Chapter 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.