A NOTE ON THE COINS OF THE SULTANS OF BENGAL IN THE COLLECTION OF PATNA MUSEUM, BIHAR

Journal of Bengal Art, Vol. 18, 2013, 143-158

10

A NOTE ON THE COINS OF THE SULTANS OF BENGAL IN THE COLLECTION OF PATNA MUSEUM, BIHAR

Sutapa Sinha

Introduction:

In the present paper, an attempt will be made to bring into light the importance of a small

collection of thirty-five silver coins of the Governors and Sultans of Bengal lying unnoticed in the

reserve collection of the Patna Museum since 1916. An account of the coins acquired by the

museum from earliest date to the latest one have been enumerated in chronological order along

with significance of their history of collection. An attempt has also been made to show how

physical examination of the coins in the museum collection may complement the coin hoard study

and vice-versa. Since a previous study of the coin hoards of the Bengal Sultans has thoroughly

been carried out by the present author,1 it was known that a small number of coins from a very

important hoard of 322 silver coins unearthed from Ketun in Narayanganj Sub-division, Dhaka,

Bangladesh in 1918 are being preserved in the coin cabinet of Patna Museum.2 Coins of the

Bengal Sultans recovered from a small find unearthed in Mahespur in 19183 and another small

hoard of 16 coins discovered from village Nawdiha much later in 1933,4 both from the district of

Santhal Pargana, Bihar, are supposed to be preserved in the coin cabinet of the Patna Museum.

This was due to the policy of the Government of India before independence of disbursing

coins among the Museums of importance in the whole of British India (including present

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar) and also in England.

Till date, there is no published catalogue of this huge number of more than 20,000 coins preserved

in the collection of Patna Museum but there are a few articles published in the Indian Numismatic

Chronicle, (a journal published by The Bihar Research Society, Patna from 1960 to 1974) where

Curators of the Museum or other scholars have published intermittently brief description of a

group of coins from the collection of the Patna Museum. In 1961, Shri S.A. Shere, the then

Curator of the Patna Museum has published a simple catalogue-type list of Non-Muhammadan

coins (Gold 9, Silver 149 and Bronze 1) and Muhammadan Coins (Silver 178, Billon 1 and Zinc

1) acquired by the Patna Museum during the years 1959 to 1961 in the Indian Numismatic

Chronicle.5 In the same year, Dr. H. K. Prasad published another article on Indo-Greek coins of

the Patna Museum, in the second part of the same journal, where a number of 113 coins have been

published in catalogue form.6 In the introduction of his article he has mentioned that ‘Presently

144 JOURNAL OF BENGAL ART

the huge collection of twenty thousand coins cannot be expected to be published at a time in one

issue of a Journal or Chronicle, I am, therefore, publishing it in parts and dynastic-wise’.7 Though

we do not find any other article of Dr. Prasad in continuation of his first article on the collection

of Indo-Greek coins as he mentioned that out of 136 coins of Indo-Greek coins, he has published

113 coins in the first article (mentioned above) and rest will be discussed in the next issue.

In the Vol. V, Part- II of Indian Numismatic Chronicle, another article on coins of Babur and

Humayun in the collection of Patna Museum was published by Ram Janma Prasad including the

catalogue of 88 Mughal coins (only of Babur and Humayun) in the Patna Museum as an appendix

and with three black and white plates of selected coins.8 In continuation, Prasad published another

article on silver coins of Akbar in Patna Museum where 178 coins have been simply listed as the

author himself commented that “No coin of the collection needs any special attention” and hence

he had furnish a simple list mentioning the Accession No, mint, date and remarks for each

specimen. All these articles are quite important so far as part publication of coin collection of the

Patna Museum is concerned. In view of the above fact, present article may be considered as the

latest one in the list which will bring into light 35 silver coins of the Bengal Sultans preserved in

the collection of Patna Museum since 1916.

On 29th September 2012, the author had the rare opportunity to get access to the reserve

collection of the Patna Museum to examine and study the coins of the Sultans of Bengal.9 An

intensive study and observation revealed the fact that this collection consists of coins of some

other finds and hoards of the same series mentioned above and found from Bangladesh and Bihar

apart from a few pieces from other states of India too, like Orissa and Punjab. The paper will

elaborate how important is the study of coins and their history of collection lying in the public

museums to understand the importance of coin hoards and vice-versa and their relevance towards

monetary history of a particular period.

The earliest year of acquisition of coins of the Bengal Sultans in the coin cabinet of the Patna

Museum is 1916. So far as date of entry of the Accession Register is concerned, it was acquired

on 5th January, 1916 which is a coin of last Afghan Sultan Daud Shah Kararani found from village

Id of Angara Police Station of District Ranchi, Bihar. It was donated by Govt. of Bihar and Orissa

(vide letter No. 40 F dated 5.1.1916 and its accession No. is 141). This piece of coin is in very

good state of preservation conforming type B983, p. 262 of CIS10 dated 986 but mint name is not

very clearly visible (Plate 10.1). Compare to the type of the CIS, it may be an issue of Tanda

mint. The find spot of the coin mentioned in the museum record does not lead us anywhere

because till date no coin hoard or find discovered from village Id of Ranchi has yet been reported

in any numismatic literature.

