
by sea from the south, and by the overland routes in the north,
were paid for in Roman gold; and the _aureus_ had, like the English
_sovereign_ in more recent times, at this period acquired that status
as a current coin in India, which it already possessed in those parts
of Asia more directly under the influence of the imperial power. It was
only natural that these Kushāṇa invaders should seek to win acceptance
for their new gold currency by placing it on an equality with the
popular Roman gold. There was, moreover, at this time a world shortage
of silver: not only do we find the Pahlava kings striking didrachms in
debased silver, but the silver _denarius_ itself was, during the early
empire, being reduced in weight and fineness. This accounts for the
disappearance of silver and the important place of gold in the Kushāṇa
coinage, and is probably also partly the reason why the Western Satraps
struck only small hemidrachms, and these often in inferior silver.
The coins of Kujūla Kadphises are all of copper. Those which he struck
in the style of Hermaios have the head of the Greek king on the obverse
(Pl. IV, 1), and he used the same type after the name of Hermaios
had disappeared from the inscriptions; both these types were current
in the Kābul province. Another type, akin to the Śaka coins, has a
bull on the obverse and a Bactrian camel on the reverse. In one of
his inscriptions, for which like his successor he uses both Greek and
Kharoshṭhī, he is styled “_The Great King, King of Kings, the Son of
Heaven_.”
The gold of Vima Kadphises (c. A.D. 45-78) was struck in three
denominations, the double stater (Pl. IV, 3), the stater or
_dināra_,[25] as the Kushāṇas called it (= the Roman _aureus_ of 124
grains weight), and the quarter stater. On the obverse of these appears
either the king’s head or bust, or the king seated cross-legged on a
couch, or, as on a rare stater in the British Museum, sitting in a
two-horsed chariot. On the copper coins, which are of three sizes, the
king is almost invariably standing, with his right hand placing an
offering upon a small altar at his side. The portrait of the king is
most realistic, though hardly flattering—a corpulent figure with a long
heavy face and a large nose, he appears wearing the long Kushāṇa cloak
and tall “Gilgit” boots, on his head a conical hat with streamers.
Vima Kadphises must have been a zealous convert to the worship of the
Hindu god Śiva, for the god or his emblem, the trident battle-axe,
is the invariable device on the reverse of all his coins. The title
“_Sotēr Megas_” on this king’s copper coins indicates a relationship
between him and the so-called “nameless king” mentioned in the previous
chapter, whose coins bear the same legend.
[25] _Dināra_ is derived from the Roman _denarius_. It affords an
interesting example of the vicissitudes which so many coin names have
experienced. The first letter of the same word _d (enarius)_ now
signifies copper in English money.
Kanishka, the real founder of the great Kushāṇa empire, which stretched
from Kābul[26] to the banks of the Ganges, may have belonged to
another branch of the Yueh-chi—he was not, at any rate, nearly related
to Vima Kadphises, whose coins are distinct in many respects from
those of Kanishka and his successors. One marked distinction is the
use of Greek legends only by these later kings. The Greek is often
very debased, and the reason suggested for its employment is that
Khotanese, the native tongue of the Kushāṇas, was first reduced to
writing in the Greek character. Kanishka also introduced the Iranian
title, _Shāonānoshāo_—“King of Kings”—in place of the Greek form
_Basileōs Basileōn_. On the reverse side of the extensive gold (full
and quarter staters only) and copper coinage of Kanishka and Huvishka
is portrayed a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses; among them are
the Greek gods, Helios, Herakles (Pl. IV, 8), Selene; the Hindu god,
Śiva (_Oesho_ on the coins); the Iranian deities, Athro, “Fire,” Oado,
the wind god, Ardokhsho and Nāna, and even the great Buddha himself
(Pl. IV, 4), who had previously appeared on a copper coin of Kadaphes.
The representation of this “mixed multitude” was probably intended to
conciliate the religious scruples of the numerous peoples included
within the vast territory of the Kushāṇa Empire. A standing figure of
the king appears on the obverse of Kanishka’s gold staters, on the
small quarter staters is a half (Pl. IV, 5) or quarter length portrait.
On Huvishka’s gold the standing figure never appears; the portrait is
either half-length or merely the king’s head; on one coin the king is
seated cross-legged; on another (exceedingly rare) he is riding an
elephant (Pl. VI, 7). Vāsudeva closely imitates Kanishka’s standing
figure type on his gold.
[26] The province of Kābul must be reckoned Indian territory from the
time of Chandragupta Maurya till the eleventh century. It was reunited
to India by the Mug̱ẖal Emperor Bābur in the sixteenth century and
lost again in the middle of the eighteenth.
Kanishka’s copper coinage is of two types: one has the usual “standing
king” obverse (Pl. IV, 6); and on the rarer second type the king is
sitting on a throne. Huvishka’s copper is more varied; on the reverse,
as on Kanishka’s copper, there is always one of the numerous deities;
on the obverse the king is portrayed (1) riding on an elephant, or (2)
reclining on a couch, or (3) seated cross-legged, or (4) seated with
arms raised.
Kanishka had been a great patron of Buddhism. Vāsudeva was evidently a
convert to Hinduism and an ardent devotee of Śiva. On the reverses of
his coins the deity is almost invariably Śiva accompanied by his bull
(Pl. IV, 9), but there is a rare copper piece on which the word “Vāsu”
in Brāhmī occupies the obverse, and the special symbol of Vāsudeva the
reverse. About half-a-dozen other symbols, which take the place of the
monograms of the Indo-Greeks, appear on the coins of the Kushāṇas.
After the death of Vāsudeva, in A.D. 220, the Kushāṇa power declined,
though the descendants of Kanishka held the Kābul valley till A.D. 425.
The coins of these kings, principally of two classes, are degenerate
copies of the gold coins of Kanishka and Vāsudeva. One continues the
standing king type with the Śiva and bull reverse; the second has the
standing king obverse, with the deity Ardokhsho, who was by this time
identified with the Indian Lakshmī, represented as sitting on a throne
and holding a cornucopia on the reverse (Pl. IV, 10). Certain Brāhmī
letters, now unintelligible, seem to have distinguished the coins of
successive rulers. It was this latter type, current throughout the
Panjāb, that the Gupta kings took as the model for their earliest
coinage. In A.D. 425 a tribe of the Little Yueh-chi, under a chief
named Kidāra, replaced the great Kushāṇa dynasty at Kābul; but they
were driven out fifty years later by an inroad of the Ephthalites, or
White Huns, and settled in the Chitrāl district and in Kashmīr. There
they struck coins in much alloyed gold and also in copper of this same
standing king and seated goddess type, and there it survived in a
hardly recognizable form in the later coins, until the Muhammadans put
an end to the Hindu kingdom in the fourteenth century. Certain kingdoms
in the Panjāb also copied the large copper coins of the Kushāṇas: the
most striking of these minor coinages is that of the Yaudheyas, whose
territory included the modern state of Bahāwalpūr. One type of their
coins shows a female standing figure on the obverse, and a soldier
with a Brāhmī inscription on the reverse (Pl. IV, 11). The earliest
coins of Nepāl current from the fifth to the seventh century also
show traces of Kushāṇa influence. These large copper pieces give the
names of at least four kings, Mānāṅka, Gunāṅka,[27] Aṅśuvarman and
Jishṇugupta. Various devices are used, among them the goddess seated
cross-legged. The coins of Aṅśuvarman, of the seventh century, have a
cow standing to the left on the obverse and a winged horse with the
king’s name on the reverse (Pl. V, 1).
[27] It has been suggested with great probability that these are really
compound words signifying “the mark or device of Māna, of Guna.”
KEY TO PLATE V
1. Nepāl: Aṁśuvarman. Æ.
Obv., cow to left, _Kāmadehī_,
“The cow that yields every wish.”
Rev., winged lion to left, _Śryaṁśuvarma_.
2. Samudragupta. Standard type. AV. Wt. 116 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, holding standard in left hand,
sacrificing at altar to his right; behind altar Garuḍa-headed
standard; beneath king’s arm, _Samudra_; around,
_Samaraśatavitatavijayo jitaripur ajito divaṁ jayati_,
“The unconquered one, whose victories extend over a century
of battles, having conquered his enemies, wins heaven.”
Rev., goddess Lakshmī on a throne, her feet on a lotus; to left
symbol, to right _Parākramaḥ_,
“The [king] of supreme might.”
3. Id: Lyrist type. AV. Wt. 119·5 grs.
Obv., king seated cross-legged on high-backed couch, playing on a
lyre; beneath couch a foot-stool inscribed Si. Legend,
_Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Samudraguptaḥ_.
Rev., Lakshmī seated on wicker stool, holding fillet in right
hand, cornucopiae on left arm; to right _Samudraguptaḥ_.
4. Id: Chandragupta I type. AV. Wt. 118 grs.
Obv., Chandragupta on right, holding crescent-topped standard,
offering ring to Kumāradevī on left; on right
_Chandragupta_; on left _Śrī Kumāradevī_.
5. Id: Aśvamedha type. AV. Wt. 118·6 grs.
Obv., horse stands to left before a sacrificial post; beneath
horse _Si_; around, parts of _Rājādhirājaḥ
pṛithivīvijitva divaṁ jayatyā hṛtavājimedhaḥ_, “The king
of kings, having conquered the earth, wins heaven, being the
restorer of the Aśvamedha.”
6. Chandragupta II. Archer type. AV. Wt. 124·3 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, drawing arrow from a quiver; Garuḍa
standard on left; under left arm, _Chandra_; around,
_Deva-Śrī-Mahārājādhirāja-Śrī-Chandraguptaḥ_.
Rev., goddess seated facing, on lotus; lotus in left, fillet in
right hand; symbol to left; to right, _Śrī Vikrama_.
7. Id: Chattra type. AV. Wt. 119 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, casting incense on altar; behind him
dwarf attendant holds a “chattra” over his head. Around,
_Kṣitim avajitya sucaritair divaṁ jayati Vikramādityaḥ_,
“Vikramāditya, having conquered the earth, wins heaven by
good deeds.”
Rev., goddess Lakshmī standing facing, holding fillet and lotus;
symbol to left; to right, _Vikramādityaḥ_.
8. Id: Horseman type. AV. Wt. 120·7 grs.
Obv., king riding on fully caparisoned horse to left, holding a
bow. Around, _Paramabhāgavata Mahārājādhirāja Śrī
Chandraguptaḥ_, “Supreme among Bhāgavatas, king of kings,”
etc.
Rev., as No. 3. To right, _Ajitavikramaḥ_,
“He whose prowess is unsurpassed.”
9. Kumāragupta I. Lion-slayer type. AV. Wt. 125·6 grs.
Obv., king standing to right shoots a lion, which falls backward.
Around, _Kumāragupto yudhi siṅhavikkramaḥ_,
“Kumāragupta, who has the valour of a lion in battle.”
Rev., goddess Ambikā-Lakshmī seated facing, on a lion, holding
fillet and lotus. To right, _Siṅhamahendraḥ_, “The lion
Mahendra.”
10. Id: Peacock type. AV. Wt. 128·5 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, feeding peacock with a bunch of
grapes. Legend uncertain.
Rev., Kārttikeya, riding on his peacock, Parvāṇi, spear in left
hand, sprinkling incense on altar. To right,
_Mahendrakumāraḥ_.
11. Prakāśāditya. Horseman type. AV. Wt. 145·1 grs.
Obv., king slaying a lion from horseback; Garuḍa standard on
right. Legend incomplete.
Rev., goddess seated as on No. 6. To right, _Śrī Prakāśāditya_.
12. Śaśāṅka, king of Gauḍa. AV. Wt. 145 grs.
Obv., Śiva nimbate, reclining on bull (Nandi); moon above on
left. On right, _Śrī Śa_; below, _jaya_.
Rev., Lakshmī seated on lotus, elephants above on either side
sprinkling water on her. On right, _Śrī Śaśāṅka_.
13. Chandragupta II. Chattra type. Æ.
Obv., as on No. 7.
Rev., Garuḍa standing facing, with outspread wings and human
arms. Below, portions of _Mahārāja Śrī Chandraguptaḥ_.
[Illustration: PLATE V]
[Illustration: PLATE VI]
KEY TO PLATE VI
1. Kumāragupta I. W. Provinces type. AR. Wt. 33·5 grs.
Obv., bust of king to right; corrupt Greek letters.
Rev., Garuḍa standing facing, with outstretched wings. Around,
_Paramabhāgavata Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Kumāragupta
Mahendrādityaḥ_.
2. Skandagupta. Central Provinces Type. AR. Wt. 32·1 grs.
Obv., bust of king to right; to right, date in Brāhmī numerals.
Rev., peacock standing facing, with wings and tail outspread;
border of dots. Around, _Vijitāvanir avanipati jayati
divaṁ Skandagupto ’yam_,
“This Skandagupta, having conquered the world, [as]
world-lord, wins heaven.”
3. Śilāditya (Harshavardhana) of Thāṇeśar. AR. Wt. about 36 grs.
Obv., bust of king to left; to left, _Sa_ and uncertain date.
Rev., peacock as on No. 2. Around, _Vijitāvanir avanipati.
Śrī Śilāditya divaṁ jayati_, “Śrī Śilāditya having
conquered the world, [as] world-lord, wins heaven.”
4. Mihiragula. AR. Wt. 54·2 grs.
Obv., bust of king to right; in front, bull-standard; behind,
trident. Legend, _Jayatu Mihirakula_.
Rev., debased fire-altar and attendants.
5. Napkī Malik. AR (base). About 52 grs.
Obv., bust of king with winged head-dress; above, buffalo’s head
facing. Pahlavī legend, _Napkī Malik_.
Rev., Fire-altar and attendants, wheel over head of each.
6. Indian imitation of Sassanian coin. AR (base).
Obv. and Rev., as on No. 4, but very barbarous.
7. Toramāṇa. AR. Wt. 32·8 grs.
Obv., as on No. 3.
Rev., as on No. 3, but _Śrī Toramāṇa_.
8. Gadhiya paisa. AR (base). Wt. 60 grs.
Obv., head of king to right.
Rev., fire-altar. More debased than No. 6.
9. Mahoba: Hallakshaṇavarma. AV. Dramma. Wt. 63 grs.
Obv., four-armed goddess seated facing.
Rev., _Śrīmad Hallakshaṇavarma Deva_.
10. Ḍahāla: Gāṅgeya-deva. AV. Wt. 62 grs.
Obv., as on No. 9.
Rev., _Śrīmad Gāṅgeya-deva_.
11. Dehlī and Ajmer: Pṛithvī Rāja. Bil. Wt. 52 grs.
Obv., horseman to right; _Śrī Pṛithvī Rāja deva_.
Rev., recumbent bull to left; _Asāvari Śrī Sāmanta
deva_.[28]
12. Shāhis of Ohind: Spalapati-deva. AR. Wt. 50 grs.
Obv., horseman to right. Inscription in undeciphered characters.
Rev., recumbent bull to left. _Śrī Spalapati-deva._
13. Narwar: Chāhaḍa-deva. Æ. Wt. 52 grs.
Obv., as No. 11, but legend _Śrī Chāhaḍa-deva_.
Rev., as No. 11.
14. Kashmīr; Harsha-deva. AV. Wt. 73 grs.
Obv., horseman to right; _Harsha-deva_.
Rev., seated goddess.
15. Id: Diddā Rānī. Æ. Wt. about 85 grs.
Obv., standing king to right.
Rev., seated goddess. To left, _Śrī_; to right,
_Diddā_.
16. Id: Yaśovarman. AV (base). Wt. 112 grs.
Obv., standing king; under left arm, _Kidā (ra)_.
Rev., seated goddess, _Śrī Yaśovarma_.
[28] Asāvari is said to be a name of Durga; Śrī Sāmanta deva is
borrowed from the coinage of Ohind.
The reigns of Kanishka and Huvishka coincide with the most flourishing
period of the great Gandhāra school of sculpture, which had arisen
during the rule of the Śaka princes. Hellenistic influence is very
strongly marked in that art, and it may be interesting to consider
here briefly what contribution the coins make to the vexed question
of the respective parts played by Greek and Indian ideals in moulding
its character. A careful inspection of the successive coinages of the
Indo-Greeks, the Śakas and the Kushāṇas will show that the strongest
influences of pure Greek art had passed away before the reign of
Kanishka. With the establishment of Greek rule south of the Hindu
Kush, traces of the Indian craftsman’s hand begin to appear. As time
goes on these become more apparent, until, in the Kushāṇa period, the
whole fabric of the coins, if not entirely Indian, is far more Oriental
than Greek. That purely Indian influences were strongly at work is
very evident in the cult of Śiva as expressed on the coins of Vima
Kadphises and Vāsudeva for instance; in the Buddha coins of Kadaphes
and Kanishka, and in the typical Indian cross-legged attitude in which
Kadphises II and Huvishka are depicted; and, after all is said, the art
was produced in India and must have been largely if not entirely the
work of Indian craftsmen. Originality in art does not so much consist
in evolving something which has never existed before, but rather in the
ability to absorb fresh ideas and transmute them into a new form. And
thus it was in the time of Kanishka: Indian mysticism allowed itself
to be clad in Greek beauty of form. Eastern feeling ran, as it were,
into Western moulds to create this wonderful aftermath of Hellenic art,
which left an indelible mark upon every country of the Orient where the
cult of the Buddha penetrated.
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Gupta Script on coin of Chandragupta II. Cf. Pl.
V, 7 (obverse).]
IV
THE COINAGE OF THE GUPTAS
The Gupta period, computing it roughly as lasting from A.D. 320 to
480, synchronises with a great revival of Hinduism, and along with
it of literature, the arts and sciences. The Gupta monarchs, as is
evident from their coins, although orthodox devotees of Vishṇu, were
liberal patrons. Kālidāsa and other writers raised literary Sanskrit
to a point of perfection never equalled before or since; the cave
frescoes of Ajanta bear witness to the genius of the Gupta painters;
the architecture and sculpture of the period show an equally high level
of attainment; all the greatest Hindu mathematicians and astronomers
flourished in the fifth and sixth centuries. It is, in fact, evident
that when the Hindu of to-day harks back to the Golden Age of Hinduism,
the picture he draws in his mind is coloured by traditions, which have
come to him from books or hearsay, of the age of the Guptas, rather
than by the fainter glimmerings of more heroic times from the Vedas
or the great Epics. So, too, the splendid gold coinage of the Guptas,
with its many types and infinite varieties and its inscriptions in
classical Sanskrit, now appearing on Indian coins for the first time,
are the finest examples of purely Indian art of this kind we possess.
The origin of the Gupta family is obscure. This much seems certain,
that the family was not of high caste, perhaps of the lowest. The
territory which the Guptas are first found ruling lay near Pāṭaliputra,
the modern Patna; it was much enlarged by one Gupta, on the decline
of the Kushāṇa power in its eastern territories; he was succeeded
by a son, Ghaṭotkacha, who assumed the title of Mahārāja, which
brings us out into the light of history; for with the year of his
son Chandragupta I’s accession, A.D. 320, the Gupta era starts. It
may appear strange that this monarch should have issued no coins of
his own, but there seems little reason now to doubt that, to his son
and successor, Samudragupta, the real founder of the Gupta Empire,
should be assigned those coins (Pl. V, 4) which bear the portraits of
Chandragupta and his wife Kumāradevī,[29] a member of the illustrious
Lichchavi family reigning at Vaiśālī[30] as early as the seventh
century B.C. Samudragupta’s conquests, as we learn from his Allahabad
pillar inscription, carved out for him an empire which extended north
to the base of the Himalayas, east to the Brahmaputra river, south to
the banks of the Narbadā, and west to the Jumna and the Chambal, with
a number of protected states on his frontier between those rivers and
the Chināb. On the completion of his conquests he revived an ancient
Hindu rite in celebrating the Aśvamedha, or Horse-sacrifice. Now the
states under Samudragupta’s protection in the Panjāb were the districts
of the old Kushāṇa Empire in which the gold coinage current at this
time was, as we saw in the last chapter, a degraded form of the Kushāṇa
“standing king” and “seated goddess,” Ardokhsho-Lakshmī type: it was
from these coins (Pl. IV, 10) that the earliest and commonest form
of Samudragupta’s issues, the Standard type (Pl. V, 2) was imitated.
The earliest specimens, though much superior in workmanship, follow
their model very closely: the “standing king” still wears Kushāṇa
dress; a Kushāṇa symbol still appears on the reverse; only, on the
obverse, in place of Śiva’s trident, appears a Garuḍa-headed standard
(_Garuḍadhvaja_), emblem of the cult of Vishṇu. This coinage appears
to have been introduced about the middle of the reign: such legends as
“_The invincible one, the lord of the earth_” suggest, as indeed is
obvious, that only rich plunder made such a varied and plentiful gold
currency possible. Samudragupta struck only gold. In such abundance
did the Kushāṇa kings mint copper money that it may be said without
exaggeration to have remained in circulation in the Panjāb down to the
nineteenth century; in the time of the Guptas the bazars must have
been full of it. But for gold there is always an insatiable demand
in India, and seven other distinct varieties appeared during this
reign. Of these the Archer type, the commonest and most characteristic
Gupta coin (Pl. V, 6), struck by at least eight succeeding kings, is
a natural development of the Standard type, of which also further
modifications are to be found in the Battle-axe and Kācha types. On
the obverse of the former a second attendant figure is introduced, and
a battle-axe instead of a standard is in the king’s left hand. In the
Kācha coins the change takes place on the reverse, where a standing
figure of Lakshmī facing left takes the place of the seated goddess:
the reverses of the Tiger-slayer and Aśvamedha coins present variations
of this motif. The Tiger-slayer type, of which four specimens only
are at present known, is the prototype of the Lion-slayer issues of
later kings, and represents the king, dressed for the first time in
an Indian waistcoat and turban, trampling on a tiger as he shoots it.
There remain the Chandragupta I, Aśvamedha (Pl. V, 5) and Lyrist types,
all three obviously in the nature of commemorative medals, and perhaps
intended as pious gifts (_dakshiṇa_) to Brahmans. The Lyrist coins (Pl.
V, 3), the rarest of the three, merit special attention. Evidently
intended as a graceful tribute to the king’s accomplishments, he is
portrayed in Indian dress, sitting cross-legged on a high-backed rather
ornate couch, playing on a _vīṇā_, or Indian lute. On the reverse
appears the goddess Lakshmī seated to left on a _mora_ (wicker stool).
The excellent modelling of the king’s figure, the skilful delineation
of the features, the careful attention to details, and the general
ornateness of design in the best specimens constitute this type as the
highest expression of Gupta numismatic art.
[29] Cf. _B.M.C._, “Coins of the Gupta Dynasties,” Introduction, pp.
lxiv-lxviii.
[30] Situated in Tirhut, Bengal.
Chandragupta II Vikramāditya (= Sun of Power), who succeeded to the
throne in A.D. 375, extended still further the boundaries of the
empire, and at some time during his long reign, which lasted till A.D.
413, removed the capital from Pāṭaliputra to Ayodhyā. His gold coinage
is even more abundant than his father’s, two of whose types, the Archer
and Lion-slayer (Tiger-slayer), he continued; but on his later Archer
coins (Pl. V, 6) the goddess Lakshmī sits upon a lotus instead of a
throne; and in the second type, besides the substitution of a lion
for a tiger, there is a change on the reverse, Lakshmī being seated
on a lion in various attitudes. The figure of the Lion-slayer on the
obverse is sometimes turned to the right and sometimes to the left; and
a unique coin in the Lucknow Museum shows him attacking the lion with
a sword. The very rare Couch design of Chandragupta is a derivative
of Samudragupta’s Lyrist type. In the new Chattra type coins (Pl. V,
7) we have yet a further variant of the Standard type: on the obverse
of these, behind the “standing king,” appears a boy or dwarf, holding
an umbrella (_chattra_) over his head; the reverse shows the goddess
Lakshmī standing on a lotus. An entirely new design is furnished by
this king’s Horseman coins (Pl. V, 8). A king on horseback was, as
we have seen, employed by the Indo-Greeks, and was characteristic of
the issues of the Śakas. The Gupta rendering of the motif is new and
spirited. The horse is fully caparisoned, facing in some coins to
the right, on others to the left, and the king, either fully clad or
sometimes only in a waistcoat, carries either a sword or a bow; the
reverse resembles that of the Lyrist type.
Kumāragupta I (413-455) struck a few very rare Aśvamedha coins, closely
resembling those of Samudragupta, except that they are far inferior in
execution, and the sacrificial horse on the obverse is standing to the
right instead of to the left.
He also continued to issue the Archer, Horseman and Lion-slayer (Pl. V,
9) types of his predecessors. Kumāragupta’s Tiger-slayer coins closely
resemble their prototype struck by Samudragupta, except that on the
reverse the goddess Lakshmī is depicted feeding a peacock. Four new
designs appear on the gold of this reign. The Swordsman coins present
still another modification of the Standard type, their distinguishing
mark being that the king’s left hand rests on his sword-hilt instead
of grasping a standard; on the reverse is the usual goddess seated
on a lotus. Kumāragupta held the god Kārttikeya, one of whose names
was Kumāra, in special veneration. The Peacock type (Pl. V, 10) bears
evidence to this, for on the reverse the god himself appears riding on
his peacock, Paravāṇi, and on the obverse the king is shown standing
and feeding a peacock from a bunch of grapes. The rare Elephant-rider
type shows the king on the obverse riding on an elephant trampling on a
tiger; and the obverse of the still rarer Pratāpa type, so-called from
the legend on the reverse, is evidently an adaption from some foreign,
probably Roman, model.
Skandagupta, the last of the great Gupta kings, who succeeded his
father in A.D. 455, was occupied during the earlier part of his reign
in defending his empire against the inroads of the Huns, over whom
he appears to have gained a decisive victory. This probably accounts
for the comparative scarcity of his gold, of which only two types are
known. He continued the favourite device of the Archer with the “seated
goddess” reverse, and introduced a new type, on the obverse of which
the king appears standing on the left, facing the goddess Lakshmī on
the right, with the Garuḍa standard between them. But in this reign the
gold coinage underwent an important change of a different character.
Hitherto all the Gupta gold pieces had been _dināras_ and followed
the weight standard adopted by the Kushāṇa kings from the Romans. All
Skandagupta’s coins are, on an average, heavier than those of his
predecessors; and certain of his Archer coins evidently represent
a new standard of about 142 grains, based, perhaps, on the ancient
Hindu _suvarṇa_; but along with the increase in weight there is a
corresponding depreciation in the purity of the gold.
