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Home , Cash (currency), Indian rupee, Morvi State, Paisa

Component-I (A) – Personal details:

Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.

Prof. V. Sakunthalamma Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. & Prof. Susmita Basu Majumdar Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta.

Dr. Mahesh A. Kalra Curator, The Asiatic Society of .

Prof. Susmita Basu Majumdar Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta.

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Component-I (B) – Description of module :

Subject Name Indian Culture Paper Name Indian Module Name/Title Coinage of the Indian Princely States Module Id IC / NMST / 33 Pre-requisites Economy and Coinage of the Princely States of Objectives It aims to cover the various types of coinages issued by Indian Princely States which emerged in the late Mughal period and strived to survive in the British period of expansion. Keywords Princely States / Hyderabad /

E-text (Quadrant-I) :

1. Introduction

The waned in the middle of the eighteenth century and left in its wake a series of semi-independent states and larger confederacies of clans along with successor states of the Mughal Empire. The weakening at the centre led to the growth of regional powers of different types like successor states in form of , Hyderabad and Awadh, it also resuscitated ancient powers like the Rajputana States, warrior states like the Marathas and the Sikhs. The period also spurred into action soldiers of fortune who set up conquest states initially aligned with either the Mughals or Marathas but detached in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

The regional coinages began in many cases due to the tradition of ‘farming out’ minting rights to petty local chieftains in lieu of ready which began in the late Mughal period under Emperor Farrukhsiyar (c. 1713-1719) who gave up this imperial prerogative to anyone who paid him a randomly selected amount. The farming of mints led to not only the loss of Mughal prestige but also led to the minting of inferior quality which were poor copies of the original design.

The decline of the Mughals encouraged the other powers to exercise their right to issue coinage to exhibit their sovereignty and hence the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw an exponential growth in Princely States' Coinage. The of these regions assumed a role and soon became independent of the Mughal currency system in a gradual but sure manner. These semi-independent powers became free enough to exercise their right to coins which differed drastically from the set Mughal pattern of Persian inscriptions thus creating coins with legends, Hindu religious symbols, images of deities and other emblems of state sovereignty. Another important cultural aspect of the Princely States' Coinage was the employment of local calendars or VikramaSamavat dates as earlier only the Islamic Hijri calendar dates were permitted by the Mughals.

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The rise of the British power who emerged as one of the main contenders for power and later after the decimation of the Marathas in 1818 as the sole power brought them into contact with the emerging entity of British India. The British began a systematic way of forming subsidiary alliances and treaties with the Princely States to reduce their influence and institute their indirect rule over non-British territories. The success of the Uniform Currency during the EIC period and the uprising by native powers convinced the British administration of the need to ensure its complete success through legislation and implementation on the ground. Though, many native mints in British-controlled areas were suppressed through threat and cessation of local currency as , the British wizened up after the 1857 Uprising to reduce the harshness in their actions especially since they wanted to even stop the pseudo-Mughal coinage in the name of the Mughal Emperors. Hence, they came up with the Native Coinage Act of 1876 which softened the deal by offering to issue machine-struck coins on behalf of the Native powers at the Calcutta and Bombay Mints. The main reason given was the standardization of the and weight of the Native with the British Indian .

2. Pre-1858 Issues of Princely States

The period from the second quarter of the eighteenth century till the period of formal assumption of the power and coinage in the name of the British monarch in 1835 was a period of severe tumult and the rise of regional powers. Of these, the independent powers have been covered in great detail in the earlier chapters. However, there were many individual states which grew from the erstwhile Mughal dependencies without any open revolt against their erstwhile imperial masters despite the latter’s notable decline. Some of the successor states like Haidarabad for instance, grew out of the Mughal Subah of Dakkan became ‘independent’ of direct Mughal control in 1724 under Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I (c. 1672-1748). However, the first Nizam refused to issue coins in his name holding on to the charade of Sikka and Khutba (Friday prayers in the name of the ruler) in the name of Muhammad Shah till his death. His successors who assumed the same title, Nizam-ul-Mulk (lit. organizer of the country ~ Prime Minister) and ruled in the name of the Mughal Emperor till 1857. The Nizams of Hyderabad thus bided their time fearing an unlikely resurgence of their imperial masters.