A NOTE ON THE COINS OF THE SULTANS OF BENGAL 145

Plate 10.1: Daud Shah 141. Plate 10.2: Sikandar Shah 172.

Plate 10.3: Azam Shah 173. Plate10.4: Nusrat Shah 660.

Plate 10.5: Firuz Shah 661. Plate 10.6: Muhammad Shah Ghazi 1608.

Plate 10.7: Nusrat Shah 1609. Plate 10.8: Sikandar Shah 2348.

Plate 10.9: Azam Shah 2345. Plate 10.10: Muhammad Shah 2343.


Plate 10.11: Muhammad Shah 2344. Plate10.12: Jalal Shah 7016.

Plate 10.13: Nusrat Shah 8845. Plate 10.14: Nusrat Shah 8846.

Plate 10.15: Nusrat Shah 8848. Plate 10.16: Husain Shah 12542.

Plate 10.17: Nusrat Shah 12539. Plate 10.18: Firuz Shah 12545.

In the same year two more coins of the

same series were acquired by the museum on

24.04.1916 which were donated by

Government of Bengal (vide letter no. 655

dated 24.04.16). Accession numbers of these

two coins are 172 and 173. The find spot of

these coins is mentioned in the register as

Plate 10.19: Ibrahim Shah 15456.


village Bara Rajpur, district Khulna, Bengal which is now in present Bangladesh. From the earlier

study of coin hoards of Bengal Sultans, we knew that around 1915 one coin hoard of 100 silver

coins was discovered from Khulna though actual find spot has not been mentioned in the 6 pages

report by H.R. Nevill.11 Thus considering the year of discovery in 1915 and the year of deposition

in April, 1916 it seems highly probable that these two coins of Sikandar Shah and Azam Shah

might owe their origin to Khulna hoard. Moreover, the donation of these two specimens was

made by the Government of Bengal to the Patna Museum and this fact makes chances of

confirmation of our assumption higher. The coin of Sikandar Shah (Acc. No. 172) is a Firuzabad

issue where date written on the margin is obscured and of very common type similar to B181, p.

172 of CIS (Plate 10.2). The coin of Azam Shah is heavily incrusted with mud and other

impurities and it seems to have never received any kind of cleaning operation after acquired by

the museum. However, it is an issue of Firuzabad mint which can be conjectured with difficulty

but the date is completely beyond decipherment (Plate 10. 3). Type of the coin is similar to type

B242, p. 180 of CIS and normally bear a date ranges between 803-810 AH, i.e. in the later part of

Azam Shah’s rule in the beginning of 15th century.

In 1918, a small number of three coins of Bengal Sultans were acquired by the Patna

Museum, one each of Nusrat Shah, his son Firuz Shah and his brother Mahmud Shah. Their

accession numbers are 660, 661 and 662 respectively. The Accession Register says that the find

spot is village Mahespur, district Santhal Pargana, State of Bihar and Orissa and these were

donated by the Government of Bihar and Orissa vide letter no. 2768 dated 28.02.1918. In 1970,

an article was published by H. K. Prasad who mentioned about a small find of 6 coins from a

village called Mohispur12 (and not Mahespur as mentioned in the Accession Register) in Santhal

Pargana district, out of which 3 coins were donated to Patna Museum and three others to Indian

Museum, Madras Museum and Delhi Museum. We have no doubt that Mahespur and Mohispur is

the same place as other facts remain same. However, all three coins from Mohispur find

preserved in the coin cabinet of Patna Museum were struck from the mint of Fathabad and two of

them have date figure 925 (sic 965) and 933 respectively on coins of Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah and

Ghiyath al-din Mahmud Shah. The coin of Nusrat Shah is of a very common type with crude

calligraphy and similar to B811, p. 245 of CIS with Dar al-darb Fathabad having standard date

A.H. 925. (Plate 10.4 – Acc. No. 660) The specimen of Firuz Shah is also of very common type

struck from Fathabad mint but without any date (Plate 10.5 - Acc. No. 661). The legend and

enclosure arrangement matches with type B874, p. 251 of CIS. The third coin of this group is of

Mahmud Shah, the last Husain Shahi Sultan of Bengal and it is a very crude example of Fathabad

type ‘Badar Shahi’ tanka with a date 933 on the obverse of it. This type is similar to B901, p. 254

of CIS.


1922:

In March, 1922, two more coins were donated by the D.G.A. through the Officer-in-charge,

Indian Museum, Archaeological Section (vide letter no. 829/IM dated 14.05.21) to the Patna

Museum, one of Muhammad Shah Ghazi (Acc. no. 1608) and the other of Nasir al-din Nusrat

Shah (Acc. No. 1609). No mention of find spot is mentioned in the Museum record and thereby

we cannot ascribe them to any probable find or hoard unearthed in and around 1922. But this coin

of Muhammad Shah Ghazi is of a type which is extremely rare and it conforms to type B961, p.