The successors of Skandagupta—Puragupta, Narasiṅhagupta, Kumāragupta
II, Chandragupta III and Vishṇugupta, whose relationship and dates are
somewhat doubtful, struck gold coins only of the Archer type, showing
a gradual deterioration in design and execution. On a few coins of the
same type are found portions of names, such as _Ghaṭo_ and _Jaya_, even
more difficult to identify. A certain Prakāśāditya, perhaps identical
with Puragupta, struck coins on which the king appears on horseback
slaying a lion, a combination of the Horseman and Lion-slayer types
(Pl. V, 11).
The inscriptions on Gupta coins are scarcely inferior to the designs
in interest: they vary with each successive type and frequently bear
a close relation to them. Thus on Samudragupta’s Battle-axe issue
the king is described as “_Wielding the axe of Kṛitānta_” (= Yama,
the god of Death), while on his Tiger-slayer coins he is given the
title _Vyāghraparākramaḥ_, “He who has the prowess of a tiger.”
Sometimes varieties of the same type are marked by a difference in
the inscription: no less than seven different legends are found on
Kumāragupta I’s Archer coins alone. The obverse legend, which encircles
the design, usually takes the form of a verse in _Upagīti_ or some
other Sanskrit metre, celebrating in highly ornate language the king’s
glory on the earth and his future bliss in heaven, attained through
his merit acquired by sacrifice. On the gold of Samudragupta six such
metrical legends appear; Chandragupta II has only three; while at
least twelve are employed by Kumāragupta I. As an example the obverse
inscription on one class of Chandragupta II’s Chattra coins (Fig. 4)
may be taken: “_Vikramāditya, having conquered the earth, wins heaven
by good works_”; or the more ornate legend on a variety of Kumāragupta
I’s Horseman type: “_The unconquered Mahendra, invincible, the moon in
the sky of the Gupta line, is victorious_.” When a verse appears on
the obverse, the reverse legend is distinct, consisting of a title,
sometimes the repetition of one which appears already in the metrical
obverse inscription, such as _Apratirathaḥ_, “The invincible one,” on
the Archer coins of Samudragupta. Sometimes the king’s name and titles
only appear, and then the legend on both obverse and reverse is often,
though not always, continuous, but here again the reverse inscription,
which appears to the right of the device, consists of a single title.
Thus on Chandragupta II’s Archer type appears the following: obverse,
_Deva-Śrī-Mahārājādhirāja-Śrī-Chandraguptaḥ_; reverse, _Śrī Vikramaḥ_.
Entirely distinct in point of their inscriptions from all other Gupta
coins are those struck by Samudragupta in memory of his father and
mother, known as the Chandragupta I type; on the obverse appear the two
names _Chandragupta_ and _Kumāradevī_, and on the reverse his mother’s
family name, _Lichchavayaḥ_. This relationship was evidently a matter
of pride to the striker. Finally, on the obverse of all coins of the
Archer and most of the allied types appears vertically, under or near
the king’s left arm, part of the king’s name, as _Samudra_, _Chandra_
or _Kumāra_. This vertical method of inscription can be traced back
through the later Kushāṇa coins to a Chinese source.[31]
[31] Coins have been found in Khotān with a Chinese legend on the
obverse and a Kharoshṭhī inscription on the reverse. Cf. _P.M.C._, Vol.
I, p. 167, Nos. 134, 135.
Whether the symbols which occur regularly on all Gupta gold are
anything more than ornaments is doubtful.
The silver coinage of the Guptas starts, as has been already noticed,
with the overthrow of the Western Satraps by Chandragupta II. His
issues follow those of the conquered nation very closely, except that
on the obverse appears a figure of Vishṇu’s sacred bird, Garuḍa, in
place of the _chaitya_, and the dates are computed in the Gupta instead
of in the Śaka era. Obviously these were intended for circulation in
the recently annexed provinces. Kumāragupta, while striking large
quantities of the Garuḍa-type coins in the west (Pl. VI, 1), extended
the silver coinage to the Central Provinces of his Empire. This latter
class of money is entirely distinct in character: the head on the
obverse is drawn in a crude but quite original manner, and is probably
intended as a portrait of the king; on the reverse the king’s devotion
to Kārttikeya is once more displayed in the representation of a peacock
with outstretched wings. A third class of silver-plated coins, with a
rude figure of Garuḍa on the reverse, seems to have been intended for
the tributary state of Valabhī.[32] Skandagupta continued the Garuḍa
and Peacock types (Pl. VI, 2) of his father, and introduced two new
ones. The coins, of very base silver, with Śiva’s sacred bull Nandi
on the reverse, were probably current in Kathiawar; but commoner than
any of the preceding are certain ill-shaped pieces with an altar on
the reverse. None of the direct descendants of Skandagupta appears to
have struck silver, but a few coins of the Peacock type were issued by
Budhagupta, a king of Eastern Mālwā, about A.D. 480. The dates which
appear on these coins to the left of the obverse head in the Western,
and to the right in the Central, issues are frequently defective or
illegible. Inscriptions are confined to the reverse, on the Peacock
type always a metrical legend, on all other types the king’s name
accompanied by high-sounding titles.
[32] In the Kathiawar peninsula, forming part of what was then known as
Surāshṭra.
The copper coinage, which is practically confined to the reign of
Chandragupta II, is far more original in design. Eight out of the nine
types known to have been struck by him have a figure of Garuḍa on the
reverse, usually accompanied by the name of the king, while the obverse
is occupied by the bust or head of the king, or by a three-quarter
length portrait. In one class this is varied by the reproduction of the
gold Chattra type obverse (Pl. V, 13). The tiny coins which constitute
the ninth type have the word _Chandra_ in the obverse and a flower vase
(_kalaśa_) on the reverse. Only four copper pieces are at present known
of Kumāragupta.
After the death of Skandagupta, in A.D. 480,[33] the Gupta Empire
rapidly broke up. The inferiority and comparative scarcity of his own
gold coins, the still more debased issues of his brother Puragupta and
subsequent kings, and the disappearance of silver money, bear ample
evidence to their curtailed territory.
[33] Or according to Mr. Panna Lal, “Dates of Skandagupta and His
Successors,” _Hindustan Review_, January, 1918, in A.D. 467.
The impression produced by the magnificent coinage of the Guptas upon
the peoples of Northern India was undoubtedly as great as that created
by the currency of their Kushāṇa predecessors; but, after the general
devastation caused by the inroads of the Huns, few princes could have
retained sufficient wealth in their treasuries to imitate it. It is
significant then that the most notable imitations were the product of a
mint, secured by its remoteness from the ruthless hand of the invader,
in Central Bengal. These remarkable and not uncommon coins, with Śiva
reclining on his bull Nandi on the obverse, and the goddess Lakshmī
seated on a lotus on the reverse (Pl. V, 12), were struck by Śaśāṅka,
king of Gauḍa (circ. 600-625), notorious as the assassinator of
Harshavardhana’s elder brother, and a great “persecutor of Buddhism.”
In Bengal, too, for many years after the passing of the Gupta Empire,
were current flat gold pieces with crude reproductions of Gupta
designs, and, with the exception of the word _Śrī_ on the obverse,
completely illegible inscriptions. Another rather striking coin
connected with the Gupta series, with a standing bull on the obverse,
bears the name _Śrī Vīrasena_, but who Vīrasena was is at present
unknown. A modification of the seated goddess motif was preserved on
the gold coinage of certain mediæval Rājpūt kingdoms.
KEY TO PLATE VII
1. Gold globule, with faint punch-mark on reverse. Wt. about 52 grs.
2. Padma-ṭaṅka. AV. Wt. 57 grs.
Obv., eight-petalled lotus, surrounded by “Śaṅka” and two other
symbols. Inscription in a form of Nāgarī.
3. Pāṇḍya. AV. Wt. 57 grs.
Obv., two fishes under canopy; to right, lamp, to left, “chauri”
(fly-whisk).
Rev., undeciphered inscription.
4. Eastern Chālukya: Rājarāja. AV. Wt. 66·8 grs.
Obv., in centre, boar to right; around, _Śrī Rājarāja Saṁvat 35_.
5. Koṅgudeśa. AV. Wt. 60·2 grs.
Obv., ornate elephant to right.
Rev., floral scroll design.
6. Choḷa. AR. Wt. 52 grs.
Obv. and Rev., tiger seated under a canopy, behind it a bow, in
front two fish, whole flanked by two fly-whisks. In Nāgarī,
below, _Śrī Rājendraḥ_.
7. Ceylon: Parākrama Bāhu. Æ.
Obv., standing king.
Rev., seated goddess. In Nāgarī, _Śrī Parākramabāhu_.
8. Pallava or Chālukya (?). AR. Wt. 103·9 grs.
Obv., lion to right.
Rev., vase on stand, circle of rays.
9. Kerala. AR. Wt. 36·3 grs.
Obv., undeciphered inscription.
Rev., in Nāgarī, _Śrī Vīrakeralasya_.
10. Kalīkūt: Tīpū. AV. Fanam. Wt. about 5·2 grs.
Obv., Persian “hē” (= Ḥaidar).
Rev., in Persian, _Kalīkūt, 1199_.
11. Vijayanagar: Kṛishṇa Deva Rāya. AV. Half pagoda. Wt. about 26
grs.
Obv., Vishṇu seated with discus and conch.
Rev., in Nāgarī, _Śrī Pratāpa Kṛishṇa Rāya_.
12. Id: Harihara II. AV. Half pagoda. Wt. 25 grs.
Obv., god and goddess seated.
Rev., in Nāgarī, _Śrī Pratāpa Harihara_.
13. Kananūr: ’Ali Rāja. AV.
Obv., in Arabic, _Al-wālīu-l-mulk ’Alī Rāja_, “The guardian
of the kingdom, ’Alī Rāja.”
Rev., _Bi-l-hijrati as-sina 1194_, “In the Hijrī year 1194.”
[Illustration: PLATE VII]
[Illustration: PLATE VIII]
KEY TO PLATE VIII
1. Altamsh. Æ.
Obv., in hexagon, _’Adl_.
Rev., in square, inscribed in a circle, _As-sult̤ān_.
2. Id: AR. Wt. about 165 grs.
Rev., in square, inscribed in a circle, _As-sult̤ānu-l-a’z̤am
Shamsu-d-dunyā wa-d-dīn abu-l-muz̤affar Altamsh as-sult̤ān_,
“The supreme sultan, the sun of the world and the faith, the
father of the victorious, Altamsh the sultan.” Marginal legends
incomplete.
3. Raẓiya. Bil. Wt. about 54 grs.
Obv., horseman to right. Around, in Nāgarī, _Śrī Hamīrah_
(= the Amīr).
Rev., in Arabic, _As-sult̤ānu-l-a’z̤am Raẓiyatu-d-dunyā wa-d-dīn_.
4. Ghiyās̤u-d-dīn Balban. Bil. Wt. about 55 grs.
Obv., in circle, in Arabic, _Balban_; around, in Nāgarī,
_Śrī Sultān Giyāsudīn_.
Rev., in Arabic, _As-sult̤ānu-l-a’z̤am Ghiyās̤u-d-dunyā
wa-d-dīn_.
5. ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad. Dehlī. 698 A.H. AV. Wt. 170 grs.
Obv., in a circle, _Sikandaru-s̤-s̤ānī yamīnu-l-khilāfati
nāṣiru amīru-l-mominīn_, “The second Alexander, the right
hand of the Khalifate, the helper of the commander of the
faithful”; margin, _Ẓuriba hazihi-s-sikkatu bi ḥaẓrati
Dehlī fī sinate s̤amāna wa tis ’aina wa sittami ’ata_,
“Struck this coin at the capital, Dehlī, in the year eight
and ninety and six hundred.”
Rev., as on No. 2, but title, _’Alāu-d-dunyā wa-d-dīn_, and
name _Muḥammad Shāh_.
6. Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak. 719 A.H. Bil. Wt. 80 grs.
Obv., in circle, _Ḵẖ̱alīfatu ’llah Mubārak Shāh_, “The
Khalif of God, Mubārak Shāh”; around, _As-sult̤an al
wās̤iqu bi ’llah amīru-l-mominīn_, “The sultan, the
truster in God, the commander of the faithful.”
Rev., _Al imāmu-l-a’z̤am Qut̤bu-d-dunyā wa-d-dīn abu-l-muz̤affar_,
“The Supreme Imām, Qut̤bu-d-dīn, the father of the victorious.”
7. Muḥammad bin Tughlaq. Dehlī. 726 A.H. AV. Wt. 199 grs.
Obv., in circle, _Al wās̤iqu bi taʾīdu-r-rahman_ (“The
truster in the help of the Merciful”) _Muḥammad Shāh
as-sult̤ān_. Margin similar to that on No. 5, but
_hazihi-d-dīnār_ and date 726 in Arabic words.
Rev., _Ashhadu an lā ilāha illallaho wa ashhadu an Muḥammadan
’abduhu wa rasūluhu_, “I testify that there is no god but
God, and I testify that Muḥammad is his servant and apostle.”
8. Id: in the name of the Khalif Al Ḥākim. Bil. Wt. about 140 grs.
Obv., within quatrefoil, _Al Ḥākim b’ amru ’llah_.
Rev., within quatrefoil, _Abū-l-’abbās Aḥmad_.
9. Id: Forced Currency. Tulghlaqpūr, 730 A.H. Brass. Wt. about 140 grs.
Obv., in circle, _Man atā’ as-sult̤ān faqad atā’ ar-rahmān_,
“He who obeys the sultan surely he obeys the Merciful”;
margin, in Persian, _Dar iqlīm-i-Tug̱ẖlaqpūr’urf Tirhut
sāl bar hafsad sī_ “(Struck) in the territory of
Tulghlaqpūr, alias Tirhut, in the year seven hundred and
thirty.”
Rev., in Persian, _Muhar shud tankah-i-ra’īj dar
rūzgāh-i-bandah-i-ummīdwār Muḥammad Tug̱ẖlaq_, “Stamped
as a tankah current in the reign of the slave, hopeful (of
mercy), Muḥammad Tughlaq.”
10. Fīroz Shāh. Dehlī. 773 A.H. Bil. Wt. 140 grs.
Obv., _Al Khalīfatu amiru-l-mominīn khuldat khilāfatuhu 773_,
“The Khalif of the Commander of the faithful, may the
Khalifate be perpetuated.”
Rev., _Fīroz Shāh sult̤ānī ẓuriba bi ḥaẓrati Dehlī_,
cf. No. 5, Obv., margin.
11. Fīroz Shāh Z̤afar. AV. Wt. 169 grs.
Obv., in circle, _Fī zamani-l-imāmi amīru-l-mominīn Abu
’Abdu ’llah khuldat khilāfatuhu_, “In the time of the Imām,
the commander of the faithful, Abu ’Abdu ’llah,” etc.; margin
illegible.
Rev., _As-sult̤ānu-l-a’z̤am Fīroz Shāh Z̤afar Shāh ibn-i-Fīroz
Shāh sult̤ānī_, “The supreme sultan Fīroz Shāh Z̤afar Shāh,
son of Fīroz Shāh, sultan.”
12. Abūbakr Shāh. 792 A.H. Æ. Wt. about 102 grs.
Obv., in square, _Abūbakr Shāh_; in margin, _bin Z̤afar
bin Fīroz Shāh sult̤ānī_.
Rev., _Nāʾībi amīru-l-mominīn 792_, “The deputy of the
Commander of the faithful.”
13. Bahlol Lodī. Dehlī. 858 A.H. Bil. Wt. 140-146 grs.
Obv., _Fī zamani amīru-l-mominīn khuldat khilāfatuhu 858_.
Rev., _Al mutawakkilu ’ala-r-rahmān_ (“Trusting in the
Merciful one”) _Bahlol Shāh sult̤ān bi ḥaẓrati Dehlī_.
The western silver coinage of the Guptas may have been imitated by
some of the powerful Maitraka rulers of Valabhī, who asserted their
independence at the end of the fifth century: coins bearing the name
Kṛishṇarāja, at present unidentified, are copied from Skandagupta’s
bull type. Far more important are the coins struck by Īśānavarman,
the Maukhari, and his successors, whose kingdom was in Bihār. These
follow the Central Peacock type, but the head on the obverse, excepting
the issue of one king, is turned to the left instead of to the right.
These otherwise insignificant coins have a twofold interest: they
were copied by the Hun Toramāṇa; and, more important still, the
name appearing on the last and most abundant coins of the series is
Śilāditya (Pl. VI, 3), who is almost certainly to be identified with
the great Harshavardhana of Thāṇeśar and Kanauj, himself a relation of
the Maukhari princes. What further strengthens this conjecture is the
fact that the dates on the Śilāditya coins are reckoned in a new era,
doubtless that which commenced with Harshavardhana’s coronation in
A.D. 606, whereas the Maukhari kings use the Gupta era. It is striking
testimony to the havoc wrought by the Hun invasions that these tiny
silver pieces are the only coins[34] known to have been issued by this
great king, who built up on the ruins of Northern India an empire
scarcely less extensive than that of the Guptas.
[34] Certain thin silver coins of Sassanian type have been doubtfully
ascribed to him. Cf. Rapson, _Indian Coins_, p. 34, § 122.
The copper money of the Guptas was copied by the Hun princes, Toramāṇa
and Mihiragula, but left no legacy behind, unless the small coins which
record the names of six Nāga princes of Narwar in Northern Rājputāna
may have been derived from it.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. _Śrī Maj Jajalla-deva_, in old Nāgarī Script.]
V
MEDIÆVAL COINAGES OF NORTHERN AND CENTRAL INDIA TILL THE MUHAMMADAN
CONQUEST
The centuries which elapsed between that great turning point in
Indian history, the Hun invasions, and the coming of the Muhammadans
in the twelfth century, suggest several points of comparison with
the so-called Dark Ages of European history. It was an age of
transition, pregnant with important developments for the future, but
individualistic expression, both in art and literature, remained
largely in abeyance. This want of originality is particularly marked
in the limited coinage of the numerous petty kingdoms which flourished
and declined during the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries. The most
important movement of the time was the rise of the Rājpūt clans, which
were now emerging as the dominant powers in Hindustān. The Bull and
Horseman type in the Rājpūt coinage symbolises this new force. In
addition to the issues of the Huns and the Rājpūt dynasties will be
described the money of Kashmīr, which, protected by its mountainous
frontiers, ordinarily remained shut off from the influence of political
events which agitated the kingdoms of the plains.
I. COINS OF THE HUNS AND INDO-SASSANIANS
The military occupation of India by the Huns, or Hūṇas, lasted but
thirty years. By A.D. 500 Toramāṇa, leader of the tribe known as the
White Huns or Ephthalites, had established himself in Mālwā. On his
death, two years later, his successor, Mihiragula, completed the
conquest of Northern India, fixing his capital at Śākala (Siālkōt)
in the Panjāb, but was driven out by a confederacy of Hindu princes
under the leadership of Yasodharman of Mālwā in A.D. 528. He thereupon
seized the kingdom of Kashmīr, where he ruled till his death in 542.
Probably there were other Hūṇa chiefs who struck coins in India, but
the legends on their coins are so fragmentary that their names have not
as yet been satisfactorily deciphered. On some of the earliest Hūṇa
imitations of Sassanian silver coins, for example, the legend _Shāhī
Javūvlah_ appears, but whether this is the name of a king or merely a
title is uncertain. No Hūṇa coins show any originality of design. The
majority are either imitated from or restruck upon Sassanian silver
pieces. The heads of both Toramāṇa and Mihiragula (Pl. VI, 4) on the
obverse are coarse and brutal to the last degree; on the reverse appear
the usual Sassanian fire-altar and attendants; the inscriptions are
generally in Nāgarī script. Toramāṇa also copied the silver coinage
of the Maukharīs (Pl. VI, 7). The copper of both princes show traces
of Sassanian and Gupta influence; the reverses especially recall the
fabric of Chandragupta II’s copper issues. Kushāṇa copper was imitated
by Mihiragula, probably during his reign in Kashmīr.
Although the Huns were mainly instrumental in introducing Sassanian
types into India, it seems certain that shortly after their invasion a
Sassanian dynasty, or a dynasty acknowledging the suzerainty of Persia,
was established in Western India; for coins with bilingual inscriptions
in Pahlavī and Nāgarī have been found, directly imitated from Sassanian
issues. One of these bears the name Shāhī Tigin, and the Nāgarī legend
reads, “_King of India and Persia_.” Another class with the name
Vāsudeva is directly copied from a type of the coinage of the Sassanian
Khusrū Parvīz struck in 627; but the best known and the most finely
executed are the flat copper and silver pieces (Pl. VI, 5) which bear
the name _Napkī Malik_; but whether this prince was a Persian or a Hun
is doubtful.
These Sassanian coins were the prototypes of degenerate base silver
pieces which are found in large quantities throughout Rājputāna, and
must have served as currency for the early Rājpūt states there for
centuries. At first they preserve the thin flat fabric of their models
(Pl. VI, 6), but as the head on the obverse and the fire-altar on the
reverse become more debased they grow thicker and more dumpy. The
curious coins known as _Gadhiya Paisa_ (Pl. VI, 8), which circulated
in the same districts and also in Gujarāt, probably down to a later
period, also show traces of a Sassanian origin. The silver coins
with the legend _Śrīmad Ādivarāha_ on the reverse, and Vishṇu in his
boar avatar (Varāha) as the type of the obverse, retain traces of a
fire-altar below the inscription. These have been attributed to the
powerful Bhoja-deva of Kanauj (840-890), whose family, Gurjara in
origin, had formerly ruled in south Rājputāna. Very similar in fabric
are those inscribed _Śrī Vigraha_, assigned to Vigrahapāla I, circ.
A.D. 910, of the Bengal Pāla dynasty.
All these debased coins follow the weight standard of their Sassanian
originals, which represented the Attic drachma of 67·5 grains, and in
inscriptions they are actually called “_drammas_.”
II. COINS OF THE RĀJPŪT DYNASTIES
The coins of the various Rājpūt princes ruling in Hindustān and Central
India are usually gold, copper or billon, very rarely silver. The gold
coins are all “_drammas_” in weight; the usual type, which appears to
have been struck first by Gāṅgeya-deva Vikramāditya (1015-1040) of the
Kalachuri dynasty of Ḍahāla (Jabalpūr), bears the familiar goddess
(Lakshmī) on the obverse (Pl. VI, 10), with a slight deviation from
the Gupta device, in that the goddess has four instead of two arms;
on the reverse is an inscription giving the king’s name in old Nāgarī
(Fig. 5). Of the same type are the gold coins of six Chandel kings
of Mahoba (Pl. VI, 9) in Bundelkhand (circ. 1055-1280), of the Tomara
dynasty of Ajmer and Dehlī (978-1128), and of the Rāṭhor kings of
Kanauj (1080-1193). On the conquest of Kanauj, Muḥammad of G̱ẖ̱or
actually struck a few gold pieces in this style. On the gold of the
last three princes of the Kalachuri dynasty of Mahākośala, in the
Central Provinces (circ. 1060-1140), a rampant lion is substituted for
the seated goddess on the obverse.
The seated bull and horseman, the almost invariable devices on Rājpūt
copper and billon coins, were introduced by the Brahman kings of
Gandhāra, or Ohind (circ. 860-950), who first used them on silver; the
commonest of these are the issues of Spalapati-deva (Pl. VI, 12) and
Samanta-deva. The later coins of the dynasty, however, degenerate into
billon. The name of the king in Nāgarī appears along with the bull on
the reverse, and on the obverse of the Ohind coins is an inscription
hitherto undeciphered, but probably in some Turanian script. Bull
and Horseman coins, either copper or billon, were also struck by the
Tomara and Chauhan dynasties of Dehlī (Pl. VI, 11), the Rāṭhors of
Kanauj, Amṛitapāla Rāja of Budāyūn (Budāon), and the Rājpūt kings of
Narwar (1220-1260; Pl. VI, 13). Some of these last, in imitation of
the Muḥammadan invaders, placed dates in the Vikrama era[35] on their
coins. The Narwar horseman on later coins is particularly crude in
design. The Mahārājas of Kāngra continued to strike degenerate Bull
and Horseman coins, from 1315 down to 1625. Deviations from this
conventional type are rare. There is a unique coin of Śrī Kamāra, king
of Ohind, with a lion on the obverse and a peacock on the reverse,
while three kings of the same dynasty issued copper with an elephant
obverse and a lion reverse.
[35] The Vikrama era starts in 58 B.C. (See page 24 ante.)
A few copper coins of the Mahākośala kings and of Jayavarma of Mahoba
have a figure of Hanumān on the obverse and a Nāgarī legend on the
reverse; and a similar legend takes the place of the bull on some
copper pieces of Asalla-deva and Gaṇapati-deva of Narwar.
III. THE COINAGE OF KASHMĪR
The early history of Kashmīr as an independent kingdom is obscure;
trustworthy annals do not begin till its conquest by Mihiragula in
the sixth century. From that time down till about 1334, when it was
conquered by the Muhammadans, the country was ruled by four successive
dynasties. The earliest coins are considered to be those with the head
of a king on the obverse and a vase on the reverse, attributed from
the inscription _Khiṅgi_ to a certain Khiṅgila of the fifth century. A
number of coins of the eighth century, struck by princes of the Nāga
dynasty, are known: these are for the most part of very base gold, and
were imitated from the standing king and seated goddess issues of the
Little Yueh-chi, who, as we have seen, conquered Kashmīr about the year
475, and the name of the original leader of that tribe, _Kidāra_, still
appears written vertically under the king’s arm. The workmanship of
these degenerate pieces (Pl. VI, 16) is of the rudest, and the devices
would be quite unintelligible without a knowledge of their antecedents.
Some copper coins give the name Toramāṇa, but the identification of
this prince with the famous Hūṇa chief presents many difficulties.
