Chapter I: The Coinage of the Governors and Sultans of Bengal

Bengal was brought into subjection to the Dehlī kingdom in 1202 (A.H. 599) by Baḵẖ̱tiyār Ḵẖ̱iljī, who became the first governor of the province. Till 1338 it was nominally ruled from the capital, Lakhnautī, by independent governors; but at least six of these issued coins in their own names; and after 1310 there was a divided governorship, the rulers of East and West Bengal each assuming the right to coin. Independence was gained under one of the rulers of East Bengal, Faḵẖ̱ru-d-dīn Mubārak; and, after a year of discord, Shamsu-d-dīn Ilyās Shāh, in 1339, brought the whole province under his control. From 1339-1358 Bengal was ruled by four dynasties, the house of Ilyās Shāh, 1339-1406 and 1442-1481, the house of the Hindu rāja, Ganesh, 1406-1442, the Ḥabshī kings, 1486-1490, and the house of the greatest of Bengal kings, ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain Shāh, 1493-1538. Bengal was then ruled from Dehlī by Sher Shāh and his family; then independently from 1552-1563 by younger members of his dynasty; and finally by three sovereigns of the Afg̱ẖān Kararānī family till 1576, when Bengal became a province of Akbar’s empire.

Gold coins of Bengal are very scarce, and but one billon coin, of the governor G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Bahādur (1310-1323) has been found. The place of copper, it is supposed, was supplied by cowries. Silver coins are known of twenty-nine out of the fifty-six governors and sultans, but the silver is inferior in purity to the Dehlī coins; and that of the Sultans is struck to a local standard of 166 grains: they are frequently much disfigured by countermarks and chisel-cuts made by the money-changers. The coins of the governors and Sultans until Shamsu-d-dīn Ilyās Shāh show Dehlī influence in fabric and inscription, and this influence reappears occasionally later. The issues of the earlier governors bear the Kalima on the obverse; for this later governors substitute the name of the last Khalif of Bag̱ẖdād, Al Must’aṣim. The independent kings adopt various titles expressing their loyalty to the head of Islām, such as “_The right hand of the Khalif, aider of the commander of the faithful_” and “_Succourer of Islām and the Muslims_.” The convert, Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad (1414-1431), revived the use of the Kalima, which is continued with two exceptions by all his successors till ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain Shāh’s reign. The most usual personal titles are “_The mighty Sultan_,” or “_The strengthened by the support of the Compassionate_,” but certain rulers adopt striking formulæ of their own. Shamsu-d-dīn Ilyās Shāh, following ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Dehlī, called himself “_The Second Alexander_,” and Sikandar Shāh (1358-89) was evidently imitating Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq in “_The warrior in the cause of the Compassionate_.” One of the most curious and interesting titles appears on a coin of ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain; it runs as follows: “_The Sultan, conqueror over Kāmrū and Kamtah and Jājnagar and Urīssah_,” alluding to his invasions of Assam and Orissa.

The coinage assumes a characteristic local type first under Sikandar (Pl. IX, 1), son of the founder of the house of Ilyās, and henceforth there is much variety of design, the Sultan’s name and titles being enclosed in circles, squares, octagons, sometimes with multifoil borders or scalloped edges; margins occur more usually on the reverse only, sometimes on both sides, in which are inscribed the mint and date in Arabic words. Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd I (1442-59), abolished the marginal inscription; and from his reign the mint name and date, in figures, appear at the bottom of the reverse area. For some of his coins Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad used _Tughra_ characters, which, owing to the up-strokes being elongated to the upper edge of the coin, give the curious appearance of a row of organ-pipes. It must be admitted that the majority of Bengal coins are entirely wanting in artistic form, the depths being reached perhaps in some of the issues of Ruknu-d-dīn Bārbak (1459-74); the calligraphy is of the poorest quality; and the Bengali die-cutters frequently reveal their ignorance of Arabic. The fine broad coins of the two Afg̱ẖān dynasties display an immediate improvement; they are identical in form and inscription with the Dehlī Sūrī coinage, and are struck to Sher Shāh’s new silver standard. A special feature of the Bengal coinage is the number of its mints; twenty-one names have been read on the coins, but it is uncertain whether some of these are not temporary names for better-known towns. The most important mints were Lakhnautī, Fīrozābād, Satgāon, Fatḥābād, Ḥusainābād, Naṣratābād and Tānda. Also certain coins are inscribed as struck at “The Mint” and “The Treasury.” The broad silver coins of the little state of Jayantāpura, though struck two centuries after the independent coinage of Bengal had disappeared, seem to be a late echo of the popularity it achieved, particularly in the neighbouring hill states.