260 of CIS which is of Chunar style (Plate 10.6 - Acc. No. 1608). All coins of Muhammad Shah

Ghazi are struck with mint name Arkan and this specimen is no exception while the date is 962

AH. The coin is in mint condition and may not have been circulated in the market for a long

before it went to hibernation phase of its deposition. The other coin of Nusrat Shah is also of

special note (Plate 10.7 - Acc. No. 1609). It is a Tirhut Mardan tanka which was struck from the

plunder of Tirhut by Sultan Nusrat Shah but we are not sure whether coins with the phrase ‘Tirhut

Mardan’ were actually struck at Tirhut or elsewhere. The type is similar to type B841, p. 248 of

CIS and generally do not bear any date.

1923:

Eight coins of Bengal Sultans namely Ilyas Shah, Azam Shah and Muhammad Shah were

acquired by Patna Museum through a donation of Government of Bengal in September 1923.

(vide letter no. 1940 dated 12.09.23). For this group of coins, the find spot mentioned in the

Accession Register is village Ketun, Narayanganj sub-division, district Dacca. Undoubtedly, all

these eight coins belong to one of the most important coin hoards of the Sultans of Bengal ever

discovered since 19th century and ascription of these coins to the Ketun hoard may well be

established through the pioneering work on this coin hoard by Nalinikanta Bhattasali.13

By analyzing the coins of this trove Bhattasali was able to reconstruct the correct chronology

of the early independent Sultans of Bengal which holds well even today. After Edward Thomas’s

pioneering essays on the “Initial Coinage of Bengal”14 in two parts, Bhattasali’s work was the

next and more brilliant attempt to use coins as a source material for establishing the chronology of

the period and in a way, his work ably supplemented that of Thomas. It may also be mentioned

here that unlike Thomas’s work which is full of errors, Bhattasali’s monograph is precise, incisive

and more or less free from errors. Credit goes to Bhattasali for fixing a correct chronology of the

Early Independent Sultans of Bengal as early as in 1922. In fact, it was from their discourses and

research, scholars were able to frame the correct order of political history of medieval Bengal, i.e.

from the time of the first Muslim conqueror of Bengal to Jalal al-din Muhammad Shah, the last of

the early Independent Sultans of Bengal.


Now we may discuss about the hoard itself which was found in the wall of a deserted house

belonging to one Mahendra Kumar Das of village Ketun. The Police had been able to seize the

whole of the find before any of coins could be disposed off or concealed. A number of three

hundred forty six silver coins were found in a copper lottah. The coins present in the hoard

roughly cover a span of 125 years. The collection period of the hoard starts with the coins of

Ghiyath al-din Bahadur Shah, the last Governor of Bengal who ruled in first quarter of 14th

century (1322-1332 AD) and was detained as a captive for sometime in Delhi during the reign of

Muhammad bin Tughlaq. The latest dated coin in this hoard is of Jalal al-din Muhammad Shah,

the converted son of Raja Ganesh ‘urf Danuja Marddana Deva who ruled till fourth decade of the

15th century (1415-1433). Coins of Muhammad Shah are found to be largest in number (122

coins) present in the hoard followed by the coins of Ghiyath al-din Azam Shah (72 coins),

Sikandar Shah (60 coins), Shihab al-din Bayazid Shah (34 coins), Shams al-din Ilyas Shah (33

coins). As though the hoard starts with a single specimen of Bahadur Shah and the first

independent Sultan of Bengal Fakhr al-din Mubarak Shah, but it thoroughly represents coins of

two consecutive dynasties of Medieval Bengal namely Ilyas Shahi house and Ganesh Shahi

house. Silver coins of all six rulers of the former house and three rulers of the later house are

present in the hoard and made the hoard a unique example of long-term saving hoard without any

gap. This particular feature of a continuum perhaps helped Bhattasali to make a neat attempt to

reconstruct the history of early Independent Sultans through metallic evidence.

Now the question may arise how a coin-hoard recovered in Dacca in 1918 found its way to

Patna Museum, Bihar in 1923? Three hundred forty six silver coins of this hoard was acquired

under Treasure Trove Act of 187815 and disposed off among many museums in colonial India and

UK in the following manner:

1. Indian Museum received 54 coins

2. Dacca Museum received 101 coins

3. Bombay Museum received 23 coins

4. Lucknow Museum received 23 coins

5. Delhi Museum received 16 coins

6. Lahore Museum received 15 coins

7. Nagpur Museum received 13 coins

8. Shillong Museum received 12 coins

9. Peshwar Museum received 10 coins

10. Queta Museum received 9 coins

11. Ajmeer Museum received 8 coins

12. Patna Museum received 8 coins


13. Rangoon Museum received 6 coins

14. British Museum received 2 coins only

Remaining 46 coins were offered for sale and bought by the Dacca Museum and therefore a

total number of 147 coins of Ketun hoard are deposited in the collection of the Dacca Museum.