With the accession of Śaṅkara Varma, the first of the Varma dynasty,
in A.D. 833, gold practically disappears. From the middle of the ninth
century nearly all the kings whose names are recorded in Kalhaṇa’s
great chronicle history of Kashmīr, the _Rājataraṅgiṇī_, of the twelfth
century, are represented by copper coins, but the uniform degradation
of the fabric deprives them of all interest. Among these are the coins
of two queens, Sugandhā and Diddā (980-1003) (Pl. VI, 15), the latter
chiefly remarkable for an adventurous career. The flourishing state
of sculpture and architecture during the eighth and ninth centuries,
and the natural artistic skill of the Kashmīrī people, suggest that
this extreme debasement of the coinage may at least be due as much
to a conservative dislike and suspicion of innovation as to a lack
of cunning in the engravers. Many parallels could be cited, the
classical example being the Attic tetradrachm, the archaic style of
which continued unchanged at Athens even during the brilliant age of
Pheidias.
KEY TO PLATE IX
1. Bengal: Sikandar Shāh. Fīrozābād. 783 A.H. AR. Wt. 166 grs.
Obv., in a circle, _Abu-l-mujāhid_ (“The father of the
warrior”) _Sikandar Shāh ibn-i-Ilyās Shāh sult̤ān_;
margin, names of the Four Companions in four circles,
between these, _Al imāmu-l-a’z̤amu-l-wās̤iqu bi
taʾīdu-r-rahman_; cf. Pl. VIII, 7, Obv.
Rev., _Yamīni Khalīfatu ’llah naṣīru amīru-l-mominīn
ghaus̤u-l-islām wa-l-muslimīn khallada mulkahu_, “The right
hand of the Khalif of God, the helper of the Commander of the
faithful, the succourer of Islām and the Muslims, may God
perpetuate the kingdom”; margin, in segments, _Ẓuriba
hazihi-s-sikkatu-l-mubārikatu fī baldati Fīrozābād_,
“Struck this blessed coin in the town of Fīrozābād,” followed
by date 783 in Arabic words.
2. Bahmanī: ’Alāu-d-dīn Aḥmad II. 850 A.H. AR. Wt. 169 grs.
Obv., _As-sult̤ānu-l-ḥalīm ul karīm ur ra’ufi ’alai ’abdu ’llah
al ghanīu-l-muhaimin_, “The sultan, the clement, the
bountiful, the kind to the servants of God, the rich, the
confiding one.”
Rev., in a square, _Abu-l-muz̤affar ’Alāu-d-dunyā wa-d-dīn Aḥmad
Shāh bin Aḥmad Shāh al wālīu-l-bahmanī_ (“The guardian, the
Bahmanī”).
3. Mālwā: G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh. 880 A.H. AV. Wt. 170 grs.
Obv., in double square, the outer one dotted, _Al wās̤iqu b ’il
mulki al multaji abu-l-fatḥ_ (“The truster in the kingdom,
and seeking refuge in the Father of victory”)
_Ghiyās̤ Shāh_. A star above.
Rev., _Bin Maḥmūd Shāh sult̤ānu-l-Khiljī khallada mulkahu 880_.
4. Jaunpūr: Maḥmūd Shāh. 846 (?) A.H. AV. Wt. 175 grs.
Obv., within circle, _Fī zamani-l-imāmi nā’ībi amīru-l-mominīn
abu-l-fatḥ khuldat khilāfatuhu_. Cf. Pl. VIII, 11. Margin,
as on Pl. VIII, 5, but date 846 (?) and mint name missing.
Rev., in tughra characters, _As-sult̤ān ṣaifu-d-dunyā wa-d-dīn
abu-l-mujāhid Maḥmūd bin Ibrāhīm_.
5. Id: Ḥusain Shāh. 864 A.H. Æ. Wt. 150 grs.
Obv., in circle, _Ḥusain Shāh_; margin, _bin Maḥmūd Shāh bin
Ibrāhīm Shāh sult̤ānī_.
Rev., _Nāʾībi amīru-l-mominīn 864_.
6. Gujarāt: Maḥmūd Shāh III 946 A.H. AV. Wt. 185 grs.
Obv., reading upwards, _Nāṣiru-d-dunyā wa-d-dīn abu-l-fatḥ al
wās̤iqu bi’ llahi-i-mannān_, “The helper of the world and
the faith, the father of victory, the truster in the
beneficent God.”
Rev., in double square, _Maḥmūd Shāh bin Lat̤īf Shāh sult̤ān_;
margin, _946_.
7. Id: Maḥmūd Shāh III. AR. Wt. 112 grs.
Obv. and Rev., legends as No. 6, but no date.
8. Ma’bar: ’Ādil Shāh. Æ.
Obv., _As-sult̤ān ’Ādil Shāh_.
Rev., _As-sult̤ānu-l-a’z̤am_.
9. Kashmīr: Zainu-l-’ābidīn. 842 A.H. AR. Wt. 96 grs.
Obv., _As-sult̤ānu-l-a’z̤am Zainu-l-’ābidīn 842_.
Rev., in lozenge, _Ẓuriba Kashmīr_; in marginal segments,
_Fī shuhūri sina is̤nai wa arb’aina wa s̤amanami’ata_, “In
the months of the year two and forty and eight hundred.”
10. Bījāpūr: ’Ādil Shāh. Lārīn. Wt. about 71 grs.
Obv., _’Ādil Shāh_, followed by 3 strokes.
Rev., blurred.
[Illustration: PLATE IX]
[Illustration: PLATE X]
KEY TO PLATE X
1. Bābur: Lāhor. 936 A.H. AR. Wt. 69 grs.
Obv., in circle, the Kalima; margin, in segments, portions of
_Abābakri-ṣ-ṣadīq_ (“A, the faithful witness”),
_’Umru-l-fārūq_ (“’U, the discriminator between right and
wrong”), _’Us̤mān abu Nūrain_ (“’U, the father of two
lights”), _’Alīu-l-murtaẓa_ (“’A, the pleasing to God”).
Rev., within flattened mihrābi area, _Z̤ahīru-d-dīn Muḥammad
Bābur bādshāh ghāzī, 936_; above, _As-sult̤ānu-l-a
’z̤amu-l-khāqānu-mukarram_, “The most great sultan, the
illustrious emperor”; below, _Ḵẖ̱allada allaha ta’ālā
mulkahu wa salt̤anatuhu_, “May God Most High perpetuate
the kingdom and sovereignity” and, _Ẓuriba Lāhor_
“Struck at Lāhor.”
2. Humāyūn. AV. Wt. 16 grs.
Obv., in circle, the Kalima.
Rev., _Ḵẖ̱allada allaha ta’ālā mulkahu ... Muḥammad Humāyūn
bādshāh ghāzī_.
3. Sher Shāh. Āgra. 948 A.H. AR. Wt. 175 grs.
Obv., in square, the Kalima; margins as on No. 1.
Rev., in square, _Sher Shāh sult̤ān khallada allāhu mulkahu 948_;
below in Nāgarī, _Śrī Sēr Sāhī_ (an attempt at Sher Shāh’s
name).
Margins, _As-sult̤ānu-l-’ādil abu-l-muz̤affar_ (“The just sultan,
the father of the victorious”) _Farīdu-d-dīn ẓuriba Āgrah_.
4. Islām Shāh. Qanauj. 95—. Æ. Wt. 315 grs.
Obv., _Fī ’ahdi-l-amīru-l-ḥāmiu-d-dīni wa-d-dayān 95_—“In the
time of the prince, the defender of the faith of the requiter.”
Double bar, with knot in centre, bisects the legend.
Rev., _Abu-l-muz̤affar Islām Shāh bin Sher Shāh sult̤ān ẓuriba
Shergarh ’urf Qanauj ḵẖ̱allada allāhu mulkahu_, “The
father of the victorious, Islām Shāh, son of Sher Shāh,
sultan, struck (this coin) at Shergarh alias Qanauj; may God
perpetuate the kingdom.”
5. Sikandar Sūr. 962. AR. Wt. 174 grs.
Rev., in square, _Sult̤ān Sikandar Shāh Isma’īl Sūr 962_.
Margins illegible.
6. Akbar. Āgra. 981. AV. Wt. 167 grs.
Obv., in dotted border, the Kalima. Names of the four companions
and _981_.
Rev., _Ḵẖ̱allada mulkahu Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar bādshāh
g̱ẖāzī ẓuriba baldatī Āgrah_ (“Struck at Āgra town”).
7. Id: Aḥmadābād. 982. AR. Wt. 175 grs.
Rev., within dotted square border, _Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar
bādshāh g̱ẖāzī, 982_; margins, portions of
_As-sult̤ānu-l-a’z̤am ḵẖ̱allada allāhu ta’ālā mulkahu wa
salt̤anatahu ẓuriba daru-s-salt̤anati Aḥmadābād_ (“Struck
at the seat of sovereignty Aḥmadābād”).
8. Id: Āgra.[36] 50 R. AR. Wt. 175 grs.
Obv., in octagonal border, on ornamental ground, _Allāhu Akbar
jalla jalālahu_, “God is great, eminent is his glory.”
Rev., within similar border, _Ẓarb-i-Āgrah Amardād Ilāhī 50_,
“Struck at Āgra, Amardād Ilāhī year 50.”
9. Id: Āgra. [50 R.] AV. Wt. 182 grs.
Obv., within dotted circle, on ornamented ground, a duck to right.
10. Id: Dehlī. 43 R. Æ. Wt. about 640 grs.
Obv., _Tankah-i-Akbar Shāhī ẓarb-i-Dehlī_, Tankah of Akbar Shāh.
“Struck at Dehlī.”
Rev., _Māh Dī Ilāhī 43_, “In the month Dī, Ilāhī year 43.”
11. Id: Mintless. 43 R. AR. Wt. 87 grs. Half rupee.
Obv., within square dotted border, legend as on No. 8.
Rev., _Shahrīwar Ilāhī 43_.
12. Jahāngīr. 1014-1 R. AR. (A “Ḵẖ̱air qabūl.”)
Obv., within dotted border _Jahāngīr bādshāh ghāzī 1_.
Rev., _Khair qabūl_, “May these alms be accepted.”
[36] With the introduction of the Ilāhī coins, Persian gradually
supersedes Arabic in the inscriptions.
The one break in this monotonous Kashmīrī series occurs in the reign
of the tyrant Harsha-deva (1089-1111), who struck both gold and silver
in imitation of the ornate gold of Koṅgudeśa (Pl. VII, 5) in Southern
India, with an elephant’s head on the obverse. The same king also
issued a gold coin with a Horseman obverse and the usual seated goddess
on the reverse (Pl. VI, 14).
The sparseness and inferiority of the coinage during the period under
discussion in this chapter must be attributed chiefly to the general
insecurity, caused by the continual quarrels between the numerous petty
states. This state of unrest, together with the previous impoverishment
of the country at the hands of the Huns, doubtless accounts for the
small output of gold. It must be remembered that mercantile contracts
in India have always been carried on largely by notes of hand
(_hundīs_), and in times of disturbance these could be conveyed more
safely from city to city than coined money.
The scarcity of silver was due to other causes. At this period
the world supply of this metal seems to have been drawn chiefly
from Central Asia. The rise of the Arab power and the consequent
disturbances in Central Asia interrupted trade between India and the
west by land and sea, and must have curtailed, if they did not cut
off completely, the import of silver from abroad. So we find the
Rājpūt states reduced to employing an alloy, billon, which was almost
certainly used by them as a substitute for the more precious metal.
It is a most illuminating fact that gold, formerly exported from India,
disappears from the coinage of Europe at about this very period, while
silver is reduced to the meagre Carolingian _penny_ standard.
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Kanarese Script: _Mayili kāsu ippatu_, “A token
of 20 cash.”]
VI
THE COINAGE OF SOUTHERN INDIA
The difficulties of the historian in tracing the fortunes of the
numerous clans and dynasties which contended for sovereignty in the
south from the third to the fourteenth century have been enumerated by
Vincent Smith in his _Oxford History of India_. Even fewer guide-posts
mark the path of the numismatist. Legends on South Indian coins are
rare, and, when they occur are short, giving simply the ruler’s name or
title: dates are rarer still. As in the early coinage of the Greeks,
the heraldic symbol or cognizance serves as the stamp of authority;
the fish, for example, is so used by the rulers of the Pāṇḍya dynasty.
But in India we receive little help from contemporary records; and the
habit, which conquerors indulged, of incorporating on their issues
the cognizance of vanquished peoples, and the extensive imitation of
popular and well-established types, worse confounds the confusion.
In assigning coins to dynasties reliance has often to be placed upon
the evidence of find-spots, a dubious method at all times, but least
unsatisfactory for copper, which seldom circulates freely beyond the
country of its origin. Again, the isolation of the southern peninsula
is as marked in the development of the coinage as in political history.
With the sole exception of the elephant pagodas of the Gajapati
dynasty, imitated by Harsha-deva of Kashmīr, there is no certain point
of contact between the south and the north after the third century
A.D. Finally, the currency of the south has not received that attention
from scholars which has been bestowed upon the more attractive money
of the north. A careful systematic study, in conjunction with the
historical material now available, would doubtless throw considerable
light upon it and its strikers.
Certain marked characteristics belong to the coinage of the south,
which, in spite of foreign irruptions and their consequent innovations,
have persisted until recent times. Gold and copper were the metals
used almost exclusively; of the former there were two denominations,
the _hūn_, _varāha_ or _pagoda_[37] (50 to 60 grains) and the _fanam_
(five to six grains), based respectively on the weights of two seeds,
the _kaḷanju_ or molucca bean (_Cæsalpina bonduc_) and the _mañjāḍi_
(_Adenathera pavonina_). Copper coins were called _kāsu_, of which
the English corruption is “cash,” while the rare silver coins appear
to have followed the gold standard. The Travancore silver _chakram_
was equal in weight to the fanam. The gold coin had an independent
development in the south, the various stages of which can be marked.
The earliest specimens—the age of these is doubtful—are spherules of
plain gold with a minute punch-mark on one side (Pl. VII, 1); these
developed into the cup-shaped “padma-ṭaṅkas,” stamped with punches,
first on one side only, later on both obverse and reverse. Finally came
die-struck pieces, of which the small thick Vijayanagar pagodas are
the typical southern form. Another characteristic is the preference
for tiny coins: this is particularly evident from about the sixteenth
century, when copper coins tend to decrease in size, and the fanam
acquired a wide popularity; the silver _tārēs_ of Kalikat (Calicut),
which weigh only one or two grains, must be the smallest known
currency.[38] A great variety of devices and symbols, usually Hindu
gods and emblems, also characterizes the copper currency, especially
after the fifteenth century, and this feature adds considerably to the
difficulty of correct attribution.
[37] _Hūn_ is a Hindustānī corruption of _honnu_, Kanarese for “a half
pagoda”; _Varāha_ is probably derived from the boar (varāha) cognizance
on Eastern Chālukya coins; the origin of _Pagoda_, as introduced by
the Portuguese and applied to this coin, is obscure, cf. Yule and
Burnell, _Hobson-Jobson_ under “Pagoda.” The considerable variation
in the weight of the pagodas issued by different dynasties may be due
simply to different local standards; but if the Chālukyas were, as is
supposed, of Gurjara origin, the heavier weights of their coins may
reflect the influence of the “dramma.”
[38] The silver _hemitetartemoria_ of Athens weighed 1·4 grs. each.
The dynasties of the south may be divided into two territorial
groups—(1) the kingdoms of the Deccan—all the country between the river
Narbadā on the north and the Kṛishṇa and Tuṅgabhadrā on the south—and
the Mysore country; Telugu was the language of the former, Kanarese
of the latter. (1) The remainder of the peninsula, where Tamil and
its cognate dialects were spoken, the country of the Pāṇḍyas, Cheras,
Choḷas, Pallavas and their successors.
During the first two centuries of the Christian era, and even after
the disappearance of the silver punch-marked coins, perhaps about A.D.
200, the currency of the south consisted chiefly of imported Roman
gold[39] along with the spherules already mentioned. A certain quantity
of Roman silver must also have been in circulation, while the small
copper pieces bearing Roman devices and legends—one of them seems to
give the name of the Emperor Theodosius (A.D. 393)—were probably local
productions.
Conjecture has assigned the earliest coins connected with a local
dynasty to the Kurumbas, a pastoral tribe inhabiting the present Arcot
district. One type of these copper pieces with a two-masted ship on the
obverse is evidently derived from the similar Andhra issues struck for
the Coromandel coast, and so may belong to the third century A.D.
[39] In 1850 a large number of Roman aurei, amounting, it is said, to
five coolie loads, were unearthed near Kannanur: most emperors between
Augustus, 29 B.C., and Antoninus Pius, A.D. 161, were represented. Cf.
“Remarks on Some Lately Discovered Roman Coins,” _J.A.S.B._, 1851, p.
371.
I. COINAGE OF THE DECCAN AND MYSORE
The first great dynasty to dominate Southern India was that of the
Chālukyas (a foreign tribe probably of Hūṇa-Gurjara origin), founded
by Pulakeśin I in the middle of the sixth century, whose capital
was at Bādāmī in the Bījāpūr district. His grandson, Pulakeśin II
(A.D. 608-642), became paramount in the Deccan, but the kingdom was
overthrown by the Rāshṭrakūṭas in 753. In 973, however, a Chālukya
prince, Tailapa, retrieved the fortunes of his family and founded
the Western Chālukya kingdom with its capital at Kalyāṇi, and this
lasted till 1190, after which the Chālukyas of the west, overthrown
by the Hoysaḷas, became petty chiefs. Meanwhile, in the middle of the
seventh century another dynasty, known as the Eastern Chālukyas, had
been established by Vishṇuvardhana, brother of the great Pulakeśin II,
in Kaliṅga with its capital at Veṅgī, which lasted till the eleventh
century, when it was overthrown by the Choḷas.
The earliest coin assignable to a Chālukya prince is a base silver
piece of Vishṇuvardhana (615-633), with a lion device and the
king’s title in Telugu, _Vishamasiddhi_, “Successful in scaling the
inaccessible places,” on the obverse, and a trident flanked by two
lamps on the reverse. Certain pagodas, fanams and copper coins, perhaps
of an earlier date, from the appearance on them of the boar, the
cognizance of the Chālukyas, have been conjectured to belong to that
dynasty. To the Eastern Chālukya princes, Śaktivarman (1000-1012) and
Rājarāja (1012-1062), belong large flat gold pieces, also depicting the
boar symbol, but with blank reverses (Pl. VII, 4).
The curious cup-shaped “padma-ṭaṅkas” (lotus ṭaṅkas) were possibly
first struck by the Kadambas (Pl. VII, 2), inhabiting Mysore and
Kanara. Similar coins, but with a lion or a temple in place of the
lotus and legends in old Kanarese, were struck by the Western Chālukya
kings, Jayasiṁha, Jagadekamalla and Trailokyamalla, of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. In 1913, 16,586 of these cup-shaped coins were
unearthed at Kodur in the Nellore district, and this find shows that
the type was subsequently adopted by the Telugu-Choḷa chiefs of the
Nellore district in the thirteenth century.
The Hoysaḷa chiefs, who rose to paramount power under Ballāḷa II on the
ruins of the Western Chālukya kingdom, had for their cognizance a maned
lion. Some heavy gold coins with old Kanarese legends, which bear that
emblem, have, therefore, with probability been assigned to them. On one
of these appears the interesting inscription, _Śrī Taḷakāḍa gonda_,
“He who took the glorious Taḷkāḍ,” the capital of the old Koṅgu-Chera
kingdom.
There are numerous South Indian coins belonging to the twelfth
century which afford no certain clue to their strikers. Among these
the following have been tentatively assigned to petty dynasties who
succeeded to the territories of the Chālukyas: to the Kākatīya or
Gaṇapati dynasty of Waraṅgal (1110-1323), pagodas, fanams and copper
coins with a couchant bull on the obverse and incomplete Nāgarī legends
on the reverse; to Someśvara, one of the Kalachuri chiefs of Kalyāṇa
(1162-1175), pagodas and fanams with the king’s titles in old Kanarese
on the reverse, and on the obverse a figure advancing to the right;
to the Yādavas of Devagiri (1187-1311), a pagoda and a silver coin,
bearing a kneeling figure of Garuḍa on the obverse.
There remain to be noticed the coins of three dynasties. The original
home of the Gajapatis, “Elephant-Lords,” was Koṅgudesa—Western Mysore
with the modern districts of Coimbatore and Salem. About the ninth
century these Chera kings fled before the invading Choḷas to Orissa,
and there were coined the famous “Elephant pagodas” (Pl. VII, 5) and
fanams, which Harsha-deva of Kashmīr (A.D. 1089) copied. The scroll
device on the reverse also appears on some of the anonymous boar
pagodas attributed to the Chālukyas. To Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga, a
member of that branch of the Gaṅga dynasty of Mysore who settled in
Kaliṅga (Orissa), and ruled there from the sixth to the eleventh
century, are assigned fanams with a recumbent bull, conch and crescent
on the obverse, and Telugu regnal dates on the reverse. The gold coins
of two of the later Kādamba chiefs of Goa, Vishṇu Chittadeva (circ.
1147) and Jayakeśin III (circ. 1187), are also known; these bear the
special Kādamba symbol, the lion passant on the obverse, and a Nāgarī
legend on the reverse. One interesting inscription of the latter runs
as follows: “The brave Jayakeśideva, the destroyer of the Mālavas who
obtained boons from the holy Saptakoṭīsa (_i.e._ Śiva).”
II. THE COINAGE OF TAMIL STATES
The Tamil states of the far south first became wealthy owing to their
foreign sea-borne trade. Tradition has defined with some exactness
the territories held by the three principal races in ancient times;
the Pāṇḍyas inhabited the modern Madura and Tinnevelly districts, the
Choḷas the Coromandel Coast (Choḷamandalam), and the Chera or Keraḷa
country comprised the district of Malabar together with the states of
Cochin and Travancore. Although their frontiers varied considerably at
different periods, this distribution is sufficiently accurate for a
study of their coin types.
Nevertheless history affords but few glimpses in early times of these
peoples: the Pallavas, as is evident from inscriptions, a native
pastoral tribe akin to the Kurumbas, were the first dominant power
in the extreme south. At first Buddhists, but later converted to
Brahmanical Hinduism, during the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries
they extended their territories from their capital, Kāñchī, the modern
Conjeeveram, until these included even Ceylon; but they suffered
considerably from wars with the Chālukyas, and were overwhelmed in the
ninth century by the Choḷas and Pāṇḍyas. It was under the patronage of
the Pallavas that South Indian architecture and sculpture began in the
sixth century. The earlier Pallava coins, a legacy from the Andhras,
are indistinguishable from those of the Kurumbas; later pagodas and
fanams bear the Pallava emblem, the maned lion, either on obverse or
reverse (Pl. VII, 8),[40] but the legends remain undeciphered.
[40] This attribution is somewhat doubtful.
The Pāṇḍyas had a chequered career: at first independent, then subject
to the Pallavas, they emerge in the ninth century to fall once more
during the eleventh and twelfth centuries under the domination of the
Choḷas. In the thirteenth century they were the leading Tamil state,
but gradually sank into local chieftains. The earliest Pāṇḍya coins
retain the ancient square form, but are die-struck, with an elephant on
the obverse and a blank reverse; later coins have a peculiar angular
device on the reverse; others of a still later period display a
diversity of emblems, such as wheels, scrolls and crosses. The Pāṇḍya
coins, assigned to a period from the seventh to the tenth century, are
gold and copper, and all bear the fish emblem adopted by the later
chiefs (Pl. VII, 3): the innovation is supposed to mark a change in
religion from Buddhism to Brahmanism. The fish appears sometimes
singly, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes, especially on the later
copper coins, in conjunction with other symbols, particularly the Choḷa
standing figure and the Chālukyan boar. The inscriptions on these,
such as _Soṇāḍu koṇḍāṇ_, “He who conquered the Choḷa country,” and
_Ellān-talaiy-āṇāṇ_, “He who is chief of the world,” are in Tamil, but
the intermingling of the symbols, evident marks of conquest, makes any
certain attribution difficult.
Madura, the later capital of the Pāṇḍyas, was captured by ’Alāu-d-dīn
in 1311, and an independent Muhammadan dynasty ruled there from 1334 to
1377, after which it was added to the Vijayanagar kingdom.
The Choḷas were supreme in Southern India from the accession of
Rājarāja the Great in 985 down to 1035, during which period they
extended their conquests to the Deccan and subdued Ceylon. After some
years of eclipse they rose again under Rājendra Kulottuṅga I (acc.
1074), who was related to the Eastern Chālukyas of Veṅgī. The Choḷa
power declined in the thirteenth century. The earlier coins of the
dynasty, before 985, are gold and silver pieces, portraying a tiger
seated under a canopy along with the Pāṇḍya fish (Pl. VII, 6); the
names inscribed on them have not been satisfactorily explained. The
later class of Choḷa coins, all copper, have a standing figure on the
obverse and a seated figure on the reverse, with the name _Rāja Rāja_
in Nāgarī. This type spread with the Choḷa power, and was slavishly
copied by the kings of Ceylon (1153-1296; cf. Pl. VII, 7), and its
influence is also noticeable on the earlier issues of the Nāyaka
princes of Madura and Tinnevelly.
Only one coin has been attributed to a Chera dynasty. A silver piece
in the British Museum, with Nāgarī legends on both sides (Pl. VII, 9),
belongs to the Keraḷa country, the extreme southern portion of the
western coast, and has been assigned to the eleventh or twelfth century.
III. COINAGE OF THE EMPIRE OF VIJAYANAGAR AND LATER DYNASTIES
The great mediæval kingdom of Vijayanagar was founded in 1336 by five
brothers as a bulwark against Muhammadan conquest, and continued to
flourish under three successive dynasties until the battle of Tālikota,
1565; the members of a fourth dynasty ruled as minor chiefs at
Chandragiri until the end of the seventeenth century.
