Part 8

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.

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.