Chapter IV: Coinages of the Deccan

The Deccan province, after a series of revolts extending over four years, became finally severed from the Dehlī kingdom in 1347 (A.H. 748). Certain copper coins in the Dehlī style, bearing this date, have been attributed to Nāṣiru-d-dīn Isma’īl, the first officer to assume the state of royalty. But in the same year he was superseded by Sultan ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥasan Bahmanī, founder of a dynasty which ruled till 1518, when its bloodstained annals as an independent kingdom closed, though nominal sovereigns supported the pretensions of royalty until 1525. The earliest known coin of the dynasty bears the date A.H. 757. The kingdom at the height of its power, under Muḥammad Shāh III (1463-82), extended from the province of Berār in the north to the confines of Mysore in the south, and east to west from sea to sea. Until the time of ’Alāu-d-dīn Aḥmad Shāh II (1435-57) the capital was Kulbarga, renamed by the founder of the kingdom Aḥsanābād; Aḥmad Shāh moved the seat of government to Bīdar, which henceforth, under the name Muḥammadābād, appears on the coinage in place of Aḥsanābād. No other mint names have been found.

The gold and silver coins are fine broad pieces modelled on the tankahs of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Dehlī. In the earlier reigns there is some variety in arrangement and design: the legend on the silver of Aḥmad Shāh I (1422-35), for example, is enclosed in an oval border, and there is a gold piece of the versatile bigot, Fīroz Shāh (1399-1422), corresponding in weight and fabric to Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s heavy issue. But by the reign of Aḥmad Shāh II a single design had been adopted for both metals (Pl. IX, 2); on the obverse are inscribed various titles which changed with each ruler; on the reverse appear the king’s name and further titles within a square area; while in the margins are the mint name and date. The legend on the gold coins of Maḥmūd Shāh (1482-1518), perhaps the commonest of the rare Bahmanī gold issues, may serve as an example: obverse, “_Trusting in the Merciful one, the strong, the rich, the mighty Sultan_”; reverse, “_The father of battles, Maḥmūd Shāh, the guardian, the Bahmanī_.” Small silver pieces were struck by the first two rulers, weighing from 15 to 26 grains.

The earliest copper follows closely that of Dehlī, but innovations soon made their appearance, and after the reign of Aḥmad Shāh II coins are found varying from 225 to 27 grains in weight; the copper standard seems to have been continually changed. Some of the titles appearing on the silver are usually to be found on the same ruler’s copper, but many varieties in type are found, especially among the issues of Muḥammad I (1358-73) and the later kings; of Maḥmūd Shāh seven varieties are known, and seven are also known of Kalīmullah, the last nominal king, struck probably by Amīr Barīd of Bīdar.

During the reign of Maḥmūd Shāh the great kingdom of the Deccan was split up into five separate sultanates. Copper coins of at least three of the Niz̤ām Shāhs of Aḥmadnagar (1490-1637) are known: they appear to have had mints at Aḥmadnagar, Daulatābād and Burhānābād. The coinage of Gulkanda is confined to a single copper type, struck by the two last Qut̤b Shāhī kings, ’Abdullah and Abu-l-Ḥasan; the reverse bears the pathetic legend, “_It has come to an end well and auspiciously_.” The copper coins of the last five ’Ādil Shāhī rulers of Bījāpūr are rather ornate, but usually very ill-struck; small gold pieces bearing a couplet are known of Muḥammad (1627-56). Most interesting of all Bījāpūr coins are the curious silver _Lārīns_,[58] or fish-hook money, issued by ’Alī II, 1656-72 (Pl. IX, 10), which became one of the standard currencies among traders in the Indian Ocean towards the end of the sixteenth century. The coinage of the sultans of the Maldive Islands, whereon they styled themselves “_Sultans of land and sea_,” was based on that of Bījāpūr and survived till the present century.

[58] The name is derived from the port Lār, on the Persian Gulf, where this coin was first struck.