The small, dumpy pagodas of Vijayanagar, with their half and quarter
divisions, set a fashion which has lasted to the present age. Coins,
gold or copper, of more than twelve rulers are known: on these appear
a number of devices, the commonest being the bull, the elephant,
various Hindu deities, and the fabulous “gaṇḍabheruṇḍa,” a double eagle
holding an elephant in each beak and claw. A pagoda on which a god and
goddess appear sitting side by side (Pl. VII, 12) was struck both by
Harihara I (acc. 1336) and Devarāya.[41] The great Kṛishṇarāya, during
whose reign (1509-1529) the Empire was at its height, was evidently a
devotee of Vishṇu. He struck the popular “Durgi pagoda,”[42] on which
that god is portrayed holding the discus and conch (Pl. VII, 11). Other
coins of the dynasty which acquired fame were the “Gandikata pagoda”
of Rāmarāya (d. 1565), which had a figure of Vishṇu standing under a
canopy on the obverse; and the “Veṅkaṭapati pagoda,” struck by one of
the Rājas, named Veṅkaṭa, of the fourth dynasty. On the obverse of
this coin Vishṇu is standing under an arch, and on the reverse is the
Nāgarī legend, _Śrī Veṅkaṭeśvarāya namaḥ_, “Adoration to the blessed
Veṅkaṭeśvara,” Veṅkaṭeśvara being the deity of Veṅkaṭādri, a sacred
hill near Chandragiri. The so-called “three swami pagoda,” introduced
by Tirumalarāya (circ. 1570), displays three figures, the central one
standing, the other two seated. These are said to be either Lakshmana
with Rāma and Sītā, or Veṅkaṭeśvara with his two wives. The legends on
Vijayanagar coins are either in Kanarese or Nāgarī; the latter is most
commonly used, by the later kings exclusively.
[41] The attributes of the two seated figures are sometimes those
of Śiva, sometimes those of Vishṇu; there is some difficulty in
distinguishing between the coins of Devarāya I (1406-1410) and Devarāya
II (1421-1445).
[42] Durgi = belonging to durga, a hill fort. The coins are said to
have been struck at Chitaldrūg.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Nāyaka princes of
Tanjore, Madura and Tinnevelly and the Setupatis of Rāmnāḍ, originally
in subjection to Vijayanagar, gradually assumed independence. The
earlier coinage of the Madura Nāyakas bears the names of the chiefs on
the reverse in Tamil, but their later coins were struck in the name
of Veṅkaṭa, the “pageant” sovereign of Vijayanagar. Somewhat later,
probably, begin series of copper coins both of Madura and Tinnevelly,
with the Telugu legend _Śrī Vīra_ on the reverse and a multitude of
varying devices on the obverse; these include the gods Hanumān and
Ganesh, human figures, the elephant, bull, lion, a star, the sun and
moon, etc. A similar copper series, with double or single crossed lines
on the reverse, are found in large quantities in Mysore. Yet another
series with the same reverse, also found in Mysore, bears on the
obverse the Kanarese numerals from 1 to 31.
KEY TO PLATE XI
1. Jahāngīr. Lāhor. 1016-3 R. AR. Wt. 209 grs.
Obv., within square border of dots, on ornamented ground, the
Kalima; below, _Ẓarb-i-Lāhor 1016_.
Rev., _Nūru-d-dīn Muḥammad Jahāngīr bādshāh g̱ẖāzī sana 3_.
2. Id: Āgra. 1028-14 R. AV. Wt. 168 grs.
Obv., ram skipping to left, surmounted by sun; below, _Sana
14 julūs_, “The 14th year from the accession.”
Rev., _Yāft dar Āgrah rū-i-zar zīwar_ || _Az Jahāngīr Shāh-i-Shāh
Akbar_, “The face of gold received ornament at Āgra from
Jahāngīr Shāh, Shāh Akbar [s. Son],” and _Sana 1028_.
3. Id: Ajmer. 1023-9 R. AV. Wt. 168 grs.
Obv., Jahāngīr nimbate seated cross-legged on throne, head to
left, goblet in right hand. Around, _Qazā bar sikka-i-zar
kard taṣwīr_ || _Shabih-i-ḥaẓrat-i-Shāh-i-Jahāngīr_,
“Destiny on coin of gold has drawn the portrait of His Majesty
Shāh Jahāngīr.”
Rev., sun in square compartment in centre; to left, _Ẓarb-i-Ajmer
1023_; to right, _Ya mu’īnu_,[43] “O thou fixed one,”
and _Sana 9_; above and below, _Ḥarūf-i-Jahāngīr u
Allāhu Akbar_ || _Zi rūz-i-azal dar’adad shud barābar_,
“The letters of Jahāngīr and ‘Allāhu Akbar’[44] are equal in
value from the beginning of time.”
4. Id: Āgra. 1019-5 R. AR. Wt. 220 grs.
Obv., within multifoil area on flowered ground, _Dar isfandārmuz
īn sikka-rā dar Āgrah zad bar zar_, “In Isfandārmuz placed
this stamp at Āgra on money,” with date _5_.
Rev., contained as obv., _Shāhanshāh-i-zamān Shāh Jahāngīr
ibn-i-Shāh Akbar_, “The emperor of the age, Shāh Jahāngīr,
son of Akbar Shāh”; with date _1019_.
5. Id: with Nūr Jahān. Sūrat. 1036. AV. Wt. 166 grs.
Obv., _Zi ḥukm-i-Shāh Jahāngīr yāft ṣad zīwar_.
Rev., _Ba nām-i-Nūr Jahān Bādshāh Begam zar_, “By order of Shāh
Jahāngīr, gained a hundred beauties gold, through the name of
Nūr Jahān Bādshāh Begam”; on obv., _Ẓarb-i-Sūrat_; rev., 1036.
6. Id: in the name Salīm. Aḥmadābād. 2 R. AR. Wt. 176 grs.
Obv., _Māliku-l-mulk sikka zad bar zar_.
Rev., _Shāh Sult̤ān Salīm Shāh Akbar_, “The Lord of the realm
placed (his) stamp on money, Shāh Sultan Salīm Akbar Shāh
[S. Son]”; on Obv., _Ẓarb-i-Aḥmadābād_; Rev., _Farwardīn
sana 2_.
7. Shāh Jahān I. Aḥmadābād 1038-2 R. AR. Wt. 168 grs.
Obv., the Kalima in 3 lines; below, _Ẓarb-i-Aḥmadābād sana 2 Ilāhī
māh Ḵẖ̱ūrdād_, “Struck at Aḥmadābād in the month Ḵẖ̱ūrdād
of the Ilāhī year 2.”
Rev., _Ṣāḥib-i-qirān s̤ānī Shihābu-d-dīn Shāh Jahān bādshāh g̱ẖāzī
sana 1038_.
8. Id: Shāhjahānābād. 1069. AV. Nis̤ār. Wt. 43 grs.
Obv., _Nis̤ār-i-Ṣāḥib-i-qirān s̤ānī_.
Rev., _Ẓarb-i-dāru-l-ḵẖ̱ilāfat Shāhjahānābād 1069_. “Nis̤ār
of the ‘second lord of the conjunction,’ struck at the
capital, Shāhjahānābād, 1069.”
9. Aurangzeb: Tatta. 1072-5 R. AV. Wt. 170 grs.
Obv., _Sikka zad dar jahān chū mihr-i-munīr_ || _Shāh Aurangzeb
’Ālamgīr, 1072_, “Struck money through the world like the
shining sun, Shāh Aurangzeb ’Ālamgīr.”
Rev., _Ẓarb-i-Tatta sana 5 julūs-i-maimanat-i-mānūs_, “Struck
at Tatta in the 5th year of the accession associated with
prosperity.”
10. Shāh Shujā’: Akbarnagar. 1068-aḥd. AR. Wt. 177 grs.
Obv., in square, the Kalima and 1068; in margins, names of Four
Companions with epithets.
Rev., in square, _Muḥammad Shāh Shujā’ bādshāh g̱ẖāzī_; right
margin, _Ṣāḥib-i-qirān s̤ānī_; lower margin, _Akbarnagar_.
11. Aurangzeb: Katak. 29 R. AR. Wt. about 44 grs.
Obv., in dotted square border, on ornamental ground. _Dirham
shar’ī._
Rev., _Ẓarb-i-Katak 29_.
[43] With a reference to Ḵẖ̱wāja Mu’īnu-d-dīn Chishtī, buried at
Ajmer, A.D. 1236.
[44] By the abjad system of reckoning, the letters of Jahāngīr and
Allāhu Akbar both make up 288.
_Note._ In the Plate the reverses and obverses of Nos. 4, 6, 8 and 10
have been, by a mistake, transposed.
[Illustration: PLATE XI]
[Illustration: PLATE XII]
KEY TO PLATE XII
1. Shāh ’Ālam II. Shāhjahānābād, 1219-47 R. AV. Wt. 166 grs.
Obv. and Rev., surrounded with circular border of roses,
shamrocks and thistles.
Obv., _Sikka-i-Ṣāḥib-i-qirānī zad zi tāʾīdu-llah_ ||
_Ḥāmī-i-dīn-i-Muhammad Shāh ’Ālam bādshāh_,
“Struck coin like the ‘lord of the conjunction,’ by the help
of God, Defender of the Faith, Muhammad Shāh ’Ālam, the king.”
Date _1219_; mint marks, umbrella and cinquefoil.
Rev., as. Pl. XI, No. 9, but date _47_; and mint,
Shāhjahānābād.
2. Aḥmad Shāh Durrānī. Shāhjahānābād, 1170-11 R. AR. Rupee.
Obv., _Ḥukm shud az qādir-i-bīchūn ba Aḥmad bādshāh_ || _Sikka
zan bar sīm u zar az auj-i-mākī tā-ba māh_, “There came an
order from the potent Incomparable One to Aḥmad the king to
strike coin on gold and silver from the zenith of Pisces to
the Moon. Date, _1170_.”
Rev., as on No. 1, but date _11_.
3. Awadh: Wājid ’Ali Shāh. 1264-2 R. AV. Muhar.
Obv., arms of Awadh; around, _Z̤arb-i-mulk-i-Āwadh baitu-s-salt̤anat
Lakhnau sana 2 julūs-i-maimanat-i-mānūs_, “Struck in the
country of Awadh, at the seat of sovereignty, Lakhnau,” etc.
Rev., _Sikka zad bar sīm u zar az faẓl-i-tāʾīdu-llah_, ||
_Z̤ill-i-haqq Wājid ’Alī Sult̤ān-i-’ālam bādshāh_.
“Struck coin in silver and gold through the grace of the
divine help, the shade of God, Wājid ’Alī, sultan of the
world, the king.” Date, _2_.
4. Ḥaidarābād. Sikandar Jāh, in the name of the Mug̱ẖal Akbar II.
AR. Rupee.
Obv., _Sikka-i-mubārak-i-bādshāh g̱ẖāzī Muḥammad Akbar Shāh,
1237_, “Blessed coin of the king,” etc.; with initial letter
“sīn” of Sikandar.
Rev., as on No. 1, but year _16_, and mint, _Farḵẖ̱anda bunyād
Ḥaidarābād_, “Ḥaidarābād, of fortunate foundation.”
5. Mysore. Tīpū. Seringapatam. Æ. 20 cash.
Obv., elephant with lowered trunk to right.
Rev., _Ẓarb-i-Pattan_.
6. Nepāl. Pṛithvī Nārāyaṇa. AR. Wt. 84 grs.
Obv., within circle a square; above sun and moon; below date,
_1691_ (Śaka = A.D. 1769); at sides ornaments. In square,
small circle containing trident in centre; around, in Nāgarī,
_Śrī Śrī Pṛithvī Nārāyaṇa Sāhadeva_.
Rev., within central circle, _Śrī Śrī Bhavānī_; marginal legend,
each character in an ornament, _Śrī Śrī Gorakhanātha_.
7. Indore. Jaśwant Rāo. AR. Rupee.
Obv., in Sanskrit, _Śrī Indraprasthasthito rājā chakravartī
bhumaṇḍale_, || _Tatprasādat kṛitā mudrā lokesmin vai
virājite_.
Rev., _Lakshmīkāntapadāmbhoja-bhramara-rājitachetasaḥ_,
|| _Yeśawantasya vikhyātā mudraisha pṛithivītale_,
“By permission of the king of Indraprastha (Dehlī), the
emperor of the world, this coin has been struck by the
renowned Yaśwant, whose heart is as the black bee on the
lotus-foot of Lakshmīkānt, to circulate through the earth,
Śaka 1728” (= A.D. 1806).
8. Assam: Gaurīnātha Siṁha. AR. Wt. 88·4 grs.
Obv., within dotted border in Bengālī script, _Śrī Śrī Gaurīnātha
Siṁha nṛipasya_, “(Coin) of the king, Śrī Gaurīnātha Siṁha.”
Rev., _Śrī Śrī Hara-Gaurīpadaparasya_, “Devoted to the feet of
Hara and Gaurī.”
9. East India Company. Murshidābād. In the name of Shāh ’Ālam II.
AR. Rupee (machine struck).
Obv., legend as No. 1, no date.
Rev., as No. 1, but mint, Murshidābād, and Company’s mark
cinquefoil.
10. Sikh. Amritsar S. 1837. AR. Rupee.
Obv., corrupt Persian couplet (?) _Sar teg̱ẖ-i-Nānak ... az
faẓl-i fatḥ-i-Gobind Singh Saḥā (?) Shāhān ṣāḥib sikka
zad bar sīm u zar (?)_.
Rev., _Ẓarb-i-Śrī Ambratsar julūs-i-taḵẖ̱t ākāl sambat 1835_,
“Struck at Amritsar, the accession to the eternal throne, in
the Sambat year, 1835.”
_Note_—In the Plate the obverse and reverse of No. 7 have been
transposed.
With the extinction of the Vijayanagar kingdom the number of petty
states minting their own money rapidly increased. For example, the
“Durgi pagoda” continued to be struck by the Nāyakas of Chitaldrūg from
1689 to 1779; the god and goddess type was continued by the Nāyakas
of Ikkeri (1559-1640), and later on at Bednūr (1640-1763). On the
conquest of the latter city in 1763 by Ḥaidar ’Alī, the type was for
a short time struck by him with addition of the initial letter of his
name “hē” on the reverse; but this initial soon became the obverse and
the year and date in Persian occupied the reverse. So also the East
India Company issued, from Madras, pagodas of the “three swami” type,
and both British and Dutch Companies struck “Veṅkaṭapati pagodas,”
but with a granulated reverse. These latter Company coins acquired
the name “Porto Novo pagodas,” from one of their places of issue. The
famous “Star pagoda” was of this type, with the addition of a star on
the reverse. Likewise the Niz̤āms of Ḥaidarābād and the Nawābs of the
Karnatic struck pagodas of various types; those of the Nawāb Ṣafdar
’Alī are of the “Porto Novo” type with an “’Ain” on the granulated
reverse.
At Bālāpūr, Qolār (Kolār), Gūtī and Ooscotta were struck fanams, and
at Imtiyāzgarh pagodas, with Persian inscriptions in the name of the
Mug̱ẖal Emperor, Muḥammad Shāh, and a small copper coinage in the name
of ’Ālamgīr II was in general circulation in parts of the peninsula;
small silver coins of a similar type are also known. An exceedingly
interesting fanam, as well as some copper pieces, bear the Nāgarī
legend, _Śrī Rāja Śiva_ on the obverse, and _Chhatrapati_, “Lord of
the umbrella,” on the reverse, and have with great probability been
assigned to the great Marāṭhā chief, Śivajī.
The coinage of the old Keraḷa country, the Malabar coast, was, in 1657,
the Portuguese Viaggio di Vincenzo Maria informs us, in the hands of
the rulers of four states, Kannanur, Kalikat, Cochin and Travancore. It
is distinguished from that of the rest of the peninsula by its large
employment of silver, the most remarkable among these silver coins
being the _tārēs_, said to have been struck in Kalikat, which have a
_śaṅkha_ shell on the obverse and a deity on the reverse, and weigh
only from one to two grains each. The same device, a _śaṅkha_ shell,
appears on the silver _puttans_ of Cochin, struck both by the Dutch
and the native rulers, and also on the old and modern silver _vellis_
of Travancore. Various gold fanams were current in Travancore before
the nineteenth century, the oldest, known as the _rasi_, also has a
_śaṅkha_ on the obverse, and is closely allied to the “Vīra rāya”
fanams of Kalikat. During the eighteenth century the copper coinage
of Travancore was known as the “Anantan kāsu”; on the obverse was a
five-headed cobra, and on the reverse the value of the coin, one, two,
four or eight “cash” written in Tamil. In the years 1764 and 1774 the
Moplah chief of Kannanur, ’Alī Rāja, struck double silver and gold
fanams with Persian inscriptions, recording his name and the date (Pl.
VII, 13). The Muhammadan coinage of Mysore is reserved for a later
chapter.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. The Kalima in ornate Arabic script on early
tankah of Altamsh.]
VII
THE MUHAMMADAN DYNASTIES OF DEHLĪ
In earlier chapters we have seen how the Greek, the Śaka, the Pahlava
and the Kushāṇa invader each in his turn modified the contemporary
coinage of Northern India; the conquests of Muḥammad G̱ẖ̱orī wrought a
revolution. The earlier Muhammadan rulers, it is true, conceded so much
to local sentiment as to reproduce for a time the Bull and Horseman
issues of the Rājpūt states, and even to inscribe their names and
titles thereon in the Nāgarī script, but there was no real or lasting
compromise; the coinage was too closely bound up with the history and
traditions of their religion. Their issues in India are the lineal
descendants of those of earlier Muhammadan dynasties in Central Asia
and elsewhere. The engraving of images was forbidden by the Faith; and
accordingly, with some notable exceptions, pictorial devices cease
to appear on Indian coins. Both obverse and reverse are henceforth
entirely devoted to the inscription, setting forth the king’s name
and titles as well as the date, in the Hijrī era,[45] and place of
striking or mint, now making their first appearance on Indian money.
The inscribing of the sovereign’s name on the coinage was invested
with special importance in the eyes of the Muslim world, for this
privilege, with the reading of his name in the _khutba_, or public
prayer, were actions implying the definite assumption of regal power.
Another new feature was the inclusion in the inscription of religious
formulæ, that most commonly used being the Kalima or profession of
faith. “_There is no god but Allah, and Muḥammad is the prophet of
Allah._” This practice, followed by many subsequent Muhammadan rulers
in India, owed its origin to the crusading zeal of the early Khalifs of
Syria in the eighth century.
[45] The first year of the Hijrī era begins on Friday, July 15th-16th,
A.D. 622.
The fabric of the coinage thus underwent a complete transformation;
not all at once, but gradually, as new districts were subjected to
Muhammadan conquerors, money of the new type spread over the whole
peninsula except the extreme south. Yet owing, no doubt, to its
sectarian association, it was not, until the great Mug̱ẖal currency
had attained a position of predominating importance, voluntarily
imitated by independent communities.
The Muhammadans were also destined to set up a new standard of weight,
but before this was accomplished nearly five centuries were to elapse.
The period under discussion in this chapter is chiefly interesting for
the reappearance of silver in the currency, due to the reopening of
commercial relations with Central Asia, and for the successive attempts
made by various sovereigns to restore order out of the chaos into which
the coinage had fallen during the preceding centuries. The gold and
silver currency was rectified by Altamsh and his successors with little
difficulty; but the employment of billon for their smaller money was
fatal; for the mixture of silver and copper in varying proportions,[46]
so liable to abuse, proved in the end unworkable as a circulating
medium; and not until Sher Shāh substituted pure copper for billon,
and adjusted this to his new standard silver coin, the rupee, was the
currency established on a firm basis.
[46] The variation is due to the fact that silver and copper only
form a homogeneous alloy when mixed in the ratio of 71·89 of the
former to 28·11 of the latter. This fact was certainly unknown at this
period. Cf. _J.A.S.B._, N.S., XXXV, p. 22, “The Currency of the Pathan
Sultans,” by H. R. Nevill.
The earliest Muhammadan kingdom in India was set up by ’Imādu-d-dīn
ibn Qāsim, in Sind, in A.D. 712, but as it exerted little influence on
its neighbours, the insignificant coins issued by its later governors
need not detain us. The gates of the North-West were first opened to
Muslim invaders by the expeditions of the great Sult̤ān Maḥmūd of
G̱ẖ̱aznī between the years A.D. 1001 and 1026. In 1021 the Panjāb was
annexed as a province of his dominions, and after 1051 Lāhor became
the capital of the later princes of his line, driven out of G̱ẖ̱aznī
by the chieftains of G̱ẖ̱or. Here they struck small billon coins with
an Arabic legend in the Cufic[47] script on the reverse, retaining the
Rājpūt bull on the obverse. Maḥmūd himself struck a remarkable silver
_tankah_[48] at Lāhor, called on the coin _Maḥmūdpūr_, with a reverse
inscription in Arabic, and his name and a translation of the Kalima in
Sanskrit on the obverse.
[47] Cufic is the earliest rectilineal form of Arabic script.
[48] Tankah is an Indian name applied to coins of various weights and
metals at different periods. For example, to the large silver and gold
pieces of Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd, and later to a special copper issue of
the Mug̱ẖal Akbar.
The last of these G̱ẖ̱aznavid princes of Lāhor, Ḵẖ̱usrū Malik, was
deposed in 1187 by Muḥammad bin Sām of G̱ẖ̱or (Mu’izzu-d-dīn of the
coins), who, after the final defeat of Pṛithvīrāj of Ajmer and his
Hindu allies at the second battle of Thāṇeśar or Tarāin, in 1192,
founded the first Muhammadan dynasty of Hindustān, which nevertheless
actually starts with his successor, Qut̤bu-d-dīn Aibak, the first
Sultan to fix his capital at Dehlī. In dealing with the coins of the
five successive dynasties who ruled in Dehlī from 1206 to 1526, it will
be convenient to recognize three periods: (1) from the accession of
Qut̤bu-d-dīn Aibak in 1206 to the death of G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Tug̱ẖlaq
in 1324, (2) the reign of Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq 1324-1351, (3) from
the accession of Fīroz Shāh III, 1351, to the death of Ibrāhīm Lodī,
1526°.
I. COINS OF THE EARLY SULTANS, A.D. 1206-1324
(A.H. 602-725)
The gold coins which Muḥammad bin Sām struck in imitation of the issues
of the Hindu kings of Kanauj with the goddess Lakshmī on the obverse,
are, except for the earliest gold issue of Ḥaidar ’Alī of Mysore,
without a parallel in Muhammadan history. He apparently struck no
silver for his Indian dominions; in fact, two centuries of invasion had
so impoverished the country that for forty years the currency consisted
almost entirely of copper and billon: hardly any gold appears to have
been struck, and silver coins of the earlier Sultans are scarce. The
third Sultan, Altamsh[49] (1211-1236), however, issued several types of
the silver tankah (Pl. VIII, 2), the earliest of which has a portrait
of the king on horseback on the obverse. The latest type bears witness
to the diploma of investiture he had received in 1228 from the Khalif
of Bag̱ẖdād, Al-Mustanṣir. The inscriptions run as follows: on the
obverse, “_In the reign of the Imām Al-Mustanṣir, the commander of the
faithful_,” and on the reverse, “_The mighty Sultan Shamsu-d-dunyā
wā-d-dīn, the father of the victorious, Sultan Altamsh_.” Both
legends are enclosed in circles, leaving circular margins in which
are inscribed the name of the mint and the date in Arabic. This type
was followed, sometimes with slight variations, by seven succeeding
Sultans, and although the Khalif actually died in 1242, the words, “_in
the reign of_,” were not dropped until the time of G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn
Balban (1266-1286). Gold, though minted by ’Alāu-d-dīn Mas’ūd,
Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd, Balban and Jalālu-d-dīn Ḵẖ̱iljī, was not common
until ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad (1296-1316) had enriched his treasury
by conquests in Southern India. These gold coins (Pl. VIII, 5) are
replicas of the silver in weight and design. Divisional pieces of the
silver tankah are extremely rare. ’Alāu-d-dīn, whose silver issues are
very plentiful, changed the design by dropping the name of the Khalif
from the obverse and substituting the self-laudatory titles, “_The
second Alexander, the right hand of the Khalifate_”; at the same time
he confined the marginal inscription to the obverse. His successor,
Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak, whose issues are in some respects the finest of
the whole series, employed the old Indian square shape[50] for some of
his gold, silver and billon. On his coins appear the even more arrogant
titles, “_The supreme head of Islām, the Khalif of the Lord of heaven
and earth_.” G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Tug̱ẖlaq was the first Indian sovereign
to use the title _G̱ẖ̱āzī_, “Champion of the faith.”
[49] The correct form of the Sultan’s name is Īltutmish; Altamsh is a
popular corruption.
[50] Two gold coins of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad are the earliest known
Muhammadan coins of this shape. Cf. _Num. Chron._, 1921, p. 345.
Among the greatest rarities of this period are the silver tankahs
of two _rois fainéants_, Shamsu-d-dīn Kaiyūmars̤, the infant son of
Mu’izzu-d-dīn Kaiqubād (1287-1290), and Shihābu-d-dīn ’Umar, brother of
Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak, who each occupied the throne only a few months.
Most of the coins struck in billon by these early Sultans, including
Muḥammad of G̱ẖ̱or, are practically uniform in size and weight (about
56 grains), the difference in value depending upon the proportions in
which the two metals were mixed in them. This question has not yet been
fully investigated, but it is probable that different denominations
were marked by different types.[51] The drawback to such a coinage
lay, as already noted, in the impossibility of obtaining uniformity
in coins of the same denomination, and in the consequent liability to
abuse. Numerous varieties were struck. The Indian type known as the
_Dehlīwāla_, with the humped bull and the sovereign’s name in Nāgarī
on the reverse, and the Dehlī Chauhan type of horseman on the obverse,
lasted till the reign of ’Alāu-d-dīn Mas’ūd (1241-1246); on some coins
of this class Altamsh’s name is associated with that of Chāhada-deva
of Narwar. Another type, with the Horseman obverse and the Sultan’s
name and titles in Arabic on the reverse (Pl. VII, 3), survived till
Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd’s reign,[52] when it was replaced by coins with a
similar reverse, but, on the obverse, the king’s name in Arabic appears
in a circle surrounded by his titles in Nāgarī (Pl. VIII, 4). On the
commonest type of the later Sultans Arabic legends are in parallel
lines on both obverse and reverse. The billon coins of ’Alāu-d-dīn
Muḥammad are the first to bear dates. Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak employs a
number of special types, including those square in shape (Pl. VIII,
6). Billon coins, mostly of the Bull and Horseman type, were also
struck by a number of foreigners who invaded Western India during the
thirteenth century. The most important of these was the fugitive king
of Ḵẖ̱wārizm Jalālu-d-dīn Mang-barnī.
[51] _J.A.S.B._, N.S., XXXV, p. 25.
[52] A single specimen is known of the reign of Balban.