This kind of information is very rare to find in the reporting of the coin hoards and in case of

Patna Museum we are fortunate enough to come across such reporting where disposal of the coins

is mentioned in the respective publication. However, in case of eight coins of Ketun hoard, it took

5 years to be acquired by the Patna Museum after its discovery in 1918.

However, these eight coins were donated by Government of Bengal (vide letter no 1940 dated

12.09.1923) and they were accessioned to the collection on 15.09.1923. Two coins each of Ilyas

Shah (Acc. Nos. 2349 & 2350), Sikandar Shah (Acc. Nos. 2347 & 2348), Azam Shah (Acc. Nos.

2345 & 2346) and of Jalal al-din Muhammad Shah (Acc. nos. 2343 & 2344) are preserved in the

coin cabinet of the museum from Ketun Hoard. Coins of Ilyas Shah are similar to B153 and B154,

p. 169 of CIS respectively, the former was struck from Firuzabad mint while the latter may be

ascribed to Satgaon issue. Mint name written on the reverse of the coin is badly damaged beyond

decipherment but a comparison of the die pattern of this specimen with that of the coin published

in the Catalogue indicates its Satgaon origin. Sikandar Shah’s coins are good examples of his

coins of crude type struck from Firuzabad mint and fine type struck from Muazzamabad mint,

probably in different point of time during his reign. The coin which was struck from Firuzabad

mint (Acc. No. 2347) is of very bold and crude type, similar to B181, p. 172 of CIS while another

one struck from Muazzamabad mint is quite fine in execution and similar to B194, p. 175 of CIS

(Plate 10.8 - Acc. No.2348). Neither of these coins retains their date due to partly cut and partly

mutilated margins. Both coins of Azam Shah (Acc. Nos. 2345 & 2346) are Hadrat Firuzabad

issues but are produced out of different dies and thus conform to B241, p. 179 & B242, p. 180 of

CIS (Plate 10.9 - Acc. No. 2345). One coin of Jalal al-din Muhammad Shah is an issue of Arsah

Chatgaon mint struck in 823 AH (Plate 10.10 - Acc. no. 2343) while the other one is a rather

crude variety which is similar to B335, p. 192 of CIS and may have been struck in Muazzamabad

(Plate 10.11 - Acc. No. 2344).

So far as the state of preservation of the coins are concerned, Bhattasali mentioned in his

report that the condition of the coins was satisfactory and most of them needed simple washing

and some numbering 50 needed chemical treatment to get rid of the incrustations. It appears from

the present condition of the coins deposited in the Patna museum in 1923 that they never received

any kind of cleaning operation so far and thus retaining the original mud incrustation on those.

1928 & 1929:

On 06.05.1928 one single coin of Ghiyath al-din Jalal was purchased from G.J.M Hamilton

for Rs. 1300. Locality or find spot for this coin of Jalal Shah is mentioned as Allahabad (Acc. No.

7016). The date on the coin is 969 AH while mint name is not clearly visible. It is similar to the

type B972, p. 261 of CIS (Plate 10.12 - Acc. No. 7016). Two important points may be taken into


consideration regarding this specimen. The price mentioned is Rs.1300 and it seems quite

unreasonable to buy a silver coin of the Afghan Sultan of Bengal in the year 1928 for Rs.1300. In

all likelihood the Museum bought a sizeable number of coins from Mr. Hamilton for Rs. 1300,

out of which one was of Sultan Jalal al-din Muhammad Shah of Bengal. Another important point

is its location. Till date the author has analysed almost sixty published and unpublished coin

hoards of this series and never found mention of Allahabad yielding any coin hoard of Bengal

Sultans. The furthest find spot of the coin hoards of the series under question is Darbhanga and

Bhagalpur in Upper Bihar. Therefore, further investigation is needed about the probable source of

this coin. Or else, it could be simply a part of the private collection of Mr. Hamilton which he sold

to the museum in 1928.

Another coin of the Nusrat Shah was added to the collection on 09.11.1929 through

presentation of Government of Bengal (vide letter no. 11405-07-P dated 30.9.29 to 8.10.29) and

the provenance or locality of this coin is not mentioned in the Accession Register.

1933:

A group of eight coins, all of Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah, were acquired by the Patna Museum

in 1933 (vide memo no. 8343 'R' dated 16.07.1933) and these were presented by Government of

Bihar and Orissa. The locality mentioned in the Register is village Nawdiha, P.S. Pareyahab,

district Santhal Pargana. However, exact date of find is not mentioned here and it is not expected

also. But when we find the report of this small hoard, it is mentioned that on 26th April, 1933 a

small hoard of sixteen coins belonging to Husayn Shahi Sultans was found from village Nawdiha

(Manikpur), P.S. Parayahat of Santhal Pargana district in Bihar. It was reported much later in

Indian Numismatic Chronicle in 1970.16 The name of the Police station is mentioned as Pareyahab

in the Register while the author, H. K. Prasad mentioned it as ‘Parayahat’. He further mentioned

that while digging earth from field of one Kino Pandit of village Nawdiha (Manikpur) a labourer

named Masudi Liya discovered this hoard of 16 silver coins in an earthen pot. It seems that he

gathered all these detail information regarding the discovery of the hoard from the concerned

Government department because the Museum Register does not bear any such information.17 The

state of preservation of the coins is not mentioned in the report in INC but it can be assumed that

the coins are in good condition of survival since all the dates on Nusrat Shah’s coins could be read

by the reporter. But typological details have not been described for any of the coins in this report

though Prasad has mentioned the mint name and the date for the fourteen coins of Nusrat Shah.

