Component-I (A) – Personal Details
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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 Mumbai. Prof. Susmita Basu Majumdar Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta. 1 Component-I (B) – Description of module : Subject Name Indian Culture Paper Name Indian Numismatics Module Name/Title Coinage of the Indian Princely States Module Id IC / NMST / 33 Pre-requisites Economy and Coinage of the Princely States of India 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 Mughal Empire 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 Bengal, 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 cash 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 currencies 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 currency of these regions assumed a sovereign 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 mint coins which differed drastically from the set Mughal pattern of Persian inscriptions thus creating coins with Devanagari 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 the Hindu VikramaSamavat dates as earlier only the Islamic Hijri calendar dates were permitted by the Mughals. 2 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 legal tender, 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 fineness and weight of the Native Rupees with the British Indian Rupee. 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, Dewas 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 Sanskrit 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 3 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 paisa 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 Saurashtra-Kutch region viz. Junagadh, Kutch, Nawanagar (Jamnagar), Porbandar who initially issued coins of the Kori type which evolved as copies of a very old Gujarat Sultanate era silver coin 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, Travancore, Mysore 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 Rewa whose Maharaja 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 short-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 Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company’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.