The earliest copper of this period is small and insignificant. Some
coins, as well as a few billon pieces, bear the inscription _’adl_,
which may mean simply “legal,” _i.e._ currency (Pl. VIII, 1). Balban
introduced a type with the Sultan’s name and titles divided between
obverse and reverse. All copper is dateless.
The mint names inscribed on the coins of these Sultans sometimes afford
valuable historical evidence of the extent of their dominions. The
general term, _Bilādu-l-hind_, “The Cities of Hind,” is the first to
appear, on the silver of Altamsh. _Dehlī_ is found on the same king’s
billon and copper. _Lakhnautī_, the modern Gaur in Bengal, also occurs
for the first time during this reign; _Sult̤ānpūr_, a town on the Beas
in the Panjāb, on a silver tankah of Balban; _Dāru-l-islām_, “The seat
of Islam” (possibly an ecclesiastical mint in old Dehlī); and _Qila
Deogīr_ on the gold and silver of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad; while Qut̤bābād
is probably Qut̤bu-d-dīn Mubārak’s designation for Deogīr.
II. THE COINAGE OF MUḤAMMAD BIN TUG̱H̱LAQ,
A.D. 1325-1351 (A.H. 725-752)
Faḵẖ̱ru-d-dīn Jūna, on his coins simply Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq,
son and murderer of G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Tug̱ẖlaq, has not unjustly
been called by Thomas “The Prince of moneyers.” Not only do his coins
surpass those of his predecessors in execution and especially in
calligraphy,[53] but his large output of gold, the number of his issues
of all denominations, the interest of the inscriptions, reflecting
his character and activities, his experiments with the coinage,
particularly his forced currency, entitle him to a place among the
greatest moneyers of history. For his earliest gold and silver pieces
he retained the old 172·8 grain standard of his predecessors. His
first experiment was to add to these, in the first year of his reign,
gold _dīnars_ of 201·6 grains (Pl. VIII, 7) and silver _’adlīs_ of
144 grains weight, an innovation aimed apparently at adjusting the
coinage to the actual commercial value of the two metals, which had
changed with the influx of gold into Northern India after the Sultan’s
successful campaigns in the Deccan. But the experiment evidently did
not work; for after the seventh year of the reign these two new pieces
were discontinued.
[53] The fine calligraphy, however, caused the coin to be reduced in
size: all succeeding Sultans reproduced these small thick gold and
silver pieces, but not the fine script, with the unfortunate result
that the mint name which appears in the margin is frequently missing.
Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s gold and silver issues, like those of his
predecessors, are identical in type. One of the earliest and most
curious of these was struck both at Dehlī and Daulatābād (Deogīr), his
southern capital, in memory of his father. It bears the superscription
of G̱ẖ̱iyāṣu-d-dīn accompanied by the additional title, strange
considering the circumstances of his death, _Al Shahīd_, “The Martyr.”
His staunch orthodoxy is reflected on nearly all his coins, not only
in the reappearance of the Kalima, but in the assumption by the
monarch of such titles as “_The warrior in the cause of God_” and “_The
truster in the support of the Compassionate_,” while the names of the
four orthodox Khalifs, Abūbakr, ’Umr, ’Us̤mān and ’Alī now appear for
the first time on the coinage of India. The early gold and silver, of
which about half-a-dozen different types exist, were minted at Dehlī,
Lakhnautī, Satgāon, Sult̤ānpūr (Warangal), Dāru-l-islām, Tug̱ẖlaqpūr
(Tirhut), Daulatābād, and Mulk-i-Tilang. In A.H. 741 (1340) Muḥammad
sent an emissary to the Abbassid Khalif at Cairo for a diploma of
investiture, and in the meantime substituted the name of the Khalif
Al Mustakfī Billah for his own on the coinage; on the return of the
emissary, however, it was discovered that that Khalif had actually died
in A.H. 740, so during the latter years of the reign the name of his
successor, Al Ḥākim, appeared in its place (Pl. VIII, 8).
At least twenty-five varieties of Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s billon
coinage are known. From inscriptions on the Forced Currency, which
included tokens representing these billon pieces, we learn the names of
their various denominations. There appear to have been two scales of
division, one for use at Dehlī, and the other for Daulatābād and the
south. In the former the silver tankah was divided into forty-eight,
and in the latter into fifty _jaitils_. At Dehlī were current 2-, 6-,
8-, 12- and 16-_gānī_ pieces, equal respectively to ¹/₂₄, ⅛th, ⅙th, ¼th
and ⅓rd of a tankah. At Daulatābād there were halves (25 _gānī_) and
fifths (10 _gānī_). The assignation of their respective values to the
actual coins is, however, still a matter of difficulty.[54]
[54] I am indebted to Colonel H. R. Nevill and Mr. H. N. Wright for
this information.
Billon as well as pure copper coins of the later years of the reign
bear the names of the two Khalifs. About twelve types[55] of copper
money were minted, most of them small and without special interest.
Between the years A.H. 730-732 (1329-1332) the Sultan attempted to
substitute brass and copper tokens (Pl. VIII, 9) for the silver and
billon coinage. In order to secure the success of this experiment, he
caused such appeals as the following to be inscribed on them: “_He who
obeys the Sultan obeys the Compassionate_”; and it is significant that
one of these tokens bears an inscription in Nāgarī, the sole example of
the use of this script by the orthodox Sultan. These coins were struck
at seven different mints, including Dhār in Mālwā, but the scheme was
doomed because of the ease with which forgeries were fabricated; they
were made in thousands; the promulgation of the edict which accompanied
the issue “turned the house of every Hindu into a mint,” says a
contemporary historian. The Sultan thereupon withdrew the issue, and
redeemed genuine and false alike at his own cost.
[55] Excluding the Forced Currency types.
III. THE COINAGE OF DEHLĪ, FROM 1351 to 1526
(A.H. 752-932)
It has been suggested by historians that the disastrous consequences
of Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s experiment with the currency were in
part responsible for the disintegration of his wide empire. This is
improbable. His successor, Fīroz Shāh Tug̱ẖlaq, undoubtedly inherited
a full treasury, as the vast constructional works he undertook during
the thirty-seven peaceful years of his reign prove. But he was no
soldier; and the governors of the wealthy Deccan province probably
experienced little interference from the distant Court at Dehlī.
Daulatābād was an almost impregnable fort, and, doubtless, well stored
with munitions. Consequently truculent Viceroys had the sinews of
rebellion ready to their hand. The temptation was too great to be
resisted. Other governors followed the lead given in the Deccan; the
finest provinces rapidly fell away during the disturbed rule of Fīroz’s
successors and became independent kingdoms; so that in a few years
the dominions of the Dehlī kings were reduced to little more than the
district round the city.
Their discomfiture was completed when, in 1398, the plundering hosts
of Tīmūr swept down through Hindustān and occupied the capital. Under
these conditions the coinage naturally degenerated.
The gold of Fīroz Shāh is fairly common, and six types are known.
Following his predecessor’s example, he inscribed the name of the
Khalif Abū-l-’abbās and those of his two successors, Abū-l-fatḥ and
’Abdullah, on the obverse, and his own name on the reverse, accompanied
by such titles as “_The right hand of the commander of the faithful_”
(_i.e._ the Khalif) and “_The deputy of the commander_.” The latter
appears on either the copper or billon coins of nearly every subsequent
ruler until Bahlol Lodī’s reign. In A.H. 760 (1359) Fīroz associated
the name of his son, Fatḥ Ḵẖ̱ān, with his own on the coinage.
Gold coins of subsequent kings are exceedingly scarce (Pl. VIII, 11);
the shortage of silver is even more apparent. Only three silver pieces
of Fīroz have ever come to light, and a few are known of Muḥammad bin
Fīroz, Maḥmūd Shāh, Muḥammad bin Farīd, Mubārak Shāh II, and ’Ālam
Shāh. In the reign of Muḥammad bin Fīroz, the general title, “_The
Supreme head of Islām, the commander of the faithful_,” was substituted
for the actual name of the Khalif in the inscription. Fīroz Shāh,
following the example of Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq, issued in large
quantities a billon coin of about 144 grains weight (Pl. VIII, 10).
This was continued by his successors, but the proportion of silver was
apparently gradually reduced. The coinage of the later rulers, though
abounding in varieties, is almost confined to copper and billon pieces
(Pl. VIII, 12). During the whole period, with but two exceptions, one
mint name appears, Dehlī, accompanied by one or other of its honorific
titles, _Ḥaẓrat_ or _Dāru-l-Mulk_.
The long reign of Fīroz seems to have established his coinage as
a popular medium of exchange; and this probably accounts for the
prolonged series of his posthumous billon coins, extending over a
period of forty years. Some of these and of the posthumous issues of
his son, Muḥammad, and of his grandson, Maḥmūd, were struck by Daulat
Ḵẖ̱ān Lodī and Ḵẖ̱iẓr Ḵẖ̱ān, two sultans who refused to assume
the insignia of royalty. The coinage of the Lodī family, Bahlol,
Sikandar and Ibrāhīm, despite the difference in standard, bears a
close resemblance to that of the Sharqī kings of Jaunpūr. The first
and the last minted copper and billon, Sikandar and his son, Maḥmūd, a
pretender (1529), billon only. Bahlol (1450-1489) issued a large billon
coin, the _Bahlolī_, of about 145 grains (Pl. VIII, 13), and also a
copper piece of 140 grains, first introduced by Fīroz, with its half
and quarter divisions. The mint name, Dehlī, appears on both Bahlol’s
and Sikandar’s coins, but it is frequently missing from the latter,
as the dies were made larger than the coin discs. The name _Shahr
Jaunpūr_, “The City Jaunpūr,” occurs on the later copper of Bahlol
after his reduction of the Sharqī kingdom in 1476. On their billon
coins all three kings adopt the formula, “_Trusting in the merciful
one_,” but on his larger copper pieces Bahlol retained the old,
“_Deputy of the commander of the faithful_.” In 1526 Ibrāhīm Lodī was
overthrown and killed on the field of Pānīpat by the Mug̱ẖal Bābur;
and once again the fortunes of the Indian coinage changed under the
auspices of a foreign dynasty.
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Akbar’s Ilāhī formula. Cf. Pl. X, 8 (obverse).]
VIII
THE COINAGES OF THE MUHAMMADANS STATES
All the states whose coinages form the subject of this chapter, with
the exception of Kashmīr, were once provinces subject to the Dehlī
Sultans, and owed their independence to the ambition of powerful
viceroys, who took advantage at various times of the weakened control
of the central power. The earliest issues of each state were more or
less close imitations of the Dehlī currency, but local conditions soon
introduced modifications in standard and fabric, and in the course of a
century each had generally acquired a well-defined and characteristic
coinage of its own. Prosperity was usually short-lived; the inevitable
period of decay set in; and the coinage, confined at the close to
ill-struck copper pieces, illustrates history in striking fashion.
Bengal, however, was able to maintain its silver currency to the last.
I. THE COINAGE OF THE GOVERNORS AND SULTANS OF BENGAL
Bengal was brought into subjection to the Dehlī kingdom in 1202 (A.H.
599) by Baḵẖ̱tiyār Ḵẖ̱iljī, who became the first governor of the
province. Till 1338 it was nominally ruled from the capital, Lakhnautī,
by independent governors; but at least six of these issued coins in
their own names; and after 1310 there was a divided governorship,
the rulers of East and West Bengal each assuming the right to coin.
Independence was gained under one of the rulers of East Bengal,
Faḵẖ̱ru-d-dīn Mubārak; and, after a year of discord, Shamsu-d-dīn
Ilyās Shāh, in 1339, brought the whole province under his control.
From 1339-1358 Bengal was ruled by four dynasties, the house of Ilyās
Shāh, 1339-1406 and 1442-1481, the house of the Hindu rāja, Ganesh,
1406-1442, the Ḥabshī kings, 1486-1490, and the house of the greatest
of Bengal kings, ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain Shāh, 1493-1538. Bengal was then
ruled from Dehlī by Sher Shāh and his family; then independently from
1552-1563 by younger members of his dynasty; and finally by three
sovereigns of the Afg̱ẖān Kararānī family till 1576, when Bengal
became a province of Akbar’s empire.
Gold coins of Bengal are very scarce, and but one billon coin, of
the governor G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Bahādur (1310-1323) has been found.
The place of copper, it is supposed, was supplied by cowries. Silver
coins are known of twenty-nine out of the fifty-six governors and
sultans, but the silver is inferior in purity to the Dehlī coins; and
that of the Sultans is struck to a local standard of 166 grains: they
are frequently much disfigured by countermarks and chisel-cuts made
by the money-changers. The coins of the governors and Sultans until
Shamsu-d-dīn Ilyās Shāh show Dehlī influence in fabric and inscription,
and this influence reappears occasionally later. The issues of the
earlier governors bear the Kalima on the obverse; for this later
governors substitute the name of the last Khalif of Bag̱ẖdād, Al
Must’aṣim. The independent kings adopt various titles expressing their
loyalty to the head of Islām, such as “_The right hand of the Khalif,
aider of the commander of the faithful_” and “_Succourer of Islām and
the Muslims_.” The convert, Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad (1414-1431), revived
the use of the Kalima, which is continued with two exceptions by all
his successors till ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain Shāh’s reign. The most usual
personal titles are “_The mighty Sultan_,” or “_The strengthened by
the support of the Compassionate_,” but certain rulers adopt striking
formulæ of their own. Shamsu-d-dīn Ilyās Shāh, following ’Alāu-d-dīn
Muḥammad of Dehlī, called himself “_The Second Alexander_,” and
Sikandar Shāh (1358-89) was evidently imitating Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq
in “_The warrior in the cause of the Compassionate_.” One of the most
curious and interesting titles appears on a coin of ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain;
it runs as follows: “_The Sultan, conqueror over Kāmrū and Kamtah and
Jājnagar and Urīssah_,” alluding to his invasions of Assam and Orissa.
The coinage assumes a characteristic local type first under Sikandar
(Pl. IX, 1), son of the founder of the house of Ilyās, and henceforth
there is much variety of design, the Sultan’s name and titles being
enclosed in circles, squares, octagons, sometimes with multifoil
borders or scalloped edges; margins occur more usually on the reverse
only, sometimes on both sides, in which are inscribed the mint and
date in Arabic words. Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd I (1442-59), abolished the
marginal inscription; and from his reign the mint name and date, in
figures, appear at the bottom of the reverse area. For some of his
coins Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad used _Tughra_ characters, which, owing to
the up-strokes being elongated to the upper edge of the coin, give the
curious appearance of a row of organ-pipes. It must be admitted that
the majority of Bengal coins are entirely wanting in artistic form,
the depths being reached perhaps in some of the issues of Ruknu-d-dīn
Bārbak (1459-74); the calligraphy is of the poorest quality; and the
Bengali die-cutters frequently reveal their ignorance of Arabic. The
fine broad coins of the two Afg̱ẖān dynasties display an immediate
improvement; they are identical in form and inscription with the Dehlī
Sūrī coinage, and are struck to Sher Shāh’s new silver standard. A
special feature of the Bengal coinage is the number of its mints;
twenty-one names have been read on the coins, but it is uncertain
whether some of these are not temporary names for better-known towns.
The most important mints were Lakhnautī, Fīrozābād, Satgāon, Fatḥābād,
Ḥusainābād, Naṣratābād and Tānda. Also certain coins are inscribed
as struck at “The Mint” and “The Treasury.” The broad silver coins of
the little state of Jayantāpura, though struck two centuries after the
independent coinage of Bengal had disappeared, seem to be a late echo
of the popularity it achieved, particularly in the neighbouring hill
states.
II. COINAGE OF THE SULTANS OF KASHMĪR[56]
Kashmīr was conquered about the year 1346 by a Swāt, named Shāh Mirzā,
who, assuming the title of Shamsu-d-dīn, founded the first Muhammadan
dynasty. The most famous of succeeding rulers were the iconoclast
Sikandar (1393-1416) and the tolerant Zainu-l-’ābidīn (1420-70). From
1541 to 1551 Kashmīr was ruled by a Mug̱ẖal governor, Mirzā Ḥaidar,
nominally in subjection to the Emperor Humāyūn. In 1561 the Chak
dynasty succeeded and ruled till 1589, when Akbar annexed Kashmīr to
the empire. Coins are known of sixteen sultans; there are also coins
in the local style struck in the names of the Mug̱ẖals, Akbar and
Humāyūn and of Islām Shāh Sūrī. The gold of these Sultans is extremely
scarce, only about twelve specimens being known, including coins of
Muḥammad Shāh, Ibrāhīm and Yūsuf. They are all of one type: on the
obverse is the Kalima enclosed in a circle, the reverse inscription
giving the king’s name and titles and the mint, _Kashmīr_, is divided
into two parts by a double band running across the face of the coin.
Most characteristic of the Kashmīr kingdom are the square silver
pieces (Pl. IX, 9); size, shape and design suggest that the model for
these may perhaps be found in the recent billon issues of Qut̤bu-d-dīn
Mubārak of Dehlī (1316-20). Following conservative Kashmīr traditions,
the design once fixed remained unchanged till the downfall of the
kingdom. The obverse gives the ruler’s name accompanied invariably
by the title, “_The most mighty Sultan_,” and the date in figures;
on the reverse appears the legend “_Struck in Kashmīr_,” in a square
border set diagonally to the sides of the coin, and in the margins the
date (usually illegible) in Arabic words. Dates on Kashmīr coins are
frequently unreliable, they seem at times to have become conventional
along with the style.
[56] The chronology of these Sultans, long in doubt, has now been
fixed. Cf. _J.R.A.S._, 1918, p. 451.
The copper coinage follows in general the standard of the preceding
Hindu kings and is very poorly executed. In the commonest type the
obverse inscription is divided by a bar with a knot in the middle.
Zainu-l-’ābidīn struck several kinds of copper; a large crude square
type, also found in brass, may belong to an earlier reign. Of Ḥasan
Shāh a lead coin has been recorded.
III. COINAGE OF THE SULTANS OF MADURA OR MA’BAR
When Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq formed the most southern districts of his
kingdom into a province, which he named Ma’bar, he seems to have struck
certain types of billon and copper specially for circulation there. In
1334 (A.H. 735) the governor, Jalālu-d-dīn Aḥsan Shāh, proclaimed his
independence, and he and his eight successors minted coins of copper
and billon[57] in their capital, Madura, until they were subjugated
by the king of Vijayanagar in 1371 (A.H. 773). The last coin of
’Alāu-d-dīn Sikandar Shāh is, however, dated A.H. 779. These coins,
which are of little interest, follow two types of the Dehlī coinage,
one of which has the sultan’s name in a circle with the date in Arabic
in the surrounding margin; the other has the title, “_The most mighty
Sultan_,” on the reverse, and the sultan’s name on the obverse (Pl. IX,
8). The calligraphy is of a southern type and this alone distinguishes
these coins from Dehlī issues.
[57] Two gold coins are also known of these kings; one is in the
British Museum.
IV. COINAGES OF THE DECCAN
The Deccan province, after a series of revolts extending over four
years, became finally severed from the Dehlī kingdom in 1347 (A.H.
748). Certain copper coins in the Dehlī style, bearing this date, have
been attributed to Nāṣiru-d-dīn Isma’īl, the first officer to assume
the state of royalty. But in the same year he was superseded by Sultan
’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥasan Bahmanī, founder of a dynasty which ruled till 1518,
when its bloodstained annals as an independent kingdom closed, though
nominal sovereigns supported the pretensions of royalty until 1525. The
earliest known coin of the dynasty bears the date A.H. 757. The kingdom
at the height of its power, under Muḥammad Shāh III (1463-82), extended
from the province of Berār in the north to the confines of Mysore
in the south, and east to west from sea to sea. Until the time of
’Alāu-d-dīn Aḥmad Shāh II (1435-57) the capital was Kulbarga, renamed
by the founder of the kingdom Aḥsanābād; Aḥmad Shāh moved the seat of
government to Bīdar, which henceforth, under the name Muḥammadābād,
appears on the coinage in place of Aḥsanābād. No other mint names have
been found.
The gold and silver coins are fine broad pieces modelled on the tankahs
of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Dehlī. In the earlier reigns there is some
variety in arrangement and design: the legend on the silver of Aḥmad
Shāh I (1422-35), for example, is enclosed in an oval border, and
there is a gold piece of the versatile bigot, Fīroz Shāh (1399-1422),
corresponding in weight and fabric to Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s heavy
issue. But by the reign of Aḥmad Shāh II a single design had been
adopted for both metals (Pl. IX, 2); on the obverse are inscribed
various titles which changed with each ruler; on the reverse appear
the king’s name and further titles within a square area; while in the
margins are the mint name and date. The legend on the gold coins of
Maḥmūd Shāh (1482-1518), perhaps the commonest of the rare Bahmanī gold
issues, may serve as an example: obverse, “_Trusting in the Merciful
one, the strong, the rich, the mighty Sultan_”; reverse, “_The father
of battles, Maḥmūd Shāh, the guardian, the Bahmanī_.” Small silver
pieces were struck by the first two rulers, weighing from 15 to 26
grains.
The earliest copper follows closely that of Dehlī, but innovations
soon made their appearance, and after the reign of Aḥmad Shāh II coins
are found varying from 225 to 27 grains in weight; the copper standard
seems to have been continually changed. Some of the titles appearing on
the silver are usually to be found on the same ruler’s copper, but many
varieties in type are found, especially among the issues of Muḥammad
I (1358-73) and the later kings; of Maḥmūd Shāh seven varieties are
known, and seven are also known of Kalīmullah, the last nominal king,
struck probably by Amīr Barīd of Bīdar.
During the reign of Maḥmūd Shāh the great kingdom of the Deccan was
split up into five separate sultanates. Copper coins of at least three
of the Niz̤ām Shāhs of Aḥmadnagar (1490-1637) are known: they appear to
have had mints at Aḥmadnagar, Daulatābād and Burhānābād. The coinage
of Gulkanda is confined to a single copper type, struck by the two
last Qut̤b Shāhī kings, ’Abdullah and Abu-l-Ḥasan; the reverse bears
the pathetic legend, “_It has come to an end well and auspiciously_.”
The copper coins of the last five ’Ādil Shāhī rulers of Bījāpūr are
rather ornate, but usually very ill-struck; small gold pieces bearing
a couplet are known of Muḥammad (1627-56). Most interesting of all
Bījāpūr coins are the curious silver _Lārīns_,[58] or fish-hook money,
issued by ’Alī II, 1656-72 (Pl. IX, 10), which became one of the
standard currencies among traders in the Indian Ocean towards the end
of the sixteenth century. The coinage of the sultans of the Maldive
Islands, whereon they styled themselves “_Sultans of land and sea_,”
was based on that of Bījāpūr and survived till the present century.
[58] The name is derived from the port Lār, on the Persian Gulf, where
this coin was first struck.
V. THE COINAGE OF THE KINGDOM OF JAUNPŪR
The Eastern (Sharqī) kingdom of Jaunpūr, which also included the modern
districts of Gorakhpūr, Tirhut and Bihār, owed its independence to the
power and influence of the eunuch, Ḵẖ̱wāja-i-Jahān, who was appointed
“Lord of the East,” by Māḥmūd Shāh II of Dehlī, in 1394. The coinage
does not, however, begin till the reign of the third ruler Ibrāhīm
(1400-40), and he and his three successors continued to mint till 1476,
when Bahlol Lodī overthrew Ḥusain Shāh and re-annexed the province to
Dehlī. The bulk of the Jaunpūr coinage consists of billon and copper
pieces modelled on those of Dehlī. The commonest billon type has on
the obverse the legend, “_The Khalif, the commander of the faithful,
may his khalifate be perpetuated_”; the reverse gives the king’s name,
and on coins of the last three rulers their pedigree as well. Maḥmūd
Shāh (1440-58) introduced a type of copper with his name in a circle
on the obverse, which was continued by his successors (Pl. IX, 5).
Billon coins were struck in the name of Ḥusain Shāh for thirty years
after his expulsion from Jaunpūr in 1476 (A.H. 881); and a few copper
coins of about the same period bear the name of a rebel, Bārbak Shāh,
a brother of Bahlol Lodī. The silver coins of Ibrāhīm and Maḥmūd are
extremely scarce. Gold was struck by Ibrāhīm, Maḥmūd and Ḥusain. With
the exception of one coin of Ibrāhīm, which follows the ordinary Dehlī
model, all three rulers, evidently influenced by their neighbour,
Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Bengal, used the “organ-pipe” arrangement
of _tughra_ characters for the inscription of the reverse (Pl. IX,
4). The obverse inscription employed by Ibrāhīm and Maḥmūd, “_In the
time of the supreme head of Islām, the deputy of the commander of the
faithful_,” and the more correct form used by Ḥusain, which omits the
words “_the deputy of_,” again show Dehlī influence. Only one coin, a
large copper piece of Maḥmūd in the British Museum, is known to bear
the mint name Jaunpūr.
VI. THE COINAGE OF MĀLWĀ
Mālwā, annexed to the Dehlī kingdom by ’Alāu-d-dīn in 1305, became
an independent state under the governor, Dilāwar Ḵẖ̱ān G̱ẖ̱orī,
in 1401. His son, Hoshang Shāh (1405-32), initiated the coinage. The
province, after incessant wars with Gujarāt, attained its widest
limits under the usurping minister, Maḥmūd I, Ḵẖ̱iljī (1436-68).
But after a civil war, in 1510, a steady decline set in, and in 1530
Bahādur Shāh of Gujarāt captured Mandū, the capital, and the country
remained a province of his kingdom for four years. It was next captured
by Humāyūn. Then, from 1536 to 1542, it was ruled by a Gujarātī
governor, Qādir Shāh. Finally it was governed by Bāz Bahādur, a son of
Sher Shāh’s nominee, Shujā’ Ḵẖ̱ān, from 1554 to 1560, when it was
conquered by Akbar and made a Mug̱ẖal province.
The first seven Sultans struck coins in all three metals. Maḥmūd I
introduced billon, and this was employed also by his three successors.
The characteristic feature of the Mālwā coinage is the square shape,
also introduced by Maḥmūd I; he and his successor, G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh
(1469-1500), struck both square and round coins, but from the reign
of Nāṣir Shāh (1500-10) the square form is used exclusively. The gold
pieces of the first two kings follow the Dehlī style. Maḥmūd, however,
introduced a new type for the reverse, dividing the face of the coin
into two equal parts by lengthening the tail of the last letter “yē” in
his name, Ḵẖ̱iljī. G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh used a similar band on both faces
(Pl. IX, 3), and this is a mark of almost all succeeding coins in both
shapes.