Surprisingly he did not mention anything about two remaining coins of Husain Shah present in

the hoard. Now, as we have studied these eight coins of Nusrat Shah of Nawdiha hoard preserved

in the Museum, typological classification could easily be done along with their respective mint

and date. Considering the variation of legend, their arrangement as well as their enclosure

variation, eight coins may be classified into seven different types according to CIS, the latest

catalogue of the Indian Sultanate period. Given below are Accession numbers of coins, their mint

names and date along with classified type number of CIS:


Eight coins of Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah are as follows:

Acc. Nos. 8842 & 8843 - Dar al-darb 925 & Fathabad 89 respectively, Type –B 810, p. 244 of

CIS;

Acc. No. 8844 & 8845 - Nusratabad 927 & Khairabad 926 respectively, Type – B 832, p. 247 of

CIS, Rare;

Acc. No. 8846 – Chatgaon 932 (date written in reverse order), Type – B 804, p. 244 of CIS,

extremely rare;

Acc. No. 8847 – Dar al-darb 931 (?), Type – B 805, p. 244 of CIS;

Acc. No. 8848 – Arsah 929, Type – B 790, p. 242 of CIS, very rare;

Acc. No. 8849 – No mint, no date.

On physical examination of coins, the present author found that decipherment of mint name

on a couple of coins was not correctly done by the previous author. Mint name Khairabad was

wrongly read as Khilafatbad on the coin bearing Acc. No. 8845 (Plate 10.13) while Chatgaon was

read as Hukumat with a doubt on the coin bearing Acc. No. 8846 (Plate 10.14). The date on the

same coin was read as ‘_23’ which the present author read as ‘932’, written in reverse order and

which was quite a common practice followed in the coinage of the Husain Shahi Sultans of

Bengal. According to gradation made in the CIS, both of these coins are rare and the latter being

extremely rare. Another coin with mint name and date ‘Arsah 929’ is also quite rare (Plate 10.15 -

Acc. No. 8848). Thus, coins of Nawdiha hoard, even in its truncated state, may claim the credit of

presenting a few coins which are still considered as extremely rare in the market throughout the

world.

Another very important point to be mentioned here is, unlike most of the other reporting of

the hoards, a small hoard like Nawdiha (16 coins), found in 1933 and was reported for the first

time in 1970, is quite comprehensive as we find detail mention of dispersion of the coins. Out of

this small hoard of sixteen silver coins, Patna Museum received eight coins of Nusrat Shah which

have been discussed above. The other museums who received coins of Nawdiha hoard are -

Indian Museum, Kolkata which received two coins of Nusrat Shah while Lahore Museum, Lahore

(presently in Pakistan), Rangoon Museum (presently in Myanmar), Madras Museum, Chennai and

Nagpur Museum, Maharastra, each received single specimen of Nusrat Shah’s coin. The

Ravenshaw College, Cuttack in Odisha and Ajmer Museum in Rajasthan received one coin each

of Husain Shah about which we do not find any mention in the report published by Prasad. It is,

perhaps, because of the fact that there was no detail about these two coins of Husain Shah in the

record preserved in the Government department from where disbursement of coins were made in

1933.

1936:

In 1936, two groups of coins were acquired by the Patna Museum of the series under review,

the first group of three coins of the Bengal Sultans were acquired on 11.10.1936 and second group


of four coins of the same series on 14.10.1936. The former group comprises of a lone coin of Ala

al-din Husain Shah and two coins of his son Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah while the latter group

comprises three coins of Husain Shah and a single coin of Ala al-din Firuz Shah. There is no entry

in the column of ‘Locality’ or ‘Donor’ in the Accession Register though at the end of all these

seven entries, a note was written on 02.11.1936 by A.C. Ghosh (probably the then Curator of

Numismatics of the Patna Museum) saying ‘Coin Register is made over to Mr. Syed Ahsan Shere’

which implies change of immediate custodian of the coin collection of the Patna Museum.

