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Ahomlangtjage Cons of Assam

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Ahomlangtjage Cons of Assam AHOMLANGTJAGE CONS OF ASSAM by John ,S. DeyeLL, I,tadison, I'lisconsin, NI #12L9 One of. the most challenging coin series in South Asian numismatics must undoubtedly be the ceremonial or accessional i-ssues of the Ahom ru-lers of Assarn. The Ahoms formed. part of a migration of Tai or Shan peoples into the upper Brahroaputra basiu of Northeast fnd.ia, r+hich by their own accorurts startecl in the thirteenth century A.D, By the sixteenth century the Ahoms governed much of Assam, although thel' would" appear to have been a minority of the population. Their language, and the script in which it r{as record.ed , was re}ated. to archaic forms of the Tai vhich was spoken rvith many variations throughor"rt Southeast Asia. The Ahon ru-l-ing classes very grad.ually became assimilated- into the greater fndian culture, vith Brahmanical religious rites displacing the ind.igenous animist vorship, and. the Assamese language written in Bengali script succeed-ing the Ahom. As in most societies , hovever, the ancient, usages vere held. to be more appropriate for sol-emn cere- monial occasions such as the installation of a new king, when the porrer of trad.ition was invoked. to enphasize the conmon interests of the ruling elite and. to secure its loyalty to the new sovereign. This phenonenon is well demonstrated. by the Ahom language coins of the Assarnese kingdorn. During the early period. of Ahom rule, the currency of Assa:n largefy consisted. of silver tankas of the Bengal Sultans. The first Ahom coinage vas struck by Shuklengoung in f)+2/ 151+3 A"D. to the rupee veight stand-ard initiated in North fndia by his contemporary, Sher Shah Suri. The clesign, witli'legend surror.rnd.ed. by a bcrder of dots, perhaps derives stylistically and- in the matter of planehet size from the tankas of the Bengal kings i{usrat and Firoz (]-atest dates l-532 A"D. )" The coin was distinctive in its octagonal shape, and. notable for its careful vorkmanship: the d.ie matched. the fl-an so that the full legend was visible, unlike most har.rmered coinages of the period. in fnd.ia. The irrscription was wrj-t- ten in the Ahom script. Subsequent issues of this coin type were struck by succeed.ing kings in both gold and silver', From the fact th:rt a1l- the dates on these Ahom language coins were the Jrears of accession of the kings (with the sole exception of the first issue, that of Shuklengmung), it is presumed. that the coins had. a cere- monial role in the assumption of po.wer of each nev ki-ng, If so, the sovereign right of the king to utter coinage had the sarne signif- icance in Ahom society as it had elsewhere, The circulating med.ium of Assarn eventually carne to consist of rupees and mohurs using Bengali /Assamese script ; but long after the d.emise of Ahom as a courtly language, the Ahom coins continuc'd. to mark the change of regime in the trad.it ional manner . The Ahon coins present two irnned,iate d ifficr:l-ties to the numismatist attempting to classify unid.entified. specirnens: the legend is recorded in an obsolete script for which there are fev guid.es available, and the dating system is a sixty year eycle expressed- in written word.s rather than numerals. Further, the script as read. on the coins bears a poor resemblance to the typescript letter forms in Ahorn lex- icons. As a result some attributions seem to have been nrade on the basis of ornamentation rather than actual read.ing of 1egend.s. From the frequency of misattributed. specinrens in private col-lections and the tend.ency of catalogue plates to shov the coins sid.evays or upsid.e- d.own, it is apparent that much of the id.entification process has been cond.ucted vith fingers crossed.. This is unfortunate, since there i.s only one coin of the series vhich is knorv-n in r.roderate numbers. The remaind.er are quite rare; in fact only seven separate issues have been published to d.ate. ft is not unlikely that sone of the rarer specinens are lying unrecognized in collectiotr.s. The Ahom coins fotlow a set pattern, r,iith the kingr s name and d.ate of issue on the obverse, and. an invocation to a patron cleity on the reverse. It is not necessary to master the ehronological system to d.ate the coins; only one year is named for-each reign vhether the coins continued, to be issued. in subsequent years or not. The trans- literation system used. below is a simple English equivalent of Ahom Ietters, since conventionalized. Roman and- Bengali both fail to cor- rectly inclicate the Tai sound.s in Ahom. Phn i s p-ha , not fa , and cha is as in chat " Reverses Only three reverse types have been found. on the Ahom coins. 