The same was the situation of the Rajput states who were under Mughal subjugation for over two centuries with a history of numerous unsuccessful uprisings against their Mughal overlords. Thus, even apart from other antique Rajput states like Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Mewar, etc. even newly found states like Bharatpur found it necessary to issue hand-struck coins in the name of the nominal Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II.

The Maratha Confederacy’s survivor states of Baroda, Gwalior, Indore, and Dhar issued their initial currency during their heydays based on the prevalent idiom of pseudo- Mughal coins albeit with prominent mint marks reflective of their religious and cultural identity. One of the most interesting examples of early nineteenth century is the 1728 S.E. silver rupee of Yashwant Rao Holkar I (c. 1799-1816) which employs legends in honour of the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II naming Delhi as Indraprastha and the Mughal Emperor as a Chakravartin! The other coins of Indore display prominent Hindu symbols like the Linga, the Nandi Bull, Sun and even a Katar in the previous Maratha tradition. Later the Sun symbol became a staple on the Indore silver coins and the bull a fixture on its copper

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coins. Baroda employed the Devanagari initials of its Gaikwad rulers or even ‘GAA’ to indicate Gaikwad. It also employed a prominent ‘Katar’ or knife to symbolize its martial traditions prior to 1857. Similarly, Gwalior under its Sindhia rulers adopted martial emblems of Katar and even the cannon on its rupees under its two great rulers, Mahadji and DaulatraoSindhia but Daulatrao’s era also saw a copper with the prominent image of Lord Hanuman on the obverse with Devanagari inscriptions and dated in the Shaka era.

Other notable exceptions to the rule were the Princely States of -Kutch region viz. , Kutch, Nawanagar (Jamnagar), Porbandar who initially issued coins of the Kori type which evolved as copies of a very old Sultanate era called the Mahmudi. All these states issued these coins which kept evolving till the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Other exceptions included the Princely states of South India viz. Cannanore, Cochin, Coorg, , and Arcot who relied on the previous types of South Indian coinages ill-adjusted to the Mughal idiom of silver rupee. Similarly, the Cis- Sutlej States of Punjab, Bahawalpur, Nabha, Jind, Jammu Kashmir, Maler Kotla, Patiala who issued variantcoins based on local Durrani and Sikh prototypes prevalent in their region. Bahawalpur initiated its own coinage initially on the Durrani prototype and soon graduated to coins in the name of its royal family like Haidarabad.

One notable exception to the rule was the independent coinage issued by tiny state of Bajranggarh whose ruler Jai Singh issued a coin acknowledging only the authority of Lord Hanuman and his titles in Devanagari using Hindustani language.

Prior to the mutiny, many princely states began reading the writing on the wall and acknowledging the authority of the EIC acknowledging the British as a paramount power on their coinage to avoid annexation by the British on the Doctrine of Lapse devised by Lord Dalhousie. Two prominent examples are the state of whose Raghuraj Singh issued a copper double and single paisa with the reverse name of the local British Commissioner of Central India with the legend, ‘AGENT BUSHBY SAHEB’ in English. Similarly, Vijaya Bahadur Judeo, the new ruler of Datia, issued a 5 Rupee Nazrana (presentation) Rupee piece with reverse Nagari legend identifying himself as a ‘KampaniMitra’ (Friend of the Company). Thus on the eve of the revolt of 1857, numerous types of coins by Indian Princely States were in circulation with many of them having very little circulation or use except ceremonial purposes like coronations and marriages. Many in the Rajputana states also issued rupees with low content of silver thus attracting British probation into the quality of these coins as the poor people of these states were usually -changed into accepting the same and later giving them a lower price while exchanging them. This led to a concern in the British official circles of suppressing them.

3. The Revolt of 1857 and Post-1858 Princely States’ Coinage

The began as a mutiny of sepoys of the ’s army on 10 May 1857, in the cantonment of the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and Central India. Other regions of Company-controlled India, such as Bengal, the , and the , remained largely calm. In Punjab, the Sikh princes backed the Company by providing soldiers and support. The large princely states of Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir, as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana, did not join the

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rebellion. Maratha leaders, such as Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi, became folk heroes in the nationalist movement in India half a century later; however, they themselves “generated no coherent ideology” for a new order. The rebellion led to the dissolution of the East India Company in 1858. It also led the British to reorganize the army, the financial system and the administration in India. The country was thereafter directly governed by the crown as the new .