However, the Accession numbers are 12539-12541 for the first group and 12542 to 12545 for

the second group. Neither mention of any coin hoard nor any place name is written in the

Accession Register. Here lies the importance of thorough study on hoard publication because it

may supplement valuable information which can be of immense importance towards tracing the

source of a group of coins acquired by any museum. In the article published by Prasad on coin

hoards from Bihar in 1970 in Indian Numismatic Chronicle18, there is an entry for no. 201

describing a find from village Baijnathpur in P.S. Mohagama, Godda subdivision, district Santhal

Pargana.19 This small find of seven silver coins was unearthed on 2nd March 1935 containing

coins of three Sultans of Husain Shahi house, namely Ala al-din Husain Shah, Nasir al-din Nusrat

Shah and his son Ala al-din Firuz Shah. Prasad has given detail of all these seven coins and at the

end of the entry he has mentioned about their disposition at the Patna Museum. Thus a number of

seven coins, though acquired by the Patna Museum in two separate groups (with a gap of three

days in between) in October 1936, perfectly match with the description of the seven coins of

Baijnathpur find unearthed in March 1935 and reported in 1970. It was perhaps due to official

paraphernalia, it took more than one and a half year to be acquired by the Patna Museum and that

too in two separate groups. Thereby, this group of seven coins of the Bengal Sultans preserved in

the coin room of the Patna Museum since 1936 could now be ascribed to their place of origin or

actual find spot.

The present author has studied and examined these seven coins carefully and tried to tally

mint names and dates appeared on them with those mentioned in the report. They match with each

other quite well. But the detail typological description, which was absent in the above mentioned

report may now be provided as a fresh appraisal.

Given below is a brief detail of those seven coins acquired by the Museum in 1936 and have

been ascribed to Baijnathpur find from Santhal Pargana district found in 1935:

12541 – Ala al-din Husain Shah, Mint Khazanah, date 919, Victory type, B744, p. 238 of CIS

12542 – Ala al-din Husain Shah. Mint Husainabad, date 919, fourth Victory type with Kamta,

Kamru, Jajnagar and Orissa, B741, p. 238 of CIS (Plate 10.16).

12543 & 12544 – Ala al-din Husain Shah, both are of same type, B770, p. 241 of CIS with mint

name Husainabad and date ‘89’ or ‘9’.

12539 – Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah, B811, p. 245 of CIS, Dar al-darb Fathabad, date 925 (89),

(Plate 10.17).


12540 – Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah, B828, p. 246 of CIS, Mint – Husainabad, date 925.

12545 – Ala al-din Firuz Shah, B885, p. 252 of CIS, without any mint and date (Plate 10.18).

1938:

On 23.06.1938, a lone specimen was acquired by the museum through a donation from the

Superintendent of Archaeological Survey of India and Honorable Numismatist to the Government

of Punjab, Agra (vide letter no. 227-II-61 dated 21.6.38). The locality mentioned in the Accession

Register is village Gundla tahsil & district of Karnal, Punjab. The accession no. of this coin is

15456. It is a very rare example of joint coinage of Nasir al-din Ibrahim Shah, Governor of

Bengal (AH 724-25 / AD 1324-25) with Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Sultan of Delhi (Plate 10.19 -

Acc. No. 15456). On this coin, Ibrahim Shah, a son of Shams al-din Firuz Shah used lesser title of

al-sultan al-muazzam while he gave Muhammad bin Tughlaq a higher title of al-sultan al-azam.

Unfortunately, neither a dated specimen has come yet to light nor a mint name appeared on their

coins till date and this is no exception. It may be assumed that this type of joint coins were all

struck from the mint of Lakhnauti, the only mint in operation during 13th and first quarter of 14th

century in Bengal.

1941:

One coin of Ghiyath al-din Bahadur Shah was acquired on 15.10.1941 by the Museum

(Accession no. 222). This piece of metal money was presented by the Raja of Dhenkanol State of

Orissa around 15.10.41 vide letter dated 15.10.41 (letter number is not mentioned in the museum

record). The locality is not mentioned and thus we may assume that it was found somewhere

under the jurisdiction of Dhenkanol state. From our thorough study of the coin hoards of the

Bengal Sultans, no hoard has yet been reported from any region of Orissa. But finding a coin of

later Afghan ruler of Bengal from its neighbouring state of Orissa is not unusual as because

expedition to Orissa was made by the Afghan rulers in the second half of the 16th century.

Gold Coins of Sultans of Bengal in Patna Museum:

It may be important to mention in this context that while studying the article by Prasad,

another small hoard of eighteen gold coins20 came into the notice of the present author which

contained eight coins of the Sultans of Bengal and most importantly all of those were deposited in

the Patna Museum. In this article it is stated that this hoard was found from village Malhepur, P.S.

Chenari, Sasaram Subdivision, Badalgarh forest in Shahabad district on 18th June, 1943. But

unless one gets the chance to examine the accession register, as has been done for all silver coins

mentioned above, it is not possible to know the date of acquisition of these coins by the concerned

museum. Fortunately Prasad has mentioned the accession numbers for some unknown reasons at

the end of the entry against Sahabad hoard like “(Vide: Coin Reg. Serial Nos. 17669-17686)”21,

which may facilitate a future study of these coins of the Patna Museum.

The circumstances of discovery of the hoard is also mentioned by Prasad and in his words,

‘These coins were found scattered on the ground at Badalgarh forest in the foot of the hills near


the Shergarh Fort by an old woman of village Malhepur, P.S. Chenari, Sassaram Subdivision’22.