1. Tara. Literally, the Evil-eyed One. Even- tually incorporated into Hindulsm as a Tan- tric war god.d.ess and the form of Durga embod.y- ing lust " Legend. i-n four lines corrrmencing upper l-eft t-n 6 b t,6ft Cr1: cg': Frt r{.F I<ao boi pha ta ra heu chu ?tI offer prayer in the nane of divine Tara, rr 2. Phatuching" I,iterally, Highest Being, i.e. Supreme Sod. Identified with either Siva or Vishnu as the major deity of the llindu pantheon. Legend. in three lines: h6 6 uq dd'& 7. !t' h{6 kao boi pha tu chi ng heu ehu ttI of fer prayer in the narne of Phatuchirg. tt t ttthe Note : The reverse of Shunyatpha^ s coins add the phrase most gloriousrr, Ub \ ti before the words heu ehu. phk')a ng hurh t 3 . Lengdan . Literally , Sole Thund.er. As soc- iated vith the Brahmanical fndra as the ps l-ord. of heaven. ,\0 \ Legend. in four lines: Fn|6 b wL hg k F t.^. rc{6 - d Ef,.e, kao boi pha Le NCI da n heu chu ttf of fer prayer in the n.rme of divine Lengd.an.tt Obvers es -r,he Seven obverse types are known on Ahom coins. The kingrs nane is ttgreattt, ttgodtt ttkingtt usually preced.ed by the title chao, or ttkingtt. r r or eheo p4a, Ivlost of tht-- kings t names follow the formu]a (special tt(oajective) shu syll-able) - phq, tiger of fr..r..ii, or ( tt shu special sy]-lable ) - wffig, ( u.aj ective ) tiger of the co,..rt"ytt . Thus shu and e:-tlner pha ot' tmmg bracket the unique identifier of I each king s nalne. Likewise the d.ate always follows t5e phrase ttyeartt ttin Lakni, or the yeartt. This is always the last expression of the obverse legend., located at the bottom. Pi is sometimes used for Lakni. 1. Shuklengmung. Literally, Tiger of the Flower Country. Alias: Garhgaya Raja. 1539 1551 A.D. AV Mohur and AR Rupee . No.I reverse. Obverse fl,,ffisF& legend in five lines: 'nfo, t-o/o a St t \e. tl- chao pnanAas snu RLe ng tTTu ng pL n Fot ril F\ q, |st nko chao La k ni ple k ngL ttKi,ng Shukl en groung became king in the year fifteen (= 15\3 A.D.). " 2. Shunyatpha ' Literally, Bud-like Tiger of Heaven. Atias : Udayaditya . f66g-iefZ A. D. AV Mohur and AR Rupee. Iilo.2 reverse. Obverse legend. in four lines: td.6 trk) 6i yfr \9 tr, rco shu nl1a t pha pin chao rco\9FtJ utt C ffi charh pi ka - p sh.a n ttshunyatpha becarne king f'om the year tl^renty-one (= t16g A.D. ).rt 3, Shuhring. Literally, Renor.rned.Tiger, Alias : Dihingia Raja. f6T5 A.D. (reigned ZI days). AR Rupee. No,2 rev, Obv. legend. in four lines: L.o6 uft ulfL6 nnY\98 H@6 chao pha shu hunqpin r-d E: \, fi q n"'6e khunLak ni khu t ni ttryirtg tt shuhung became ruler in the year twenty-seven (= 16Tj A.D. ). )+. Shupatpha" Literally, Gem Tiger of Heaven. Alias : Gad,adhara Simha. 168l _ $gj A. D. AR Rupee' No-3 rev- obverse legend in four lines: rc5 ft..c \, G y^ \g ehao 6 shu pa t ^ pha pi n "q.q yfi {-6 F/ i khu n La k it i"t n ttKing "ho Shupatpha became ruler in the year tt thirty-three (= f d$f A. D. ) , 5 . Shunengpha . Lit erally , Beaut i fu-t_ Ti ger of Heaven pramatta " Af ias: Simha" ]-7\[_l7ri A.D. AR Rupee. No"3 rev. obverse legend in four lines: roo >foo f la rst \g f ehao shu ne ftg^ pha pi n n"{ F, h f hvl F{- khunLaknikatkeo ttKing Shunengpha becanne ruler in the year thirty-six (= 17)+)+A.D. ).tt 6, Shurempha. Literally, Enclosing Tiger of Heaven Al_ias : Raj " esvara Sinha " IT5T IT59. AV Mohur, No.3 rev, Obverse legend in four lines: loo ttl" d' U rdl 19A *W chao shu Te m pvn Pin tA-f L, h P e f L'- khunLakni rrai shL ngct ttKing Shurempha became ruler in the year rt forty-three (= ;_T5;.A.D. ) . Shuhitpengpha. T " Literally, Trampling Tiger of Heaven. Alias: Gaurinatha Simha, 17BT rTgt+ A.D. AV Mohur. No.3 rev. Obverse legend in four lines: -oo ,ft" th q, E, rr\ ffeH chao - shu hit pe ng pha <\ .qK'hcryh*e H khu n nAeu La k ni rai cheu ttKing Shuhitpengpha the great ru_l_er, ir the year thirteen ( = f781 A.D.).tt There is no reason to assume that the above are the sole Ahom lan- guage eoins in existence- rt seems reasonable to expect that given norual eonditions r many more of the Assamese kings had caused.
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