Part 9

[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 But in the same year he was superseded by Sultan ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥasan Bahmanī, founder of a dynasty which ruled till 1518, when its bloodstained annals as an independent kingdom closed, though nominal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.

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.