The square base silver pieces of Maḥmūd II (1510-30), with the
inscriptions enclosed in circular and octagonal borders, are the finest
coins of the series. The rebel, Muḥammad II (1515), the Gujarāt king,
Bahādur, the governor, Qādir Shāh, and Bāz Bahādur struck copper coins
only. The mint name, Shādīābād (Mandū), “City of Delight,” is inscribed
only on coins of the earlier kings.
With the reign of G̱ẖ̱īyās̤ Shāh a series of ornaments begins to
appear on the coinage; the purpose of these is uncertain, but they
seem to be connected with the dates of issue. Like the Bahmanīs, the
Mālwā sovereigns use elaborate honorific titles for their inscriptions.
Perhaps the most striking is one of Maḥmūd I, who calls himself “_The
mighty sovereign, the victorious, the exalted in the Faith and in the
world, the second Alexander, the right hand of the Khalifate, the
defender of the commander of the faithful_.”
The tradition of the square shape lingered on in Mālwā and the
neighbourhood long after the extinction of its independence; curious
crude little pieces were struck, probably for a century at least, with
a mixture of Mug̱ẖal, Mālwā and Gujarātī inscriptions. Square copper
Mug̱ẖal coins were struck at Ujjain up to the time of Shāh Jahān I,
and Saṅgrāma Siṁha of Mewar (1527-32) also modelled his copper coinage
on that of Mālwā.
VII. THE COINAGE OF GUJARĀT
Z̤afar Ḵẖ̱ān, viceroy of the wealthy province of Gujarāt, threw off
his allegiance to Sultan Maḥmūd II of Dehlī in 1403, but the first
coins known are those of his grandson, Aḥmad I (1411-43), founder of
the great city of Aḥmadābād in A.H. 813 and of Aḥmadnagar in A.H. 829.
The dynasty reached the culmination of its power in the long reign of
Maḥmūd I (1458-1511), who instituted two new mints at Muṣt̤afaʾābād
in Girnār, and Muḥammadābād (Champānīr). He was succeeded by eight
princes, of whom Bahādur Shāh (1526-36) alone showed any ruling
ability. The province was added to the Mug̱ẖal Empire in 1572, but the
deposed king, Muz̤affar III, regained his throne for five months eleven
years later, and actually struck silver and copper of the Mug̱ẖal
Aḥmadābād type. Coins of nine of the fifteen kings are known.
The coinage, chiefly of silver and copper, at its commencement followed
the Dehlī style, but soon developed a characteristic fabric of its own,
though the late Dehlī copper type, with the Sultan’s name in a square
area, never entirely lost its influence in Gujarāt (Pl. IX, 6, 7). The
standard seems, however, always to have been a local one, based on the
weight of the Gujarātī rati of 1·85 grains. Gold pieces, except those
of Maḥmūd III (1553-61; Pl. IX, 6), are rare. Maḥmūd I also employed
billon, and his coins are the finest of the series. His silver coins,
on which the legends are enclosed in hexagons, scolloped circles and
other figures, are very ornate. The inscriptions are for the most
part simple; on the obverse appear various titles and formulæ, on the
reverse the king’s name, sometimes accompanied by his _laqab_ (kingly
title). The earliest Persian couplet to appear on an Indian coin is
found on one of Maḥmūd II, dated A.H. 850. It runs as follows:
_So long as the sphere of the seat of the mint,_
_the orb of the sun and moon remains,_
_May the coin of Maḥmūd Shāh the Sultan,_
_the aid of the Faith, remain._
Perhaps the most interesting of the Gujarāt series are the so-called
“pedigree coins,” each struck probably for some special occasion,
on which the striker traces his descent back to the founder of the
dynasty. Only four silver coins of this class have been recorded, two
of Aḥmad I, one dated A.H. 828 and the earliest known Gujarāt coin, one
of Maḥmūd I, and one of Bahādur Shāh.
Although the majority of coins were probably struck at Aḥmadābād,
the name actually occurs only on the copper of Muz̤affar III of the
years A.H. 977 and 978. _Aḥmadnagar_, accompanied by an uncertain
epithet, is inscribed on the copper of Aḥmad I from A.H. 829 onwards.
_Shahr-i-a’z̤am_ (“_the very great city_”) _Muṣt̤afaʾābād_ appears on
silver and copper, and _Shahr-i-mukarram_ (“_the illustrious city_”)
_Muḥammadābād_ on all the finest silver pieces of Maḥmūd I.
Muz̤affar III granted permission to the Jām of Navānagar to coin
“korīs” (_i.e._ copper pieces), provided that they should bear the
king’s name. Such korīs, bearing debased Gujarāt legends, were also
coined for several centuries by the chiefs of Jūnagaḍh and Purbandar.
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Mint marks on Mug̱ẖal coins.]
IX
COINS OF THE SŪRĪS AND THE MUG̱H̱ALS
After the battle of Pānīpat, in 1526, Z̤ahīru-d-dīn Bābur’s rule in
Hindustān, until his death in 1530, was in reality nothing more than
a military occupation, and Humāyūn’s position during the first ten
years of his reign was even more unstable. The silver _shāhruḵẖ̱īs_,
or _dirhams_, of Bābur and Humāyūn, which follow in every respect the
Central Asian coinage of the Timurid princes, were obviously struck
only as occasion warranted, chiefly at Āgra, Lāhor (Pl. X, 1), Dehlī
and Kābul. The interesting camp mint Urdū first appears on a coin of
Bābur, an eloquent testimony to the nature of his sovereignty. On the
obverse of these coins is the Kalima, enclosed in areas of various
shapes with the names of the four orthodox Khalifs or Companions and
their attributes[59] in the margins; on the reverse the king’s name,
also in an area, in the margins various titles, together with the mint
and generally the date. Humāyūn’s gold are tiny mintless pieces, also
of Timurid fabric (Pl. X, 2); a very few of these and some silver
dirhams are known of Akbar’s first three years. Bābur and Humāyūn’s
copper coins are anonymous, and were minted chiefly at Āgra, Dehlī,
Lāhor and Jaunpūr.
_Note._—The mint marks in Fig. 9 occur on coins of
the following: (1) Humāyūn, Āgra, etc. (2) Shāh ’Ālam
II, Shāhjahānābād. (3) Aurangzeb, Multān. (4) East India
Company, copied from Mug̱ẖal coins. (5) Nawābs of Awadh,
Muḥammadābād-Banāras. (6) The Kitār—“dagger,” Shāh ’Ālam
II, Narwar, etc. (7) Ankūs—“Elephant-goad”—Marāṭhā coins.
[59] For inscription, cf. Key to Plate X, 1.
The Afg̱ẖān Sher Shāh Sūrī, who after the expulsion of Humāyūn in 1540
(A.H. 947), controlled the destinies of Hindustān for five years, was a
ruler of great constructive and administrative ability, and the reform
of the coinage, though completed by Akbar, was in a great measure due
to his genius. His innovations lay chiefly in two directions: first,
the introduction of a new standard of 178 grains for silver, and one
of about 330 grains for copper, with its half, quarter, eighth and
sixteenth parts. These two new coins were subsequently known as the
_rupee_ and the _dām_. The second innovation was a large increase in
the number of the mints: at least twenty-three mint names appear on the
Sūrī coins. The object of this extension, probably suggested to Sher
Shāh during his residence in Bihār by the Bengal coinage, was no doubt
to provide an ocular proof of sovereignty to his subjects in the most
distant provinces of his dominions; but the system needed a firm and
resolute hand at the centre of government.
Genuine gold coins of the Sūrī kings are exceedingly rare. The rupees
are fine broad pieces (Pl. X, 3); the obverse follows the style of
Humāyūn’s silver; the reverse bears the Sultan’s name in a square
or circular area, along with the date and the legend, “_May God
perpetuate his kingdom_,” and below the area the Sultan’s name in
Hindī, often very faulty.[60] In the margin are inscribed the special
titles of the Sultan, and sometimes the mint. On a large number of
both silver and copper coins no mint name occurs; some of these seem
to be really mintless, the dies of others were too large for the coin
discs. On a very common mintless silver type of Islām Shāh (1545-53)
and Muḥammad ’Ādil Shāh, the Arabic figures 477 occur in the margin:
the significance of these is unknown. A few silver coins of Sher
Shāh and Islām Shāh are square; half-rupees are extremely scarce; a
one-sixteenth piece is also known.
[60] If the area is circular the Hindī inscription appears in the
margin.
The majority of copper coins bear on the obverse the inscription,
“_In the time of the commander of the faithful, the protector of the
religion of the Requiter_”; on the reverse appear the Sultan’s name
and titles and the mint (Pl. X, 4). These inscriptions are sometimes
contained within square areas.
During the years 1552-56 two nephews and a cousin of Sher Shāh,
Muḥammad ’Ādil, Sikandar and Ibrāhīm, contested the throne and struck
both copper and silver. Coins of the two last are very rare (Pl. X, 5).
The few coins of Humāyūn’s short second reign of six months which
have survived show that he had adopted both the new silver and copper
standards of the Sūrīs, though he also coined dirhams. With Akbar’s
accession, in 1556 (A.H. 963), begins the Mug̱ẖal coinage proper.
The special value placed by Muhammadan sovereigns on the privilege of
coining has already been noticed; Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq used his money
as a means of imposing decrees upon his subjects; in a more refined
way Akbar used the coinage to propagate his new “Divine” faith; and
both he and the cultured Jahāngīr detected in it a ready medium for
the expression of their artistic tastes. The importance attached to
the currency by the Mug̱ẖal emperors is further revealed in the full
accounts given by Akbar’s minister, Abū-l-faẓl, in the _Āīn-i-Akbarī_,
and by Jahāngīr in his memoirs, the _Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī_, and by the
number of references to the subject by historians throughout the whole
period. From these and from a study of the coins themselves scholars
have collected a mass of materials, from which it is now possible to
give a fairly comprehensive account of the Mug̱ẖal coinage. Abū-l-faẓl
and Jahāngīr mention a large number of gold and silver coins, varying
from 2,000 tolahs[61] to a few grains in weight. Gigantic pieces
are also mentioned by Manucci, Hawkins and others; and Manucci says
that they were not current, but that the king (Shāh Jahān) “gave
them as presents to the ladies.” They were also at times presented
to ambassadors, and appear, indeed, to have been merely used as a
convenient form in which to store treasure. Naturally very few of
these pieces have survived, but a silver coin of Aurangzeb is reported
to be in Dresden, which weighs five and a half English pounds, and
there is a cast of a 200-muhar piece of Shāh Jahān in the British
Museum. In the British Museum also are two five-muhar pieces, one of
Akbar and one of Jahāngīr, both struck in the Āgra mint. A few double
rupees of later emperors, and a ten-rupee piece of Shāh ’Ālam II of
Sūrat mint are also known. The standard gold coin of the Mug̱ẖals was
the muhar, of about 170 to 175 grains, the equivalent of nine rupees
in Abū-l-faẓl’s time. With the exception of a few of Akbar’s square
issues, which are slightly heavier, and Jahāngīr’s experiment during
his first five years, when it was raised first by one-fifth to 204
grains, and then by one-fourth to 212·5 grains, the muhar maintains a
wonderful consistency of weight and purity to the end of the dynasty.
Half and quarter muhars are known of several emperors, and a very few
smaller pieces.
[61] The tolah in Jahāngīr’s time weighed probably between 185 and 187
grains.
The rupee, adopted from Sher Shāh’s currency, is the most famous of
all Mug̱ẖal coins. The name occurs only once, on a rupee of Āgra
minted in Akbar’s forty-seventh year.[62] This, too, maintained its
standard of weight, 178 grains, practically unimpaired, although during
the reigns of the later emperors some rupees minted by their officers
are deficient in purity. The “heavy” rupees of Jahāngīr’s early years
exceed the normal weight, like the muhars, first by one-fifth and then
by one-fourth; and a few slightly heavier than the normal standard
were also minted by Shāh ’Ālam Bahādur and Farruḵẖ̱siyar in Bihār
and Bengal. Halves, quarters, eighths and sixteenths were also struck.
In Sūrat the half rupee appears to have been in special demand, and in
Akbar’s reign the half rupee was also the principal coin issuing from
Kābul.
[62] Cf. _Lahore Museum Catalogue_ (Mug̱ẖal Emperors), Pl. XXI, iv.
In addition to the regular gold and silver currency, special small
pieces were occasionally struck for largesse; the commonest of these
is the _nis̤ār_, struck in silver by Jahāngīr, Shāh Jahān, Aurangzeb,
Jahāndār and Farruḵẖ̱siyar. Gold _nis̤ārs_ are very scarce (Pl. XI,
8). Jahāngīr also issued similar pieces, which he called _Nūr afshān_,
“Light scattering,” and _Ḵẖ̱air qabūl_, “May these alms be accepted”
(Pl. X, 12). In 1679 Aurangzeb reimposed the _jizyā_, or poll-tax, on
infidels, and, in order to facilitate payment in the orthodox manner,
struck the _dirham shar’ī_, “legal dirham,” usually square in shape,
in a number of mints (Pl. XI, 11). Farruḵẖ̱siyar again issued these
dirhams, when he re-instituted the poll-tax in the sixth year of his
reign. The Mug̱ẖal copper coinage is based on Sher Shāh’s dām of 320
to 330 grains, which, with its half, quarter and eighth, continued to
be struck until the fifth year of Aurangzeb, 1663 (A.H. 1073). The
name _dām_ occurs only once on a half dām of Akbar of Srīnagar mint.
The usual term employed is _Fulūs_, “copper money,” or _Sikkah fulūs_,
“stamped copper money.” The names _niṣfī_ (half dām), _damrā_ (=
quarter dām), _damrī_ (= one eighth of a dām) also appear on Akbar’s
copper. Jahāngīr inscribes the word _rawānī_ on some of his full and
half dāms, and _rā’īj_ on his smaller pieces, both meaning simply
“current.”
Between the forty-fifth and fiftieth years of Akbar’s reign were
issued, from eight mints, the full _tankah_ of 644 grains weight, with
its half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth parts, though the large full
_tankahs_ are known only from Āgra, Dehlī (Pl. X, 10), Aḥmadābād and
Bairāt. About the same time Akbar introduced the decimal standard, with
his series of four, two and one _tānkī_ pieces, struck at Aḥmadābād,
Āgra, Kābul and Lāhor; ten _tānkīs_ being equal to one full _tankah_.
After the fifth year of Aurangzeb, owing to a rise in the price of
copper, the weight of the dām or fulūs was diminished to 220 grains,
and this became the accepted standard for southern mints. A few coins
of the heavier weight were struck subsequently by Aurangzeb, Shāh ’Ālam
Bahādur and Farruḵẖ̱siyar. The copper coinage of later emperors until
Shāh ’Ālam II’s reign is not plentiful.
The early gold and silver coins of Akbar bear the same inscriptions,
though there is some variation in their arrangement. Following Bābur’s
and the Sūrī coinage, the Kalima and Companions’ names appear on the
obverse, and on the reverse at the beginning of the reign the following
inscription, “_Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar, Emperor, champion of the
Faith, the mighty Sultan, the illustrious Emperor, may God most High
perpetuate the kingdom and the sovereignty_.” Portions of this are
dropped later on (Pl. X, 7). Squares, circles, lozenges and other
geometrical figures are employed to contain the more important parts of
the legend, and the mint name always, and the date generally, appear on
the reverse. About the year A.H. 985 the shape of the coins was changed
from round to square, but the same inscriptions were retained.
In the year 1579 (A.H. 987) Akbar promulgated his Infallibility Decree,
and in the same year appear quarter rupees from the Fatḥpūr, Lāhor,
and Aḥmadābād mints, with a new inscription, _Allāhu Akbar_, upon the
obverse. From the thirty-second year an expanded form of this, _Allāhu
Akbar jalla jalālahu_, “God is great, eminent is His glory,” appears
on a mintless series of square silver coins (Pl. X, 11); and from the
thirty-sixth year it is used regularly on the square issues of the
chief mints; later on there is a reversion to the round form. These
Ilāhī coins are all dated in Akbar’s new regnal era,[63] and also bear
the names of the Persian solar months. The custom of issuing coins
monthly continues with a few breaks in Jahāngīr’s reign until the early
years of Shāh Jahān. The round Ilāhī coins, especially those of Āgra,
Patna and Lāhor, display considerable artistic merit: certain issues
of Āgra of the fiftieth year (Pl. X, 8) are probably the finest of
the whole Mug̱ẖal series. Among the many remarkable coins struck by
Akbar may be mentioned the muhar, shaped like a double _Mihrāb_, which
appeared from the Āgra mint in A.H. 981 (Pl. X, 6); the Ilāhī muhar
of the fiftieth year, from the same mint, engraved with the figure of
a duck (Pl. X, 9); the beautiful “hawk” muhar, struck at Asīrgarh in
commemoration of its conquest in the forty-fifth year; and the mintless
half-muhar, bearing the figures of Sītā and Rāma. Specimens of all
these are in the British Museum. Akbar also initiated the practice
of inscribing verse-couplets on the coinage, into which was worked
the emperor’s name or the mint, or both. These were used by him for
only three mints, but with Jahāngīr the practice became general, and
forty-seven different couplets of his reign have been recorded (cf. Key
to Pl. XI, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
[63] This starts from 28th Rab’ī II, A.H. 963, the first year of his
reign, but was not instituted until the 29th year. The earliest known
coin dated in this era is of the year 31.
Jahāngīr’s gold and silver coins in their endless variety are the most
ornate of all Mug̱ẖal coins. Starting with a Kalima obverse, and his
name and titles on the reverse (Pl. X, 1), he soon adopted a couplet
legend; sometimes the couplet is peculiar to a single mint, sometimes
it serves a group of mints. During the fifth and sixth years at Āgra
(Pl. XI, 4) and Lāhor the couplets were for a short time changed every
month. In the latter year followed a new type, with the emperor’s name
on the obverse, and the month, date and mint name on the reverse; this
remains till the end of the reign on the coins of some mints, but at
Āgra, Lāhor, Qandahār and one or two others there is a return to the
couplet inscription. For varying periods between the years A.H. 1033
and 1037 the name of the Empress Nūr Jahān is associated in a couplet
with that of Jahāngīr on the issues of Āgra, Aḥmadābād, Akbarnagar,
Ilahābād, Patna, Sūrat (Pl. XI, 5) and Lāhor.
Jahāngīr seemed to find unceasing zest in novelty: from the sixth to
the thirteenth year of his reign the rupees of Āgra were minted in the
square and round shape in alternate months. In the thirteenth year
appeared the famous Zodiac coins, on which pictorial representations of
the signs of the zodiac were substituted for the names of the months
on the reverse; this type was retained on the Āgra muhars (Pl. XI,
2) till the seventeenth year. The Zodiac rupees of Aḥmadābād lasted
only for five months during the thirteenth year, while single gold and
silver coins of this type are known of Lāhor, Fatḥpūr, Ajmer, Urdū and
Kashmīr, of various years up to A.H. 1036. The so-called Bacchanalian
and portrait muhars have been recently shown to be insignia presented
by Jahāngīr to his courtiers.[64] Some of these are mintless, others
were struck at Ajmer. On the obverse of the latter the emperor appears
seated cross-legged with a wine-cup in his hand (Pl. XI, 3). The most
remarkable of the former, struck in the first year of the reign,
bears a full-faced portrait of Akbar on the obverse along with the
inscription _Allāhu Akbar_, while a representation of the sun covers
the whole of the reverse.[65]
[64] By S. H. Hodivala, _Historical Studies in Mug̱ẖal Numismatics_,
Memoir No. II, Numismatic Society of India, Calcutta, 1923.
[65] In the possession of Mr. H. Nelson Wright, I.C.S.
The beauty and rarity of the couplet rupees of Ajmer, Urdū dar
rāh-i-Dakan, “The camp on the road to the Deccan” and Mandū, as well as
a muhar from the last mint, all struck between the ninth and eleventh
years, entitle them to special mention.
Few of Shāh Jahān’s coins (A.H. 1037-1068) are of any artistic merit.
The earliest form of his gold and silver has the Kalima and mint name
on the obverse, and the emperor’s name and titles on the reverse
(Pl. XI, 7). From the second to the fifth year solar months[66] were
inscribed. From the fifth year to the end of the reign, except at the
Tatta mint, where the earlier style was retained, Shāh Jahān employed
a type, endless in its varieties, in which squares, circles, lozenges
form borders enclosing the Kalima on the obverse and the king’s name
on the reverse, while the names of the companions and their epithets
are restored and appear in the obverse margins. The square border form
of this type was also employed by Aurangzeb’s rivals, Murād Baḵẖ̱sh
and Shāh Shujā’ (Pl. XI, 10); and Aurangzeb uses square areas to
contain the inscriptions on his earlier rupees of Akbarābād (Āgra) and
Jūnagarh, and for a few coins of three other mints.
[66] Jahāngīr used a solar era of his own, starting from the date of
his accession. The years on Shāh Jahān’s coins are lunar. Cf. Hodivala,
_loc-cit._
The coins of Aurangzeb (A.H. 1068-1119) and his successors are, with a
very few exceptions, monotonous in the extreme. On the obverse there is
either a couplet containing the king’s name, or this inscription: “_The
blessed coin of ..._,” followed by the name of the particular king. On
the reverse appears, with very occasional variations, the following:
“_Struck at_ (the mint name), _in the year_ (the regnal year) _of the
accession associated with prosperity_.” The Hijrī date is placed on
the obverse (Pl. XI, 9). Pretentious personal titles are of infrequent
occurrence on Mug̱ẖal coins. Nevertheless the pretenders, Murād
Baḵẖ̱sh and Shāh Shujā’, style themselves “The Second Alexander.”
Shāh Jahān I, in imitation of his ancestor Tīmūr, who adopted the
title “_Lord of the fortunate conjunction_” (_i.e._ of the planets),
called himself “_The Second Lord of the fortunate conjunction_”
(_Ṣāḥib-i-qirān s̤āni_), and eight later emperors followed his example.
Jahāngīr used his princely name, Salīm, on his earliest coins from the
Aḥmadābād mint (Pl. XI, 6) and on a half rupee of Kābul. On a unique
rupee of Lāhor of Shāh Jahān I’s first year occurs the name Ḵẖ̱urram,
while Shāh ’Ālam Bahādur placed his pre-regnal name, Mu’az̤z̤am, on
coins of his first year of Tatta and Murshidābād.
Coins of special interest and rarity are those struck by pretenders,
particularly the rupees of Dāwar Baḵẖ̱sh of Lāhor, A.H. 1037; the
coins of Shāh Shujā’, 1068, of Bīdār Baḵẖ̱t, 1202-1203; and the rupee
of Jahāngīrnagar, struck by ’Az̤īmu-sh-shān in 1124. Commemorative
coins of the later emperors are exceedingly scarce, but the entry of
Lord Lake into Dehlī, in 1803, was marked on Shāh ’Ālam II’s gold and
silver coinage of the forty-seventh year by enclosing the obverse and
reverse inscriptions within a wreath of roses, shamrocks and thistles
(Pl. XII, 1).
The fabric of the copper coins is, in general, rude. With the exception
of the _tankah_ and _tānkī_ issues, Akbar’s copper is anonymous; his
Ilāhī copper, like the silver and gold, was dated in the new era and
issued monthly. Some of Jahāngīr’s _rawānīs_, especially those from the
Ajmer mint, have pretensions to artistic merit. His copper issues, and
those of succeeding kings, with the exception of a few of Aurangzeb’s,
have the king’s name and Hijrī date on the obverse, and the mint and
regnal year on the reverse.
The Hijrī era was used by all emperors and usually the regnal year
is inscribed as well. For his later coins, as has been seen, Akbar
employed his own Divine era, Jahāngīr and Shāh Jahān I each used
similar eras, but as they place the Hijrī year along with the solar
months on the coins the calculation of the dates is somewhat confusing.
From the time of Humāyūn onwards there appear on the coinage certain
marks, sometimes called mint marks, but perhaps more properly
designated ornaments (Fig. 9). The purpose of these on the earlier
issues is uncertain, later on they sometimes marked a change of
mint-masters; others appear to have been really distinctive mint marks,
such as that which appears on Shāh ’Ālam II’s Shāhjahānābād coins (Fig.
9, 2).
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Mug̱ẖal coinage is the
diversity of mints. Akbar’s known mints number seventy-six. Copper
was struck in fifty-nine of these, the largest number recorded for
any emperor, while silver is known from thirty-nine. Aurangzeb’s
conquests in the Deccan raised the silver mints to seventy, whereas
copper mints sank to twenty-four. For the remaining emperors mints for
silver average about fifty until Shāh ’Ālam II’s time, when they rose
to eighty; most of these, however, were not under the imperial control.
The puppet emperors, Akbar II and Bahādur Shāh, were permitted by
the East India Company to strike coins only in their prison capital,
Shāhjahānābād (Dehlī). Altogether over two hundred mints are known, but
the greater number of these were worked only occasionally; Āgra, Dehlī,
Lāhor and Aḥmadābād alone struck coin continuously throughout the
Mug̱ẖal period. To these may be added Sūrat, Ilahābād, Jahāngīrnagar
and Akbarnagar from Jahāngīr’s reign, Multān from the reign of Shāh
Jahān I, and Itāwah and Barelī from the time of Aurangzeb. The practice
of giving mint towns honorific titles, in vogue with the early
Muhammadan Sultans, was continued by the Mug̱ẖals. Thus Dehlī became,
on being selected as the capital of the empire by Shāh Jahān I, in
A.H. 1048, Shāhjahānābād. In the second year of the same reign Āgra
became Akbarābād. Epithets were also frequently attached to mint names.
_Dāru-l-ḵẖ̱ilāfat_, “Seat of the Khalifate,” _i.e._ “Chief City,”
is applied to twelve mints besides Āgra. _Dāru-s-salt̤anat_ is the
usual epithet of Lāhor. After A.H. 1100 Aurangzeb changed the name of
Aurangābād to Ḵẖ̱ujista Bunyād, “The fortunate foundation,” the only
example of a Mug̱ẖal mint called solely by an honorific epithet.
