![]() ![]() The western and central part of India consisting of Saurashtra and Malwa (modern Gujrat and neighbouring Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states) was ruled by rulers known as Ksatrapa or Kshatrapas. The early Ksatrapas became independent rulers by carving out a principality on the ruins of Satavahana empire. These kings have minted some of the most fascinating silver coins of Indian numismatic history. The life-like portraits of the rulers of early rulers suggests that different dies were made as king grew older, clearly indicating the high degree of care taken while minting their coinage. These remarkable series of silver coins became extremely popular not only in the western provinces directly goverend by Kshatrapa rulers but also in the adjoining regions, possibly whole of northern and western India. These coins with complete name of ruler, his father's name and date of issue, provided historians necessary evidence for determination of genealogy of not only the Kshatrapa rulers but also immensely helped in deciphering the duration of reigns of their contemporary rulers in adjoining empires. ![]() The coins under the rule of king Nahapana who conquered a large part of western and central India, show his diademed bust with Greek legends on obverse, which is the reminiscent of Indo-Greek coinage. The reverse shows arrow and thunderbolt with legends in Prakrit (in heavily Sanskritized form) written in Kharoshti and Bramhi scripts. All the coins of later Kshatrapas bear the chaitya or three arched hill and river symbol on reverse of their coins, instead of thunderbot and arrow. A coin of Rudrasen bears Bramhi inscription, which reads, Rajanah Ksatrapasa Viradamaputrasa Rajno Mahakstrapasa Rudrasensa, on reverse, which can be translated as King Kshatrapa Viradaman's son King Mahakshatrapa Rudrasena. Guru Nanak laid the foundations of a religious community, which gradually metamorphised into the Sikh Empire, a formidable military power in North Western India. It was with the defeat of Ahmad Shah Durrani at Sirhind in 1710, that the Sikh league also known as Khalsa, came into its own. The whole tract of land between Jhelum and Sutlej was divided among the Sikh chieftains. Around 1777 AD, coins were issued from Amritsar without the name of the Mughal Emperor and were called 'Nanak Shahi'. These coins bore the name of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and the last Guru of the Sikhs. The most distinguished statesman amongst the chieftains was Ranjit Singh who successfully recaptured Amritsar, Ludhiana, Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar. The treaty of 1809, with the British, confirmed his right to rule the tracts he had occupied south of Sutlej. ![]() In Gujarat, Bhattaraka established a new independent kingdom during decline of Gupta Empire. Maitraka family ruled this new kingdom of Valabhi for next 350 years. All the coins issue by Valabhi rulers were in the name of Bhattaraka, who took a title of Senapati, army general. The coins of this dynasty are minted in kshatrapa style depicting bust of ruler (highly stylize in the later issues) on obverse, while reverse depict the trident (shastra or weapon of Lord Shiva) with or without sidearm. The legends are present on reverse written in Brahmi script, which reads Rajno Mahakshatrapa Paramaditya Bhakta Mahasamanta Sri Sarva Bhattarakasa. Post-Gupta era clearly show decline in artistry in coinage. Except few, most rulers hardly paid any attention towards their coinage. Unlike Gupta and Kushan emperors who used their coinage for propaganda and minted fine specimen of numismatic arts, post-Gupta successors rarely experiemnted with their coinage. Most of the time post-Gupta rulers copied motifs from earlier Gupta coinage. Thus often coinage of whole dynasty was struck in name of one (or two rulers) with identical motifs except the later coinage is debased compared to the earliest. Many of these post Gupta rulers were more involved in building temples and other works of art rather than minting coins. ![]() Spalapati Deva first minted the coins of the Hindu Shahi of Kabul in mid-ninth century. Later on the Samanta Deva coinage was used as prototype for increasingly debased coinage struck by many dynasties. The reverse of these well-executed silver coins display a recumbent bull partly draped with an ornamental cloth and stamped with the mark of trident on his rear flank. The gold coins of the Rajput dynasty in Central India, were almost always had stylized Laxmi on obverse, the design of which was essentially derived from Gangeyadeva coinage (originally from Gupta coins), while reverse had name of the ruler in Devnagri script. The weight of these gold coins was maintained to be four and half Masha, which is equivalent to 3.6 gms. The silver coinage was almost entirely copied from Bull-Horseman type coin of Hindu Shahi of Kabul. ![]() Then came the Chauhan dynasty, in the middle of the 11th century. The gold coin of this great king, Vigraharaja, of Chauhan dynasty, is very special as the obverse of coin show Lord Rama, hero of epic Ramayana wandering in forest. A bird like creature (possibly a peacock) is shown in left hand corner. This is very interesting coin and represent only numismatic representation of this favourite deity of Hindus. The obverse also shows the legend Shri Ra Ma writen in Devnagri script. The reverse shows name of King Vigraharaja in Devnagri script. |
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