The effect of the Revolt and the British victory in the same had a strong impact on the minds of the Indian Princes many of whom took to issuing coins with images and legends in honour of British as the Empress of India with its Persian transliteration ‘MALLIKA MUAZZAMA’. One of the first states to issue such a coin was Bharatpur who also issued a grainy image of Queen Victoria copied from a series of postage stamps as the British India Rupee’s portrait showed her as uncrowned. This series was continued till 1862 by the rulers of Bharatpur.

Post-1858, many Indian Princely States joined the fray issuing coins in the name of Queen Victoria to survive the crisis post the British victory. These include Bundi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jhalawar, Jodhpur, ,Kotah, Kutch, Radhanpur, Tonk, etc. However, Mewar found a very convenient way of ducking the trend of naming the British queen by inscribing ‘DOSTI LANDHAN’ (Friendship with London) as a reverse legend on a number of issues from the reign of Maharaja Swarup Singh (1842-1861) till the independence of the country.

Still other states like Bahawalpur, Baroda, Bhopal, Datia, Dungarpur, Cambay, Chamba, Chotta Udaipur, Faridkot, Garhwal, Hyderabad, Indore,Janjira, Jaora, , Jind, Junagadh, Kashmir and Travancore bucked the trend of naming the British and stuck to either issuing coins with the Mughal paradigm or issuing them in the name of their rulers with their titles and legends initially. The leaders in these self-naming issues were large states of Bahawalpur, Baroda, Hyderabad, Indore, Junagadh along with smaller states like Janjira, Jind and Faridkot. Kashmir continued to issue coins of the Sikh variety with a prominent English ‘IHS’ representing Jesus Christ probably equating British rule with the Christian faith. Janjira was a small state which issued a mohur which copied Emperor Aurangzeb’s obverse legend as late as 1868 to showcase its receiving the grant from the Great Mughal.

The British authorities on their part vigorously scrutinized the various claims for Native Coinages till 1872 and conceded the minting rights to only thirty-four states in the post-1858 era. Many of these thirty-four states did not exercise their right to coin out of fear of British action against them. However, some stood up for their rights even after the Native Coinage Act of 1876 was passed. Under the Act, the British government offered to mint coinages on behalf of the Princely States free of charges, if they agreed to close down their own native style coinages and send metal for coining British Indian Rupees styled as Treaty Coinages of the Native States or Convention Coinages. The offer was open to silver and copper coinages which were then struck at the Calcutta mint. was the first state to accept the offer and thus its silver rupees were minted with the obverse image of Empress Victoria and name as the British India Rupee and reverse ‘ONE RUPEE ’ in the exergue with legends evoking the ruler Maharaja Mangal Singh with the Common Era date in Persian (though preceded with an error date 1788); the next state to follow Alwar’s footsteps was Bikanir which had the Rupee and also copper Quarter Anna. A few other states

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accepted this offer were Dhara, , and Sailana which opted for copper coins only to be struck in the state’s name.

Additionally, though expected by the Imperial government, several Princely States like Baroda, Hyderabad did not acknowledge the British monarch as their superior though several of their peers took to using titles like Qaiser-i-Hind or Mallika-i-Hind for Victoria the Empress of India to impress the Imperial government of their support to the colonial project. The case of Hyderabad was unique for the British as despite having strong links to the Mughals in the past, the state’s rulers had never revolted or side with the 1857 Uprising leadership which had strong Muslim elements. Thus, the British were forced to ignore Hyderabad’s rulers which totally ignored the British rule and issued their own tri-metallic coinage along with later. Hyderabad, in fact, was the only state to issue Banknotes in 1918 with the consent of the British due to the acute shortage of silver during the First World War and Hyderabad’s munificent contributions to the British war effort. Christened as Hyderabadi Osmania Sicca Rupees, they were recognised as legal tender and allowed by the British under the Hyderabad Currency Act of 1918. The Osmania Sicca Rupees were issued from 1918 till 1953. They were issued in the denominations of 1, 5, 10, 100 and 1000 Osmania Sicca Rupees and had the date in Fasli Era employed in the Nizam’s dominions. The currency co-existed with the Republic of India currency till 1959 when it was demonetised.