The great system of coinage illustrated by the Mug̱ẖals, operating
over such wide territories, needed, as has been already remarked,
a master hand to control it. With the dissensions which set in
between rival claimants to the empire on the death of Aurangzeb,
the controlling power was weakened. The diminished resources of his
treasury compelled the emperor, Farruḵẖ̱siyar (1713-19), to adopt the
fatal policy of farming out the mints. This gave the _coup de grâce_ to
the system, and henceforward, as will be related in the next chapter,
we find independent, and semi-independent chiefs and states striking
coins of their own, but always with the nominal consent of the Dehlī
emperor, and almost invariably in his name. Not until the nineteenth
century was the Mug̱ẖal style and superscription generally discarded.
Such was the coinage of the “Great Mogul.” Considering it as the
output of a single dynasty, which maintained the high standard and
purity of its gold and silver for three hundred years, considering
also its variety, the number of its mints, the artistic merit of some
of its series, the influence it exerted on contemporary and subsequent
coinages, and the importance of its standard coin—the rupee—in the
commerce of to-day, the Mug̱ẖal currency surely deserves to rank as
one of the great coinages of the world.
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Gurmukhī Script on Sikh Coins, _Akāl Sahāī:
Gūrū Nānakjī_.]
X
CONTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS OF THE MUG̱H̱ALS
The neighbours of the Mug̱ẖals were not slow to recognise the
excellence of their coinage. Even the Ṣafavī monarchs of Persia adopted
certain features. The East Himalayan kingdom of Assam, hitherto content
to use the money of Bengal, and the adjacent state of Nepāl, which had
been without a coinage of its own for centuries, within fifty years of
Akbar’s accession had both adopted the rupee standard.
I. THE COINAGE OF ASSAM
Assam, the ancient Kāmarūpa, had been invaded in A.D. 1228 by the
Ahoms, a Shan tribe from Burma, and finally subdued by them in 1540.
By the year 1695 the royal family had definitely submitted to the
influence of Hinduism. Previously to that date, expression of devotion
to the tribal gods Lengdun, Tara and Phatuceng appears on the coins;
but the reverse legend of a coin of the Śaka year 1618 (A.D. 1696),
struck by Rudra Siṁha (1696-1714), runs as follows, in the highly
poetical Sanskrit so characteristic of later coin inscriptions: “_A bee
on the nectar of the feet of Hara and Gaurī_.”
The earliest known coins are those of Śuklenmung (1539-52), but these
and the money of his five successors were struck for ceremonial
occasions, probably only at the coronation, and a yearly coinage was
first introduced by Rudra Siṁha. The strange octagonal shape of the
coins is said to owe its origin to a statement in the Yoginī Tantra,
which describes the Ahom country as octagonal. Some of the smaller
coins are, however, round, and Śiva Siṁha, for a coin of Ś. 1651, on
which he associates the name of his queen, Pramatheśvarī, and Rājeśvara
Siṁha (1751-69), for two of his issues, adopted the square Mug̱ẖal
form and style with legends in Persian. The inscription on Śiva Siṁha’s
coin is as follows: obverse, _Shāh Sheo Singh struck coin like the sun
by order of the Queen Pramatheśvarī Shāh_; reverse, _In the year 15 of
the fortunate reign at Gargāon 1651_ (= A.D. 1729). For this the Nūr
Jahān issues of Jahāngīr were obviously the model. With the exception
of a coin of Śuklenmung, all gold and silver was struck to a standard
of 176 grains, and half, quarter, eighth, and even smaller fractional
pieces were minted. Several of the earlier Rājas employed the Ahom
language and script for their legends. Sanskrit written in the Bengālī
script was first used by Sūrya Nārāyaṇa (1611-49). Pramatta Siṁha
(1744-51) and Rājeśvara Siṁha employ both, but after the coronation
ceremony of the latter Sanskrit alone was used. The legends, in either
script, are always enclosed within dotted borders (Pl. XII, 8). These
thick rather solid-looking coins, though attractive on account of
their unusual shape, are entirely without artistic merit; they ceased
to be minted with the cession of Assam to the British in 1826. The
broad round silver pieces of the Rājas of Jaintia (Jayantāpura) of the
eighteenth century, and the coins of the hill state of Tipperah, bear
legends similar in style to the Assamese Sanskrit coins, and, like
them, are dated in the Śaka era. The dates on the Ahom coins of Assam
are reckoned according to the Jovian cycle of sixty years.
II. THE COINAGE OF NEPĀL
The considerable Mug̱ẖal influence exhibited in the modern coinage
of the Malla kings of Nepāl, which starts in the early years of the
seventeenth century, finds expression in the native legend which
affirms that Rāja Mahendra Malla of Kāthmāṇḍū obtained permission to
strike coins from the Dehlī court. Although none of his money has come
to light, the story gains some support from the weight of the early
Nepalese coins, which are all half-rupees, and from a curious piece
of Pratāpa Malla of Kāthmāṇḍū (1639-89), which imitates Jahāngīr’s
coinage, even adopting fragments of the Persian inscription.
Nepāl, at the period when the coinage begins, was divided into three
principalities—Bhatgāon, Pātan and Kāthmāṇḍū—and probably the earliest
coins are those of Lakshmī Narasiṁha, ruler of the last province
(1595-1639), although the earliest date, Nepālī Samvat[67] 751 (=
A.D. 1631) appears on one struck by Siddhi Narasiṁha of Pātan. The
usual design on the coins, perhaps suggested by some of Akbar’s and
Jahāngīr’s issues, consists of elaborate geometrically ornamented
borders surrounding a central square or circle, with the legends in
Nāgarī fitted into the spaces left in the design. On the obverse appear
the king’s name, titles and date, and on the reverse various symbols,
accompanied sometimes by a further title or a religious formula. The
Gūrkhas, who conquered the country in 1768, continued the style of
their predecessors (Pl. XII, 6), but occasionally struck full as well
as the ordinary half-rupees. Gīrvāṇ Yuddha Vikrama (1799-1816) and
Surendra Vikrama (1847-81) also struck gold similar in design to the
silver coins, and the latter introduced a copper currency.
[67] This Nepālī or Newār era was introduced by Rāja Rāghavadeva in
A.D. 879.
The silver _tang-ka_ (tankah) of Tibet was directly imitated from the
coinage of Jagajjaya Malla of Kāthmāṇḍū (1702-32).
III. SUCCESSORS TO THE MUG̱H̱ALS
The confusion into which the coinage of India fell on the break up of
the Mug̱ẖal power, when independent mints sprang up in every part
of their wide dominions, may be gathered from the calculation made
in the early part of the nineteenth century, that there were no
less than 994 different gold and silver coins, old and new, passing
as current in the country. The complexity of the subject is further
accentuated by the impossibility of distinguishing at present the
earlier coins of independent mints from the imperial issues. Later
on, the gradual debasement, caused by the addition of special local
marks and the evolution of distinctive types in certain states, makes
classification easier. Few of these coinages have hitherto been treated
comprehensively, and all that can be attempted here is a bare outline,
according more detailed treatment only to the more considerable
moneying states.
The papers of the East India Company, fortunately, have preserved for
us a record of events typical of what was taking place in many parts
of India. They show that, besides coining the South Indian pagodas,
already noticed, and copper and silver coins in European style, the
English factories were early engaged in reproducing the rupees of the
Mug̱ẖal emperors. The first which can be fixed with any certainty
are those from the mint of Bombay, or Mumbai, as it appears on the
coins, opened in the reign of Farruḵẖ̱siyar (1713-19); and in 1742
the emperor, Muḥammad Shāh, granted the Company a _sanad_ permitting
them to coin Arkāt rupees. Gradually the Company assumed control of
all mints within its increasing territories. In 1765, for example,
after the battle of Buxar it took over the Bengal mints. Uniformity
of standard was maintained, first by engraving special marks on the
coins (Fig. 9, 4), and then by fixing the regnal year.[68] Thus the
gold and silver coins of the Banāras mint of the Hijrī years 1190 to
1229 all bear the same regnal date 17.[69] So also the year 19 was
fixed for the Murshidābād mint, the year 45 for Farruḵẖ̱ābād. These
coins, still inscribed with the Mug̱ẖal emperor’s name, became more
and more European in style (Pl. XII, 9), those of Farruḵẖ̱ābād being
even struck with a milled edge, until finally superseded by the British
Imperial currency of 1835.
[68] This was to stop peculation on the part of money-changers, bankers
and even revenue collectors, who made a rebate on all rupees not of the
current year.
[69] On the Banāras coins the actual regnal date, _i.e._ of Shāh ’Ālam
II, is added beneath the conventional date 17; this was not adopted for
other mints.
A similar evolution, but in the direction of deterioration, can be
traced in the issues of the Marāṭhās, Rājpūts, and other powers. The
Marāṭhās seized the important mint of Aḥmadābād in 1752; and the
coins struck there in the Mug̱ẖal style (until it was closed by
the British in 1835) all bear as a characteristic mark the “Ankūs,”
or elephant-goad. The Peshwa also had a mint at Pūna; and numerous
private mints in Mahārāsṭhra, some striking pagodas and fanams as well
as rupees, were worked with or without his permission. Other Marāṭhā
mints were those of the Bhonsla Rājas at Katak in Orissa and at Nāgpūr;
rupees of the latter bear the mint name Sūrat. So also the Gaikwār had
a mint at Baroda, Scindia at Ujjain and later on at Gwāliār, Holkār
at Indor. Jaśwant Rāo Holkār issued, in 1806, a notable rupee with
Sanskrit legends on both obverse and reverse (Pl. XII, 7).
Numerous Rājpūt states copied the imperial coinage in their local
mints, Jaipūr (opened about 1742), Bīkāner, Jodhpūr, and many others;
but in the nineteenth century the names of the ruling chiefs were
substituted for that of the titular emperor. Silver and gold were
struck in the emperor’s name by the Niz̤āms of Ḥaidarābād, who were
content to distinguish their several issues by the addition of their
initials (Pl. XII, 4) until 1857, after which the full name of the
Niz̤ām took the place of the emperor’s. The Rohillas during the period
of their ascendancy had a group of mints in Rohilkhand, the chief of
which were Najībābād, Murādābād, Barelī and Sahāranpūr. The copper
coinage of these independent states is excessively crude, and the
practice of striking to local standards, which began under the later
Mug̱ẖals, now became general. The copper mints were probably entirely
in private hands.
Here it will be convenient to deal with a coinage, which, though
partially of Mug̱ẖal lineage in other respects, stands by itself. The
reign of Tīpū Sult̤ān of Mysore, though lasting only sixteen years
(1782-99), was productive of one of the most remarkable individual
coinages in the history of India, comparable in many ways to that of
Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq. His father, Ḥaidar ’Alī, as we have already
seen (Chap. VI), struck pagodas and fanams. Tīpū continued to strike
both these, retaining the initial “hē” of Ḥaidar’s name, but adding
a mint name on the obverse or reverse (Pl. VI, 10). In addition, he
coined muhars and half muhars, in silver the double and full rupee,
with its half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth and thirty-second parts,
and in copper pieces of 40, 20,[70] 10, 5 and 2½ cash. The 40-cash
piece weighed 340 grains. To each of these coins, following perhaps
the example of Jahāngīr, he gave a special name. The pagoda, equal to
the quarter of a muhar, he called, for instance, _Fārūqī_; the double
rupee, _Ḥaidarī_; the rupee, _Aḥmadī_; the 20-cash piece, _Zohra_; and
so on. The Persian inscriptions on gold and silver are religious in
character, that on the rupee runs as follows: obverse, _The religion
of Aḥmad_ (_i.e._ _Islām) is illumined in the world by the victory of
Ḥaidar, struck at Nagar, the cyclic year Dalv, the Hijrī year 1200_;
reverse, _He is the Sultan, the unique, the just; the third of Bahārī,
the year Dalv, the regnal year 4_. For his copper coins Tīpū adopted
the elephant device of the Wodeyar kings of Mysore (1578-1733), and the
animal appears in various attitudes on the obverse, sometimes to right,
sometimes to left, with trunk raised, and with trunk lowered. On the
40-cash pieces he carries a flag. The reverse gives the mint and, later
in the reign, the distinctive name of the coin also (Pl. XII, 5).
[70] The 20-cash piece had been struck by Ḥaidar ’Alī in the last two
years of his reign, A.H. 1195-96. Cf. J. R. Henderson, _The Coins of
Ḥaidar ’Alī and Tīpū Sultān_, Madras, 1921, p. 5.
At least thirteen mints were working under Tīpū, the most important
being Pattan (Seringapatam), Nagar (Bednūr), and Bangalūr; for some
mints merely honorific titles appear, thus _Naz̤arbār_, “scattering
favour,” for Mysore.
The most remarkable and perplexing of Tīpū’s innovations was his method
of dating the coins. For this purpose he used the Jovian cycle of sixty
years, according to the Telugū reckoning, inventing special names
for each of the sixteen years of his reign, in accordance with their
correspondence with that cycle, and composing the names at different
periods from the letters supplied by the two systems of numeration
known as _abjad_ and _abtas̤_. For the first four years of his reign,
when he employed the _abjad_ system, he also dated his coins in the
Hijrī era; in the fifth year he invented a new era, the Maulūdī,
reckoned from the date of Muḥammad’s birth in A.D. 571; dates in this
era appear written from right to left. The execution of most of Tīpū’s
coins is exceptionally good.
Kṛishṇa Rāja Udayar (1799-1868), the restored Rāja of Mysore, for a
time continued the elephant copper pieces of Tīpū, but later changed
the device for a lion. Kanarese inscriptions (Fig. 6) were, however, at
once substituted for Persian.
We must now turn to Hindustān proper. Both Nādir Shāh, in 1739, and
Aḥmad Shāh Durrānī (1748-67) and his successors struck rupees and
muhars to the Mug̱ẖal standard for the districts they temporarily
occupied. Nādir’s issues are Persian in fabric, but the Durrānī coins,
struck at Shāhjahānābād (Pl. XII, 2), Farruḵẖ̱ābād, Lāhor, Multān,
Kābul, and several other mints, are largely Mug̱ẖal in style. On the
whole, the issues of these princes, especially those of Qandahār and
Peshāwar and the rare pieces of the pretenders, Sulaimān and Humāyūn,
reach a much higher artistic level than the contemporary Mug̱ẖal coins.
One of the most important results of Aḥmad Shāh’s repeated invasions
of the Panjāb was the formation of the Sikh League, known as the
Ḵẖ̱ālsā. After the seventh invasion, in 1764, the League assumed
the right of coinage; and from that date till 1777, with a gap of two
years, 1766-67, for Aḥmad Shāh’s last invasion, “Gobindshāhī” rupees
were struck at Lāhor, so-called from the name of the Gūrū Gobind
being included in the Persian couplet, which formed the inscription.
Amritsar, _Ambratsar_ on the coins, became a mint in 1777. Its earliest
rupees, known as “Nānakshāhī,” bore a different couplet (Pl. XII, 10).
A few coins were also struck at Anandgarh. All Sikh coins are dated in
the Samvat era.[71] The coins of Rañjīt Siṅgh (1799-1839) are of two
distinct kinds, those with Persian (often very faulty) and those with
Gurmukhī[72] inscriptions. Rupees of the Persian couplet type appear
regularly from the mints of Lāhor and Amritsar throughout his reign,
from Multān after 1818, from Kashmīr after 1819; and a few rupees are
known from Peshāwar, Jhaṅg and Pind Dādan Khān. The king’s name was
never inscribed on the coinage; but the characteristic Sikh “leaf” mark
makes its appearance upon his earliest rupee, dated S. 1857 (= A.D.
1800). During the Samvat years 1861-63, first a peacock’s tail and then
a thumb-mirror appears on the Amritsar rupees; these are said to bear
reference to Rañjīt’s favourite dancing girl, Mora. A curious rupee of
Lāhor of S. 1885 displays the figures of Gūrū Nānak and his Muhammadan
follower, Mardānā. Rañjīt Siṅgh also coined muhars similar in style to
the rupees.
[71] The Samvat, which corresponds with the Vikrama era, begins in 58
B.C.
[72] Gurmukhī is a Panjāb provincial form of the Nāgarī script (cf.
Fig. 10).
About the year S. 1885, apparently, the Gurmukhī coins were introduced.
A few gold and silver coins are known, but most are copper, some
weighing as much as 600 grains. The inscriptions are generally
religious in character; the commonest is _Akāl Sahāī, Gūrū Nānakjī_,
“O, Eternal one help us! Guru Nānakjī!”[73] The reverse gives the date
and mint, generally Ambratsar. The script is usually very crude, and
the “leaf” mark is almost invariably present. Some coins, like those
of Kashmīr, have bilingual legends in Persian and Gurmukhī. Rupees of
the Persian couplet type continued to be struck after Rañjīt’s death,
in S. 1896, till S. 1905 (= A.D. 1848). The chiefs of the Sikh states,
Patiāla, Jhind, Nābha and Kaital, and the Dogra Rājas of Kashmīr, after
A.D. 1846, also coined rupees of this type. On some of these last was
inscribed, on account of its supposed talismanic power, the Christian
monogram I.H.S.
[73] The two parts of this legend are quite separate in sense.
In conclusion, we must consider the coins of the Nawāb-wazīrs
and kings of Oudh or Awadh. The existence of this province as
a separate principality began in 1720, when the wazīr, Sa’ādat
Ḵẖ̱ān, was created Ṣūbahdār. From 1754 to 1775 the Mug̱ẖal mint of
Muḥammadābād-Banāras was under the control of the third Nawāb-wazīr
Shujā’u-d-daula. From 1784 till 1818 succeeding nawābs continued to
mint in Lakhnau (Lucknow) the famous “Machhlīdār” rupees, so called
from the fish (Fig. 9, 5), the royal badge of Awadh, appearing on the
reverse. All of these bear the regnal date 26, and continue the mint
name Banāras. Other mints worked by the nawābs from time to time were
Barelī, after 1784, Ilahābād, 1776-1780, and Āṣafnagar.
In 1818 Lord Hastings persuaded G̱ẖ̱āzīu-d-dīn Ḥaidar to assume the
title of king, and from that time the regal series of coins begins. The
royal arms of Awadh, in various forms, appear on the obverse of gold,
silver and copper of G̱ẖ̱āzīu-d-dīn and his four successors, until
the forced abdication of the last king, Wājid ’Alī Shāh, in 1856. On
the reverse, the inscription, following the Mug̱ẖal example, takes
the form of a couplet; and silver and gold are struck to the Mug̱ẖal
standard (Pl. XII, 3). Fractional pieces of the rupee and muhar were
struck in all reigns. Though better executed and finer in metal than
those of most other successors of the Mug̱ẖals, these coins display
a certain monotony, all denominations in the three metals following
the prescribed pattern for the reign. Certain modifications in the
inscription, however, take place from time to time. The coins of Wājid
’Alī Shāh’s seventh and eighth years, of which five denominations in
each metal are known, are probably the finest of the series.
Two large silver medals are associated with the Awadh dynasty, the
first commemorating Shujā’u-d-daula’s victory over the Rohillas at
Mirān Katra, in 1774, the second struck by G̱ẖ̱āzīu-d-dīn Ḥaidar, in
honour of his coronation on 1st Muḥarram A.H. 1235. On the obverse of
the latter is an ornate and very realistic portrait of the king, and on
the reverse the arms of Awadh. Certain “Machhlīdār” rupees and muhars,
bearing the date A.H. 1229, on which the mint name _Ṣūbah Awadh_
occurs, are believed to have been minted by the Lucknow mutineers. It
is not unfitting that this short history of Indian coins should close
with a description of the money of the Awadh kings; for this latest
scion of the great Mug̱ẖal currency not only received its sanction
from an English Governor-General, but manifested, in the adoption of
armorial bearings of a Western type for its obverse, the beginning of
that European influence, which, later on in the nineteenth century, was
to revolutionise the coin types of the few Indian states, Ḥaidarābād,
Travancore, Gwāliār, Alwar, Baroda, etc., which retained the right of
minting after the introduction of the British Imperial currency.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
GENERAL
J. PRINSEP: _Essays in Indian Antiquities_, Ed. E. THOMAS, London,
1858; E. J. RAPSON: _Indian Coins_ (_Grundriss der Indo-Arischen
Philologie und Altertumskunde_), Strassburg, 1897; C. J. RODGERS: _Coin
Collecting in Northern India_, Allahabad, 1894; V. A. SMITH: _Catalogue
of the Coins in the Indian Museum_, Calcutta, Vol. I, Oxford, 1906
(for Chaps. I-VI and X); E. THOMAS: “Ancient Indian Weights” (=
_International Numismata Orientalia_, I, Part i), 1865.
SPECIAL
CHAP. I.—A. CUNNINGHAM: Coins of Ancient India, 1891; E. J. RAPSON:
_Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western Kṣatrapas,
etc., in the British Museum_, London, 1908; W. THEOBALD: “Notes on
Some of the Symbols found on the Punch-marked Coins of Hindustan,”
_J.A.S.B._, 1890, p. 181; E. H. WALSH: “An Examination of a Find of
Punch-marked Coins in Patna City,” _Journal of the Bihār and Orissa
Research Society_, 1919, p. 16, p. 463.
CHAPS. II-III.—A. CUNNINGHAM: “Coins of Alexander’s Successors in
the East,” 1873 (= _Num. Chron._, 1868-1873); id.: “Coins of the
Indo-Scythians,” 1892 (= _Num. Chron._, 1888-1892); P. GARDNER:
_Catalogue of Indian Coins in the British Museum: Greek and Scythic
Kings of Bactria and India_, London, 1886; E. J. RAPSON: _Cambridge
History of India_, Vol. I, Chaps. XXII, XXIII; R. B. WHITEHEAD:
_Catalogue of Coins in the Panjāb Museum, Lahore_, Vol. I, Oxford, 1914.
CHAP. IV.—J. ALLAN: _Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta Dynasties in
the British Museum_, London, 1914.
CHAP. V.—R. BURN: “Some Coins of the Maukharīs and of the Thanesar
Line,” _J.R.A.S._, 1906, p. 843; A. CUNNINGHAM: “Coins of the Later
Indo-Scythians,” 1894 (= _Num. Chron._, 1893-1894); id.: “Coins of
Mediæval India,” 1894; C. J. RODGERS: “Coins of the Mahārājahs of
Kashmir,” _J.A.S.B._, 1897, p. 277; id.: “Coins of the Mahārājahs of
Kāngra,” _J.A.S.B._, 1880, p. 10.
CHAP. VI.—G. BIDIE: “The Pagoda or Varāha Coins of Southern India,”
_J.A.S.B._, 1883, p. 33; W. ELLIOT: “Coins of Southern India,” 1886 (=
_International Numismata Orientalia_ III, Part 2); E. HULTZCH: “The
Coins of the Kings of Vijayanagar,” _I.A._, 1891, p. 301; id.: “South
Indian Copper Coins,” _I.A._, 1892, p. 321; id.: “Miscellaneous South
Indian Coins,” _I.A._, 1896, p. 317; R. P. JACKSON: “The Dominions,
Emblems and Coins of the South Indian Dynasties,” 1913 (= _British
Numismatic Journal_, 1913); E. LOVENTHAL: _The Coins of Tinnevelly_,
Madras, 1888; T. W. RHYS-DAVIDS: “Ancient Coins and Measures of
Ceylon,” 1877 (= _International Numismatia Orientalia_, I, Part 6); R.
H. C. TUFNELL: _Hints to Coin Collectors in Southern India_, Madras,
1889.
CHAP. VII.—S. LANE POOLE: _Catalogue of Coins in the British Museum,
Sultans of Dehli_, London, 1884; E. THOMAS: _Chronicles of the Pathan
Kings of Dehli_, London, 1871; C. J. RODGERS: “Coins Supplementary
to Thomas, Chronicles of the Pathan Kings,” Nos. I-VI., _J.A.S.B._,
1880-1896; H. N. WRIGHT: _Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum,
Calcutta_, Vol. II, Oxford, 1907; id.: “Addenda to the Series of Coins
of the Pathān Sultāns of Dehlī,” _J.R.A.S._, p. 481, p. 769.
CHAP. VIII.—S. LANE POOLE: _Catalogue of Coins of the Muhammadan
States of India in the British Museum_, London, 1885; H. N. WRIGHT:
_Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta_, Vol. II,
Oxford, 1907. =Bengal.=—E. THOMAS: “The Initial Coinage of Bengal,”
_J.A.S.B._, 1867, p. 1, 1873, p. 343; A. F. R. HOERNLE: “A New Find of
Muhammadan Coins of Bengal” (2 papers), _J.A.S.B._, 1881, p. 53, 1883,
p. 211. =Kashmir.=—C. J. RODGERS: “The Square Coins of the Muhammadan
Kings of Kashmir,” _J.A.S.B._, 1885, p. 92. =Bahmanīs.=—O. CODRINGTON:
“Coins of the Bahmanī Dynasty,” _Num. Chron._, 1898, p. 259; J.
GIBBS: “Gold and Silver Coins of the Bahmanī Dynasty,” _Num. Chron._,
1881. =Gujarat.=—G. P. TAYLOR: “Coins of the Gujarāt Saltanat,”
_J.B.B.R.A.S._, 1904, p. 278. =Malwa.=—L. WHITE KING: “History
and Coinage of Mālwā,” _Num. Chron._, 1903, p. 356, 1904, p. 62.
=Ma’bar.=—E. HULTZCH: “Coinage of the Sultans of Madura,” _J.R.A.S._,
1909, p. 667.
CHAP. IX.—C. J. BROWN: _Catalogue of the Mug̱ẖal Coins in the
Provincial Museum, Lucknow_, 2 Vols., Oxford, 1920; S. LANE POOLE:
_Catalogue of the Coins of the Moghul Emperors in the British Museum_,
London, 1892; R. B. WHITEHEAD: _Catalogue of the Coins of the Mug̱ẖal
Emperors in the Panjāb Museum, Lahore_, Oxford, 1914; id.: “The Mint
Towns of the Mug̱ẖal Emperors of India,” _J.A.S.B._, 1912, p. 425; H.
N. WRIGHT: _Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta_,
Vol. III, Oxford, 1908. [Also a large number of articles scattered
through the _J.R.A.S._, _I.A._, _J.A.S.B._, especially the Numismatic
Supplements to the last, starting from 1904.]
CHAP. X.—J. ALLAN: “The Coinage of Assam,” _Num. Chron._, 1909, p.