Prasad has also provided a simple break-down of all these eighteen coins without mentioning their

typology, mint name or date. Out of 18 gold coins of the hoard, 6 coins are of Sultans of Delhi, 8

coins are of Sultans of Bengal, 1 coin is of Sultan of Gulbarga, 2 coins are of Sultans of Jaunpur

and 1 coin is of King of Mysore.

While working on the coin hoards of the Sultans of Bengal, the present author has already

published a critical analysis of this hoard in general and on the eight coins of the Sultans of

Bengal in particular23 based on an article by S.A. Shere published in 194524 where detail

description is available for all those gold coins along with their photographs. Since Shere’s article

was published in 1945, it may be presumed that this collection of eighteen coins was acquired by

the museum sometime between June 1943 and 1945. The present author had analyzed each and

every coin of the Sultans of Bengal and gave a detail classification and observation regarding their

rarity and unique features which is given below: 25

Classification:

Name of the Ruler Mint (in A.H)

Date Type No. of coins

Nasir al-din Mahmud Shah Nil Nil Gold coin. cf. No. 140 of IMC

1

'Ala al-din Husayn Shah Muhammadabad Nil Gold coin. cf. No's. 182-183 of IMC

1

Khazanah Nil Gold coin. cf. No. 169 of IMC.

1

Nil Nil Gold coin of unique type. Rajgor type 500. Not referred in IMC, BMC & Corpus.

1

Not available N.a. Coin was intentionally cut into two pieces by

someone for testing. One piece lost. Obverse inscribed in the negative form and on reverse, name of the Sultan legibly inscribed.

1

Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah Nil Nil Gold coin. cf. No. 137 of BMC

1

Ghiyath al-din Mahmud Shah

Nil Nil Gold coin. cf. No. 228 of IMC.

1

Nil -- 8 Gold coin. Rare type, hitherto unknown.

1


Note: Obverse bears King (1) legend of Corpus (p.130) except the words in ‘Husayn Shah al-

Sultan Khallada Allah Mulkahu wa Sultanuhu’ of the coins of Mahmud Shah.

Reverse bears King (4) legend of Corpus (p. 108) except the words ‘Husayn Shah al-Sultan

bin Sayyid Ashraf al-Husyani Khallada Mulkahu wa Sultanuhu’ of the coins of Husayn Shah.

Remarks: From the description available, this group of gold coins were found on the surface

and as such, in the strictest sense of the term, cannot be termed as a hoard. The coins must have

been assiduously put together by a 19th century gold coin collector possibly caring more for the

gold value than for their antiquarian interest. The find includes some extremely rare gold coins of

four independent Bengal Sultans.

The types are neither included in the BMC or IMC collection nor they have been listed in the

Corpus. Two of these issues, both blunder coins, deserve special mention. In the obverse of one

coin of Husayn Shah, the legend is impressed in the negative. Such coins with inverted legend are

not altogether unknown. The Chandir Jhar hoard (No.31, infra) includes a few better specimens

belonging to the Sultans of the house of Husayn Shah. The other coin issued by Ghiyath al-din

Mahmud Shah is more intriguing. The reverse of the coin bears the familiar "Kamta- Kamru

conquest" legend of Husayn Shah including his name and Kunyat. Unless there is a mistake in the

reading of the legend (the photograph of the coin is too unclear) a coin of Husayn Shah was re-

struck on the obverse side with his Julus name and Kunyat of Mahmud Shah while the reverse

was allowed to remain as it was. Such glaring mistakes reflect on the inept minting system

maintained by the Bengal Sultans.

Very recently, the author had the chance to go through the Accession Register of the Museum

and came to know that this find of eighteen gold coins was presented to the Patna Museum by the

Government of Bihar (vide letter no. 2021R/III T-3/44 dated 17.05.44) which entered into the

Museum on 09.10.44. A short description of eight gold coins of the Bengal Sultans is given below

as has been given for the silver coins:

17675 – Nasir al-din Mahmud Shah, mint name and date – not visible, type same as No.140

of IMC.26

17676 – Ala al-din Husain Shah, Muhammadabad mint, date – nil, type similar to Nos. 182-

83 of IMC.

17677 – Ala al-din Husain Shah, minted from the Treasury, date obscured and type same as

No. 169 of IMC.

17678 - Ala al-din Husain Shah, mint name and date – nil. Unique type and same as No. 500

of Rajgor27 and not referred in IMC, BMC28 and Corpus.29

17679 - Ala al-din Husain Shah, mint name and date – not visible. Blunder coin with negative

impression on obverse and cut into two pieces. Type is difficult to assign.


17680 – Nasir al-din Nusrat Shah, mint name and date – nil, type is same as No. 137 of BMC.

17681– Ghiyath al-din Mahmud Shah, mint name nil and last digit 8 of the date is visible

only. This is also a blunder coin showing obverse inscribed with legend of Husain Shah and

reverse with that of Mahmud Shah.