However, opposite to Hyderabad’s case was the under its rulers, the Gaekwars who had the temerity to issue machine-struck coins with his side portrait in full regalia without any reference to the British queen. The British authorities could not oppose his currency based on its metallic value as it was the same as the British India Rupee. However, they raised questions about its confusion with the British India Rupee and asked the Gaekwad to reduce the size of the coins which was duly followed. However, the shortage of silver along with official non-co-operation led to the stopping of minting of the Baroda Rupee in 1910.

The modernization of coinage led to improvement in their standards as opposed to their earlier shoddy monitoring of metallic content, design and market exchange value of the coinage. Hence, we come across the most beautiful samples of coinage from states like Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Kutch, Baroda, Gwalior, Travancore and Indore with realistic images of their rulers and state emblems like the Char Minar in the case of Hyderabad. Even religious images were used in the coinage of smaller states of North India.

Another important aspect of the Princely States' Coinage was the use of English legends along with local languages and scripts on the coins like Tamil in case of Travancore, Urdu in case of Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Bhopal; /Marathi with Devanagari legends in case of Indore, Gwalior and Baroda. Another important cultural aspect of the Princely States' Coinage was the employment of local calendars or the Hindu VikramaSamavat dates as earlier only the Islamic Hijri calendar dates were permitted by the Mughals. Some Princes also used the coinages to exhibit important events like the completion of 50 years of rule in the case of Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner.

Most of the Princely States did not issue coinage in the twentieth century due to the rising British opposition. However, strong and rich states like Baroda, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Indore

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Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kutch, Mewar, Travancore stuck to issuing their coins though many issued only copper coins while some stuck to yearly ceremonial coinages till the period of independence.

In case of Kutch, the state issued a gold and silver coinage based on the Kori system prevalent in the region. It reformed its currency towards a modern coinage in 1860s naming Victoria with her initial title MuazzamaKween under Pragmalji II (1860-1875) and later more appropriately as Qaisar-i-Hind under Khengarji III (1875-1942) 1880 onwards. Kutch’s rulers were very supportive of the British dispensation which is reflected by the fact that its rulers issued a prematurely issued coin in the name of King Edward VIII even before his formal coronation took place in 1936. Kutch was not alone in this act however, two other Princely states viz. Jaipur and Jodhpur also jumped the gun in Edward’s honour who abdicated before his coronation even though no coins were issued in his name in Great Britain as yet or ever. Kutch also took the lead in 1948 in welcoming the new Indian government under the Indian Union with a ‘Jai Hind’ on its coins issued by its new ruler, MaharaoMadansingh ji.

Among the princely states, only Jammu-Kashmir was able to begin a in 1877 during Maharaja Ranbir Singh’s reign. However, these did not work out. As explained above, thus, Hyderabad was the only princely state to have a steady set of banknotes though Kutch and Morvi State came close to issuing their own paper currency.

Another kind of paper money issued by a number of Princely States were Cash Coupons issued by them during the World War II to meet the acute scarcity of small coins. The States which issued these cash coupons included Balvan, Bikaner, Gondal, Indergadh, Junagadh, Jasdan, Kutch, , Morvi, Muli, Mangrol, Nawanagar, Nawalgarh, Palitana, Rajkot, Sailana, Sayla and Vithalgadh.The cash coupons were unifaced low denomination coupons printed on thick card paper.

Most of the Indian Princely States gave up their right to coinage and circulate them in 1947- 48 when they merged with the Indian Union. The only exception was whose Osmani Sicca Rupees circulated both as coins and banknotes alongside the till 1959 when it was demonetized though the state was absorbed into the Indian Union in 1950.

4. Summary

The Coinage and Currency of the Indian Princely States began in the late Mughal period due to the Empire’s decline.It soon grew in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the British tried to stop the Princes from issuing its coinages. However, the coinages and currency notes of some rich and powerful Princely States survived into the twentieth century till the independence of India and the formation of Indian Republic in 1950.

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