300; C. J. BROWN: “The Coins of the Kings of Awadh,” _Num. Supp._,
XVIII, _J.A.S.B._, 1912; M. LONGWORTH DAMES: “Coins of the Durrānīs,”
_Num. Chron._, Vol. VIII, 3rd series, p. 325; C. J. RODGERS: “On the
Coins of the Sikhs,” _J.A.S.B._, 1881, p. 71. =East India Company.=—E.
THURSTON: “History of the East India Company Coinage,” _J.A.S.B._,
1893, p. 52; id.: _History of the Coinage of the Territories of the
E.I.C. in the Indian Peninsula and Catalogue of the Coins in the Madras
Museum_, Madras, 1890. =Marathas.=—A. MASTER: “The Post-Mug̱ẖal Coins
of Aḥmadābād”, _Num. Supp._, XXII, _J.A.S.B._, 1914; M. G. RANADE:
“Currencies and Mints Under Mahratta Rule”, _J.B.B.R.A.S._, 1902, p.
191; G. P. TAYLOR: “On the Baroda Coins of the Last Six Gaikwars,”
_Num. Supp._, XVIII, _J.A.S.B._, 1912. =Rajputana.=—A. F. R. HOERNLE:
“Notes on Coins of Native States”, _J.A.S.B._, 1897, p. 261; W. W.
WEBB: _The Currencies of the Hindu States of Rajputana_, London, 1893.
=Tipu Sultan.=—R. P. JACKSON: “Coin Collecting in Mysore,” _British
Numismatic Journal_, 1909; G. P. TAYLOR: “The Coins of Tīpū Sult̤ān”,
(_Occasional Memoirs of the Numismatic Society of India_), 1914.
CHAP. VII-X.—W. H. VALENTINE: _The Copper Coins of India_, I, II,
London, 1914.
PRINCIPAL COLLECTIONS OF INDIAN COINS
=India.=—Indian Museum, Calcutta (all classes); Dehlī Museum of
Archæology (Sultans of Dehlī, Mug̱ẖals); Panjāb Museum, Lahore
(Indo-Greeks, Śakas, Pahlavas, Sultans of Dehlī, Mug̱ẖals, Sikhs);
Provincial Museum, Lucknow (Ancient Indian, Guptas, Sultans of Dehlī,
Mug̱ẖals, Awadh); Government Central Museum, Madras (South Indian,
Ceylon, Mysore, East India Company, Mug̱ẖals, Sultans of Dehlī,
Indo-Portuguese); Prince of Wales’ Museum, Bombay (Gujarāt, Mug̱ẖals,
Marāṭhas); Provincial Museum, Shillong (Sultans of Bengal, Assam,
Koch, Jaintia); Central Museum, Nagpur (Sultans of Dehlī, Mug̱ẖals,
Marāṭhas, Bahmanīs); Dacca Museum (Sultans of Bengal); Patna Museum
(Punch-marked series, Mug̱ẖals, Sultans of Dehlī, Bengal Sultans);
Peshawar Museum (Indo-Greeks, Śakas, Pahlavas, Mug̱ẖals, Durrānīs),
Macmahon Museum, Quetta (Durrānīs, Mug̱ẖals, Bārakzāīs).
=London.=—British Museum (all classes).
=Continent.=—Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Kaiser Friedrich Museum,
Berlin.
=America.=—American Numismatic Society’s Collection, New York.
INDEX
Abdagases, 29
’Abdullah, (1) of Cairo, 76;
(2) of Gulkanda, 84
Abū-l-faẓl, 91, 92
Abū-l-Ḥasan of Gulkanda, 84
’Ādil Shāhī kings, 84
_’Adl_, 72
_’Adlī_, 73
Agathokleia, 27
Agathokles, 20, 24, 26
Āgra (Akbarābād), 89, 93ff
Ahichhatra, 20
Aḥmadābād, 87, 88, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98
Aḥmadnagar, 84, 87, 88
Aḥmad Shāh I, (1) Bahmanī, 83;
(2) of Gujarāt, 87, 88
Aḥmad Shāh Durrānī, 106
Ahom language, 101
Ahoms, 100, 101
Aḥsanābād (Kulbarga), 83
Ajmer, 53, 96, 98
Akbar, 81, 86, 89ff, 100, 102
Akbar II, 98
Akbarnagar, 95, 98
’Ālamgīr II, 65
’Ālam Shāh of Dehlī, 76
’Alāu-d-dīn Aḥmad II (Bahmanī), 83, 84
’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥasan Bahmanī, 83
’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain Shāh of Bengal, 79, 80
’Alāu-d-dīn Mas’ūd, 70, 71
’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad, 62, 70, 72, 83
’Alāu-d-dīn Sikandar Shāh of Ma’bar, 82
Alexander, 23
’Alī II of Bījāpūr, 84
’Alī Rāja, 66
Altamsh, 70
Amīr Barīd of Bīdar, 84
Amṛitapāla of Budāyūn, 53
Amritsar, 107
Anandgarh, 107
Anantavarman Choḍaganga, 60
Andhras, 21, 58, 62
Aṅśuvarman, 38
Antialkidas, 24, 27
Antimachos, 24
Apollodotos, 24, 26, 27, 29, 31
Apollophanes, 27
Arabic, 69, 70, 72, 80, 82
Arachosia, 24
Arcot (Arkāt), 58, 103
Ardokhsho, 36, 41
Ariāna, 24
Arsakes, 23
Āṣafnagar, 108
Asalla-deva of Narwar, 54
Asīrgarh, 95
Aśoka, 17, 19
Asparvarma, 24, 29
Assam, 80, 100, 101
Aśvamedha, 41, 42, 44
Athro, 36
Augustus, 17, 34, 58n
Aurangābād, 99
Aurangzeb, 92ff
_Aureus_, 34, 58n
Awadh (Oudh), 108, 109
Ayodhyā, 19, 20, 43
Azes I, 24, 28, 29;
II, 29
Azilises, 28
’Az̤īmu-sh-shān, 97
Bābur, 77
Bacchanalian Muhars, 96
Bactria, 23ff
Bādāmī, 59
Bag̱ẖdād, khalifs of, 70, 79
Bahādur Shāh, (1) of Gujarāt, 86, 87, 88;
(2) Mug̱ẖal, 98
Bahāwalpūr, 16, 37
Bahmanī dynasty, 83ff, 87
_Bahlolī_, 77
Bahlol Lodī, 76, 77, 85
Bairāt, 93
Baḵẖ̱tiyār, Ḵẖ̱iljī, 78
Bālāpūr, 65
Ballāḷa II, 60
Banāras (Benares), 103n, 108
Bangalūr, 105
Bārbak Shāh, 85
Barelī, 99, 104, 108
Baroda, 104, 109
Barter, 13
Bāz Bahādur, 86
Bedār Baḵẖ̱t, 97
Bednūr, 65
Bengal, 48, 52, 78ff, 92, 100, 103
Bengālī script, 101
Berār, 83
Bhatgāon, 102
Bhoja-deva of Kanauj, 52
Bhonsla rājas, 104
Bihār, 49, 85, 90, 92
Bījāpūr, 84
Bīkāner, 104
Billon, 21n, 55, 68, 71
Bombay, 103
Brahmī, 19n
British Museum, 82n, 85, 95
Buddha, 36, 38, 39
Budhagupta, 47
Bull and Horseman type, 50, 53, 72
Bundelkhand, 53
Burhānābād, 84
Burma, 100
Buxar, battle of, 103
Cash, 105
Cast coins, 18
Central Asia, 55, 67
Ceylon, 61f
Chāhada-deva of Narwar, 71
Chak dynasty, 81
_Chakram_, 57
Chālukyas, 57n, 59ff
Chandel dynasty, 53
Chandragiri, 63, 64
Chandragupta, I, 41;
II, 43f, 51;
III, 45;
Maurya, 17, 45n
Chashṭana, 31
Chera (Keraḷa), 58, 60, 61, 63, 65
Chitaldrūg, 65
Choḷas, 58ff
Cochin, 61, 66
Coimbatore, 15, 60
Cowrie, 13
Cufic Script, 69
Ḍahāla, 52
_Dām_, 90, 93
_Damrā_, 93
_Damrī_, 93
_Daric_, 13
Dāru-l-islām, 73, 74
Daulat ḵẖ̱ān Lodī, 77
Dāwar Baḵẖ̱sh, 97
Deccan, 58, 73, 83, 98
Dehlī, 53, 69ff, 78, 79, 82, 83, 85, 86, 89, 93, 97, 98, 99, 102
_Dehlīwāla_, 71
Demetrios, 23, 28
_Denarius_, 17, 34
Deogīr (Daulatābād), 72, 73, 74, 75, 84
Devarāya, 64
Dhār, 74
Diddā, 54
Dilāwar Ḵẖ̱ān G̱ẖ̱orī, 86
_Dīnār_, 73
_Dināra_, 35, 45
Diodotos of Bactria, 16, 23
_Dirham Shar’ī_, 93
Divine Era, 98
Dogra rājas of Kashmīr, 108
_Dramma_, 52
Drangiāna, 24
East India Company, 65, 103
Eraṇ, 20
Eukratides, 23, 24, 30
Euthydemos, 23, 24
Faḵẖ̱ru-d-dīn Mubārak, 79
_Fanam_, 57, 104, 105
Farruḵẖ̱ābād, 104, 106
Farruḵẖ̱siyar, 92, 93, 99, 103
Fatḥābād, 80
Fatḥ ḵẖ̱ān, 76
Fatḥpūr, 94, 96
Fīrozābād, 80
Fīroz Shāh, (1) of Dehlī, 69, 75ff;
(2) Bahmanī, 83
Forced Currency, 74
Gadhiya Paisa, 52
Gaikwār, 104
Gajapati dynasty, 56, 60
Gaṇapati-deva, 54
Gaṇapati dynasty, 60
Gandhāra, 19, 24, 38, 53
Ganesh, 64;
Hindu rāja, 79
Gāṅgeya-deva, 52
Garuḍa, 42, 47, 48, 60
Gauḍa, 48
Ghaṭotkaca, 41
G̱ẖ̱āzīu-d-dīn Ḥaidar, 108
G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh of Mālwā, 86, 87
G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn, (1) Bahādur of Bengal, 79;
(2) Balban, 70, 72;
(3) Tug̱ẖlaq, 69, 71
Gigantic coins, 91, 92
Gilds, 15, 16, 19
Gīrvāṇ Yuddha Vikrama, 102
Goa, 61
Gondopharnes, 24, 29, 32
Gorakhpūr, 85
Gotamīputra, Śrī Yajña, 31
Gujarāt, 52, 86ff
Gulkanda, 84
Gunāṅka, 38
Gupta dynasty, 31, 37, 40ff
Gurmukhī, 107n, 108
Gūtī, 65
Gwāliār, 104, 109
Habshī dynasty, 79
Ḥaidarābād, 65, 109
Ḥaidar ’Alī, 65, 70, 105n
Hanumān, 53, 64
Harihara I, 64
Harsha-deva of Kashmīr, 55, 56, 60
Harshavardhana, 48, 49
Ḥasan Shāh of Kashmīr, 82
Heliokles, 24, 30
Helios, 36
Herakles, 26, 28, 36
Hermaios, 24, 27, 34
Hijrī era, 67, 98, 106
Hippostratos, 24, 29
Honorific titles, 99
Hoshang Shāh, 86
Hoysaḷas, 60
Humāyūn, (1) Mug̱ẖal, 81, 86, 89, 90;
(2) Durrānī, 106
_Hūn_, 57
_Hundī_, 15, 55
Huns, 22, 31, 44, 48ff, 55
Ḥusainābād, 80
Ḥusain Shāh of Jaunpūr, 85
Huvishka, 33, 36, 38
Hyrcordes, 30
Ibrāhīm Lodī, 69, 77
Ibrāhīm Shāh, (1) of Jaunpūr, 85;
(2) of Kashmīr, 81
Ibrāhīm Sūrī, 91
Ikkeri, 65
Ilahābād (Allahabad), 95, 98, 108
Ilāhī coins, 94, 97
Ilyās Shāh, 79
Indo-Greeks, 22ff
Indor, 104
Iśānavarman, 49
Islām Shāh Sūrī, 81, 90
Itāwah, 98
Jagadekamalla, 59
Jagajjaya Malla, 102
Jahāndār, 93
Jahāngīr, 91ff, 101, 102, 105
Jahāngīrnagar, 97, 98
Jaintia, rājas of, 101
Jaipūr, 104
_Jaitil_, 74
Jalālu-d-dīn, (1) Aḥsan Shāh of Ma’bar, 82;
(2) Ḵẖ̱iljī, 70;
(3) Mang-barnī of Ḵẖ̱wārizm, 72;
(4) Muḥammad of Bengal, 79, 80, 85
Jaśwant Rāo Holkār, 104
Jaunpūr, 77, 85, 89
Jayakeśin III, 61
Jayasiṁha, 59
Jayavarma of Mahoba, 53
Jhaṅg, 107
Jhind, 108
Jishṇugupta, 38
Jīvadāman, 31
Jodhpūr, 104
Jovian Cycle, 101, 106
Jūnagaḍh, 88, 97
Kābul, 24, 35n, 37, 89, 92, 93, 97, 106
Kadambas, 59, 61
Kadaphes, 34
Kaital, 108
Kalachuris, 52, 53;
of Kalyāṇa, 60
_Kaḷanju_ seed, 57
Kalikat (Calicut), 58, 66
Kalima, 68, 73, 79, 81, 89, 94ff
Kalīmullah, 84
Kaliṅga (Orissa), 60
Kalliope, 27
Kalyāṇī, 59
Kamāra, 53
Kāmarūpa (Assam), 100
Kanara, 59
Kanarese, 58, 60, 64, 106
Kanauj, 49, 52, 53, 70
Kāñchī (Conjeeveram), 61
Kandahār (Qandahār), 24, 95, 106
Kāngra, 53
Kanishka, 33, 35ff
Kannanūr, 66
Kāpiśī, 26
Kararānī dynasty, 79
Karnatic, nawābs of, 65
Kārttikeya, 44, 47
Kashmīr, 16, 22, 50, 51, 54, 56, 78, 81, 82, 96, 107, 108
Katak, 104
Kathiawār, 47
Kāthmāṇḍū, 102
Kauśāmbī, 19, 20
Khalifs, four orthodox, 74, 89
Kharoshṭhī, 19n, 46n
Khiṅgila, 54
Ḵẖ̱iẓr Ḵẖ̱ān, 77
Khotān, 46n
Khotanese, 36
Ḵẖ̱usrū Parvīz, 51
Ḵẖ̱wāja-i-Jahān, 85
Kidāra, 37, 54
Kodur, 60
Koṅgu-Chera kingdom, 60
Koṅgudeśa, 55, 60
_Korīs_, 88
Kṛishṇarāja, (1) Udayar, 106;
(2) of Valabhī, 49
Kṛishṇarāya, 64
Kujūla Kadphises, 27, 32, 33ff
Kumāradevi, 41
Kumāragupta I, 44, 48;
II, 45
Kuṇindas, 32
Kurumbas, 58, 61, 62
Kushāṇa, 23, 27, 33ff, 41, 42, 45, 46, 51, 67
Lāhor, 69, 89, 93ff, 106, 107
Lakshmana, 64
Lakshmī, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 52, 70
Lakshmī Narasiṁha, 102
Lakhnau (Lucknow), 108, 109
Lakhnautī (Gaur), 72, 74, 78, 80
_Lārīns_, 84n
Lichchavi, 41
Lucknow Museum, 43
Ma’bar, 82
Madras, 65
Madura, 61ff, 82
Mahākośala, 53
Mahārāsṭhra, 104
Mahendra Malla, 102
Maḥmūd of G̱ẖ̱az̤nī, 69
Maḥmūd Shāh, (1) Bahmanī, 83, 84;
(2) I, of Dehlī, 76, 77;
(3) II, of Dehlī, 87;
(4) I, of Gujarāt, 87, 88;
(5) II, of Gujarāt, 88;
(6) III, of Gujarāt, 88;
(7) of Jaunpūr, 85;
(8) I, of Mālwā, 86, 87;
(9) II, of Mālwā, 86
Mahoba, 53
Maitraka, 49
Malabar, 61
Maldive Islands, 84
Malla dynasty, 101
Mālwā, 16, 20, 21, 47, 51, 75, 86f
Mānāṅka, 38
Mandū, 86, 96
_Mañjāḍi_ seed, 57
Marāṭhās, 104
Mathurā, 19, 20, 30
Maues, 24, 28
Maukharīs, 31, 49, 51
Maulūdī era, 106
Maurya Empire, 17, 18
Medals, silver, 109
Menander, 24, 27
Miaos, 30
Mihiragula, 49, 51, 54
Mints, 80, 98, 99
Mirzā Ḥaidar, 81
Mubārak Shāh II, 76
Mug̱ẖal, 16, 89ff, 101ff, 109
Muḥammad, (1) ’Ādil Shāh, 90, 91;
(2) bin Farīd, 76;
(3) bin Fīroz, 76;
(4) bin Tug̱ẖlaq, 69, 73ff, 80, 82, 91, 105;
(5) G̱ẖ̱orī, 53, 67, 69, 70, 71
Muḥammadābād, (1) (Banāras), 108;
(2) (Bīdar), 83;
(3) (Champānīr), 87
Muḥammad Shāh, (1) I Bahmanī, 84;
(2) III Bahmanī, 83;
(3) of Bījāpūr, 84;
(4) of Kashmīr, 81;
(5) II of Mālwā, 86;
(6) Mug̱ẖal, 65, 103
Muhar, 92, 94, 105, 107
Mulk-i-Tilang, 74
Multān, 98, 106, 107
Murādābād, 104
Murād Baḵẖ̱sh, 96
Murshidābād, 97, 104
Muṣt̤afaʾābād, 87, 88
Muz̤affar III of Gujarāt, 87, 88
Mysore, 58, 59, 65, 66, 83, 105, 106
Nābha, 108
Nādir Shāh, 106
Nāga dynasty, (1) of Narwar, 49;
(2) of Kashmīr, 54
Nagar (Bednūr), 105
Nāgarī, 31n, 51, 52, 53, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 67, 71, 72, 75, 107n
Nāgpūr, 104
Nahapāna, 21, 30, 31
Najībābād, 104
Nāna, 36
Nandi, 47, 48
Narasiṅhagupta, 45
Narwar, 49, 53, 54
Nāṣir Shāh of Mālwā, 86
Nāṣiru-d-dīn, (1) Isma’īl, 83;
(2) Maḥmūd I of Bengal, 80;
(3) Maḥmūd of Dehlī, 70, 72
Naṣratābād, 80
Navānagar, 88
Nāyakas, 63, 64, 65
Nepāl, 38, 100ff
Nepālī Samvat, 102n
Nike, 29
_Nis̤ār_, 92
Niz̤ām Shāhī dynasty, 84
Niz̤āms of Ḥaidarābād, 104
Nūr Jahān, 95, 101
Oado, 36
Odumbara, 31
Ohind, 53
Ooscotta, 65
Orissa, 60, 80, 104
Orthagnes, 29
_Padma-Ṭaṅka_, 57, 59
_Pagoda_, 57, 64, 65, 103, 104, 105
Pahlava, 23, 24, 27ff, 51, 67
Pakores, 29, 33
Pallas, 28, 29
Pallava, 58, 61, 62
Pañchāla, 19, 20
Pāṇḍya, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63
Pānīpat, battle of, 77, 89
Pantaleon, 19, 24, 26
Paravāṇi, 44
Pāṭaliputra, 41, 43
Pātan, 102
Patiāla, 108
Patna, 94, 95
Pattan (Seringapatan), 105
Persia, 51
Persian, 66, 101, 105, 106, 107
Persian couplets, 88, 95, 106, 107
Persian months, 94
Peshāwar, 106
Peshwa, 104
Philoxenos, 26
Pind Dādan Ḵẖ̱ān, 107
Polyxenos, 27
Poseidon, 28
Potin, 21n
Pramatheśvari of Assam, 101
Pramatta Siṁha, 101
Pratāpa Malla, 102
Pṛithvirāj, 69
Pulakeśin I, 59; II, 59
Pulumāvi, Vasishṭhīputra Srī, 21
Pūna (Poona), 104
“Punch-marked” coins, 14, 15, 58
Puragupta, 45, 48
Purbandar, 88
Pushkalāvati, 24
_Puttan_, 66
Qādir Shāh, 86
Qolār (Kolār), 65
Qut̤bābād, 72
Qut̤b Shāhī dynasty, 84
Qut̤bu-d-dīn, (1) Aibak, 69;
(2) Mubārak, 71, 72, 81
Rājarāja, (1) Chālukya, 59;
(2) the Great, Choḷa, 62
Rājendra Kulottuṅga, 63
Rājeśvara Siṁha, 101
Rājputāna, 49, 52
Rājpūt states, 104
Rājuvula, 30
Rāma, 64, 95
Rāmarāya, 64
Rañjīt Siṅgh, 107, 108
Rāshṭrakūṭas, 59
Rāṭhor, 53
Roman coins, 58
Roman influence, 34, 44
Rohillas, 104, 109
Rudra Siṁha, 100
Ruknu-d-dīn Bārbak, 80
Rupee, 69, 90ff, 99, 103, 104, 105, 108
Sa’ādat Ḵẖ̱ān of Awadh, 108
Ṣafavī, 100
Ṣafdar ’Alī, 65
Sahāranpūr, 104
Śaka era, 31n, 33, 47, 101
Śākala (Siālkot), 51
Śakas, 23, 24, 26, 27ff, 43
Śaktivarman, 59
Salem, 60
Samanta-deva, 53
Samudragupta, 41ff
Samvat era, 107n
Saṅgrāma Siṁha, 87
Śaṅkara Varma of Kashmīr, 54
Sanskrit, 40, 66, 69, 100, 101, 104
Saptakoṭīsa (Śiva), 61
Śaśāṅka, 48
Sasas, 24
Sassanian type, coins of, 49, 51, 52
Sātakarṇī, Śrī Yajña, 21
Satgāon, 74, 80
Satrap, 30, 31
Scindia, 104
Seated goddess type, 37, 41, 44
Selene, 36
Seleucos of Syria, 23
Setupatis of Rāmnāḍ, 64
Shādīābād (Mandū), 86
Shāh ’Ālam II, 93, 97, 98, 103n
Shāh ’Ālam Bahādur, 92, 93, 97
Shāhī Tigin, 51
Shāh Jahān I, 87, 91ff
Shāhjahānābād (Dehlī), 98, 99
Shāh Mirzā, 81
_Shāhruḵẖ̱ī_, 89
Shāh Shujā’, 96, 97
Shamsu-d-dīn Kaiyumars̤, 71
Sharqī dynasty, 85
Sher Shāh Sūrī, 68, 79, 80, 90
Shihābu-d-dīn ’Umar, 71
Shujā’ Ḵẖ̱ān, 86
Shujā’u-d-daula, 108, 109
Siddhi Narasiṁha, 102
Sikandar, (1) bin Ilyās Shāh of Bengal, 80;
(2) Lodī, 77;
(3) Shāh of Kashmīr, 81;
(4) Sūrī, 91
Sikhs, 106, 107, 108
Śilāditya, 49
Silver, 55, 68
Sind (Śakadvīpa), 24
Sītā, 64, 95
Śiva, 29, 36, 37, 42, 47, 48
Śivajī, 65
Śiva Siṁha, 101
Skandagupta, 44, 45, 47ff
Solar era, Jahāngīr’s, 96n, 98
Sophytes (Saubhūti), 23
Sotēr Megas, 30n, 35
Spalagadames, 29
Spalahores, 24, 29
Spalapati-deva, 53
Spalirises, 24, 29
Square coins, 16, 71, 86, 94, 95
Standards of weight, 25n
_Stater_, 13, 26
Strato I, 24, 27;
II, 30
Sugandhā, 54
Śuklenming, 100, 101
Sulaimān Durrānī, 106
Sult̤ānpūr, 72;
(Warangal), 74
Surashṭra, 47n
Sūrat, 95, 98, 104
Surendra Vikrama, 102
Sūrya Nārāyana, 101
_Suvarṇa_, 13, 45
Tailapa, 59
Tālikota, battle of, 63
Tamil, 58, 61, 62, 64, 66
Tānda, 80
_Tang-ka_, 102
Tanjore, 64
_Tankah_, 69n, 70ff, 93, 97
_Tānkī_, 93, 97
Tara, 100
_Tārē_, 58, 66
Tatta, 96, 97
Taxila, 16, 17, 19, 24, 33
Telugu, 58, 59, 61, 64, 106
Telugu-Choḷa dynasty, 60
Tetradrachm, Attic, 55
Thāṇeśar, 49;
battle of, 69
Theophilos, 27
Tibet, 102
Tīmūr, 76, 97
Tinnevelly, 61, 63, 64
Tipperah, 101
Tīpū Sult̤ān, 105
Tirhut (Tug̱ẖlaqpūr), 74, 85
Tirumalarāya, 64
Tomara dynasty, 53
Toramāṇa, 49, 50, 51, 54
Trailokyamalla, 59
Travancore, 61, 66, 109
_Tughra_, 80
Type, 25;
Horseman, 28, 43ff
Types, various Gupta, 41ff
Ujjain (Avanti), 20;
city of, 87, 104
Upagīti metre, 45
Urdū mint, 89, 96
Vaiśālī, 41
Valabhī, 47, 49
_Varāha_, 57
Vāsudeva, 33, 36, 37, 51
_Velli_, 64
Veṅgī, 59, 63
Venkaṭeśvara, 64
Vigrahapāla, 52
Vijayanagar, 57, 62, 63ff, 82
Vikrama era, 24, 53, 107n
Vima Kadphises, 33, 35, 38
Vīrasena, 49
Vishṇu, 42, 52, 64;
Chittadeva, 61
Vishṇugupta, 45
Vishṇuvardhana, 59
Vonones, 24, 29
Wājid ’Alī Shāh, 108
Warangal, 60
Wodyar dynasty, 105
Yādavas of Devagiri, 60
Yama, 45
Yasodharman, 51
Yaudheyas, 37
Yueh-chi, 24, 33;
Little, 37, 54
Yūsuf Shāh of Kashmir, 81
Z̤afar Ḵẖ̱ān, 87
Zainu-l-ābidīn of Kashmīr, 81, 82
Zeionises, 30
Zeus, 28
Zodiac coins, 95
Zoilos, 24, 27
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