Through this article presented at the 10th International Congress on Bengal Art in Patna, in

February 2013, the author would like to make earnest request to the authority of the Patna

Museum to make a fresh stock taking of the entire collection and to start preparation of a

catalogue of the coins. As we all know that Patna Museum is one of the best museums in this sub-

continent so far as its collections of antiquities is concerned and therefore a series of fresh

catalogue of its coin collection, either digital or manual, would be highly beneficial to the scholars

and researchers working on any aspect of Indian numismatics.

Acknowledgement:

The author is extremely thankful to Dr. J.P.N. Singh, Director, Patna Museum and Dr. Vijay Kumar,

in-Charge of the Numismatic Section of the State Museums of Bihar. She is much indebted to Dr. Bijay

Kumar Chowdhury, Director, K.P. Jaisawal Research Institute, Patna for giving all necessary support to the

author for her visit to Patna and also to pursue her research work in the Patna Museum.

Notes & References:

1. Sinha, Sutapa, ‘Coin Hoards of the Bengal Sultans: Anatomy of the Hoards’ in Pratna Samiksha, Vol.

6-8, 1997-99, Kolkata, 1999, pp. 136 -242.

2. Bhattasali, N. K., Coins and Chronology of the Early Independent Sultans of Bengal, Cambridge, 1922.

3. Prasad, H. K., ‘Coin Hoards from Bihar’ Indian Numismatic Chronicle, Vol. VIII, pts. I-II, 1970, no.

200, p.98.

4. Ibid, no. 202, p.99.

5. Shere, S.A., ‘List of Coins acquired for the Patna Museum, Patna during 1959-60 and 1960-61’, Indian

Numismatic Chronicle, vol. II, pt. I, 1961, Patna, pp. 143-150.

6. Prasad, H.K., ‘Indo-Greek Coins of the Patna Museum’, Indian Numismatic Chronicle, Vol. II, Pt. II,

1961, Patna, pp. 236-275.

7. Ibid., p.236.

8. Prasad, Ram Janma, ‘Coins of Babur and Humayun in Patna Museum’, Indian Numismatic Chronicle,

vol. V, Part II, 1966-67, Patna, pp. 81- 97, pls. IV-VI.

9. The author is extremely thankful to Dr. J.P.N. Singh, Director of the Patna Museum not only by giving

her verbal permission to study and document the coins in the reserve collection of the museum but also

he has given written permission to publish this article in this international Journal. She is also very

much indebted to his colleagues: Dr. Vijay Kumar, In-charge of the Numismatic section of the State

Museums of Bihar, Mr. Asok Sinha and other staff members of the Museum who have rendered their

help and support in examination and photo documentation of the coins in the reserve collection.


10. Goron Stan and J.P. Goenka, The Coins of the Indian Sultanates Covering the area of present-day

India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, New Delhi, 2001 (Hereinafter referred as CIS).

11. Nevill, H.R., JASB, November & December, 1915, pp. 484-490.

12. Prasad H.K., ‘Coin Hoards from Bihar’, Indian Numismatic Chronicle, Vol. VIII, pts. I-II, 1970, no.

200, p.98.

13. Bhattasali, Ibid.

14. Thomas, Edward, ‘Initial Coinage of Bengal’ in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Part. I, No. 1,

1867, pp. 1-73; ‘Initial Coinage of Bengal under the Early Muhammadan Conquerors’, JASB, Part II,

1873, No. 4, pp. 343-364, pl. X.

15. Sarkar, H, Museums and Protection of Monuments and Antiquities in India, Delhi, 1981, Chapter 8,

p.106.

16. Prasad, H.K., 1970, Ibid, no.202, p.99.

17. While working in the reserve collection of the Patna Museum, the present author examined the

Accession Register and found no such detail information except the place of find, date of acquisition

and number of coins with brief description.

18. Prasad H.K., Ibid, 1970, pp. 44-109.

19. Prasad H.K., Ibid, 1970, no. 201, p. 99.

20. Ibid, no. 210, pp. 103-04.

21. Op. cit., p.202.

22. Op. cit., p.201.

23. Sinha, Ibid, 1999, pp. 197-199.

24. Shere, S. A., ‘Some Unique Gold coins found in Bihar’ in Journal of Numismatic Society of India, Vol.

VII, 1945, pt. 1&2, pp. 41-45.

25. Sinha, op.cit.

26. H. Nelson Wright, Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Vol. II, Varanasi, 1972

(reprint), hereinafter to be referred as IMC.

27. Dilip Rajgor, Standard Catalogue of Sultanate Coins of India, Bombay, MCMXCI.

28. Stanley Lane-Poole, Catalogue of the Coins of the Muhammadan States of India in the British Museum,

London, 1885, hereinafter to be referred as BMC.

29. Abdul Karim, Corpus of the Muslim Coins of Bengal (Down to A.D. 1538), Dacca, 1960.

A NOTE ON THE COINS OF THE SULTANS OF BENGAL IN THE COLLECTION OF PATNA MUSEUM, BIHAR

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Transcript of A NOTE ON THE COINS OF THE SULTANS OF BENGAL IN THE COLLECTION OF PATNA MUSEUM, BIHAR