Chapter VI: The Coinage of Mālwā

Mālwā, annexed to the Dehlī kingdom by ’Alāu-d-dīn in 1305, became an independent state under the governor, Dilāwar Ḵẖ̱ān G̱ẖ̱orī, in 1401. His son, Hoshang Shāh (1405-32), initiated the coinage. The province, after incessant wars with Gujarāt, attained its widest limits under the usurping minister, Maḥmūd I, Ḵẖ̱iljī (1436-68). But after a civil war, in 1510, a steady decline set in, and in 1530 Bahādur Shāh of Gujarāt captured Mandū, the capital, and the country remained a province of his kingdom for four years. It was next captured by Humāyūn. Then, from 1536 to 1542, it was ruled by a Gujarātī governor, Qādir Shāh. Finally it was governed by Bāz Bahādur, a son of Sher Shāh’s nominee, Shujā’ Ḵẖ̱ān, from 1554 to 1560, when it was conquered by Akbar and made a Mug̱ẖal province.

The first seven Sultans struck coins in all three metals. Maḥmūd I introduced billon, and this was employed also by his three successors. The characteristic feature of the Mālwā coinage is the square shape, also introduced by Maḥmūd I; he and his successor, G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh (1469-1500), struck both square and round coins, but from the reign of Nāṣir Shāh (1500-10) the square form is used exclusively. The gold pieces of the first two kings follow the Dehlī style. Maḥmūd, however, introduced a new type for the reverse, dividing the face of the coin into two equal parts by lengthening the tail of the last letter “yē” in his name, Ḵẖ̱iljī. G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh used a similar band on both faces (Pl. IX, 3), and this is a mark of almost all succeeding coins in both shapes.

The square base silver pieces of Maḥmūd II (1510-30), with the inscriptions enclosed in circular and octagonal borders, are the finest coins of the series. The rebel, Muḥammad II (1515), the Gujarāt king, Bahādur, the governor, Qādir Shāh, and Bāz Bahādur struck copper coins only. The mint name, Shādīābād (Mandū), “City of Delight,” is inscribed only on coins of the earlier kings.

With the reign of G̱ẖ̱īyās̤ Shāh a series of ornaments begins to appear on the coinage; the purpose of these is uncertain, but they seem to be connected with the dates of issue. Like the Bahmanīs, the Mālwā sovereigns use elaborate honorific titles for their inscriptions. Perhaps the most striking is one of Maḥmūd I, who calls himself “_The mighty sovereign, the victorious, the exalted in the Faith and in the world, the second Alexander, the right hand of the Khalifate, the defender of the commander of the faithful_.”

The tradition of the square shape lingered on in Mālwā and the neighbourhood long after the extinction of its independence; curious crude little pieces were struck, probably for a century at least, with a mixture of Mug̱ẖal, Mālwā and Gujarātī inscriptions. Square copper Mug̱ẖal coins were struck at Ujjain up to the time of Shāh Jahān I, and Saṅgrāma Siṁha of Mewar (1527-32) also modelled his copper coinage on that of Mālwā.