July 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



155 



Xuiuber of stars of the 17tli raa^tude that "i 



ought to he seen within a cin-le of 1 decree I 



of diameter according to the relationship | 



indieat«d by the Uranometria Oxonieiisis. J 



Ditto ditto ditto by my own \ 



observations. ) 



Actual number counted in a circle of 1 degree ] 



in the photograph published in the February - 



number of Knowled&e. I 



33,noo 



5,000 



1,12S 



Upon the whole I think it very probable that faint stara 

 are actually less numerous than they should be on the 

 hypothesis of equal distribution in space, and that the 

 apparent increase of density shown by the Duichmusteniiiii 

 is really due to the magnitudes of faint stars being over- 

 estimated. 



THE ZODIACAL COINS OF THE EMPEROR 

 JAHANGIR. 



By E. Walter Maunder, f.r.a.s. 



THAT acute critic in Wonderland, Alice, remarked 

 " What is the use of a book without pictures or 

 conversations " ; and we are afraid that to the 

 ordinary lay mind unversed in numismatics, the 

 great majority of Muhammadan coins must lie 

 under the same ban. For, in accordance with the exhorta- 

 tion of the Qur'fin (Sura, v. 92), " ye who believe ! 

 verily wine and al maisar and statues and divining are 

 only an abomination of Satan's work ; avoid them that 

 haply ye may prosper," as a rule such coins bear only 

 inscriptions, but no device. 



There are, however, some exceptions, and these of much 

 more than ordinary interest, to which our attention was 

 called during our stay in India some sixteen months ago. 



It was our great good fortune, when passing through the 

 city of Ahmadabiid, that most interesting capital of the 

 ancient kingdom of Gujariit, to be introduced to Dr. 

 George P. Taylor, m.a., who not only constituted himself 

 our guide to all the chief buildings of the city, but who 

 treated as to a sight of his collection of silver rupees, the 

 most complete in the world after those of the public 

 museums of Calcutta and Lahore. Hardly a year is 

 wanting in the succession of coins that recall the history 

 of the great Moghul Empire from the accession of 

 Akbar the Great, whilst the reigns of the Sultans of 

 Gujarat, stretching backwards some two centuries earlier, 

 are well represented. It was the rule of these sultans that 

 impressed upon Ahmadabfid its striking and characteristic 

 architecture — Muhammadan ideas being carried out in 

 Hindu workmanship. 



Amongst these our attention was at once caught by 

 several coins, which not only appeared beautiful even to 

 our unpractised eyes, but which were evidently also astro- 

 nomical. These were some of the zodiacal rupees of the 

 Emperor Jahsaglr, son of Akbar the Great. 



The story of how these coins, which seem so distinct an 

 infraction of the Muhammadan rule which forbids the 

 making of " any graven image, or any likeness of any- 

 thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth 

 beneath, or that is in the water under the earth," came to 

 be struck is a very interesting one. Neither Akbar nor his 

 son and successor Jahiingir were at all bigoted Muham- 

 madans. The former, indeed, was a decided eclectic, and, 

 in accordance with his exceedingly broad views, had married 

 a representative of each of the three great faiths with 

 which he was acquainted — the Christian, Muhammadan, 

 and the Hindu. Jahanglr, or Prince Selim, as he was 

 called before his succession, was the son of the Muham- 

 madan wife, but with the influence of his father's example 



before him it was not perhaps surprising that he held his 

 mother's creed but laxly. 



A far more potent influence came into his life when a 

 Persian, named Kwfija Ghyfis-ud-Din, accompanied by his 

 beautiful wife, and yet more beautiful daughter, visited 

 his father's court. With the latter, Mehr-un-Nissa by 

 name, he fell desperately in love. The emperor, in order 

 to prevent the m-'tnllianci', hurried the beautiful Persian 

 into marriage with a valiant Turk of the name of Shere 

 Afgan, whom he appointed as Deputy-Governor of Burd- 

 wan. Shere Afgan did not long survive his royal master, 

 owing to circumstances upon which the new emperor, 

 Jahanglr, has not thought fit to enlarge in his Memoirs. 

 It was not, however, until six years later that Mehr-un- 

 Nissa was married to the emperor, under the title of Nur 

 Mahal (" Light of the Palace"), changed two years later 

 into the title by which she is best known, Nar Jahan 

 ("Light of the World"). 



The extraordinary influence which this great queen 

 exercised is a well-known fact of history, and is illustrated 

 by coins both in silver and in gold, which bear her name 

 along with that of her husband. Dr. George Taylor, who 

 has kindly allowed me to quote freely from a paper of his, 

 writes concerning these coins : — " As in the history of the 

 Mughal Emperors of India she alone of all the Queens- 

 Consort wielded practically supreme power, so of all the 

 I Queens-Consort her name alone is found on any purely 

 Indian coin. On the coins of a much earlier date the 

 name of Sultana Ridiya does Lndeeil occur, but she was 

 for three years a Queen Regnant (a.d. 1236-1239). The 

 rupees of Xur Jahun are still occasionally to be found in 

 the bazars of Gujarat. My collection contains twelve, of 

 which nine were struck at Surat, between the Hijrl years 

 1038 and 1036, one at Labor in 1034, and two at 

 Ahmadabild — a very rare issue — in 1036 and 1037. Other 

 mints of this coin are Agrah and Patna. The legend, 

 covering both the obverse and the reverse, runs : — 



"Bv the order of Jahingir Shah, gold has gaiued a hundred 

 splendours through the name of Nur JahSn PiidshilU Begam." 



" The jeweller Tavernier, whose travels took him into 

 Persia and India about the year a.d. 1670, records at length 

 how the famous zodiacal muhrs and rupees came to be 

 struck during the four-and-twenty hours that Jahanglr 

 permitted his wife to reign in his stead. On these coins, 

 instead of the name of the month of issue, was stamped 

 the figure of the sign of the zodiac corresponding to the 

 particular month. 



" The story, as recounted by Tavernier, runs thus : — 



"One day that the kiug was extremely well pleased, and having 

 drunli briskly began to be merry, after the queen had danced in his 

 presence, he took her and sat her by him. piotesting to her that he 

 loved her above all the princesses in his court. . . . The queen 

 seeing the king so highly affected towards her, failed not to make 

 use of so favourable au opportiuiity. * To which purpose, sir,* said 

 she, 'if it be true that your majesty has that kindness for me of 

 which you would persuade me to assure myself. I know you will 

 grunt me one favour which I have passionately desired a long 

 time ; that 1 may only reign as sovereign the space of twenty-four 

 hours.' This request surprised the kiug. and kept him .sad for some 

 days, being unwilling to deny her anything, and yet being as loath 

 to grant her a boon of so high a nature. In the meantime the 

 queen plied the king with pastime and divertisements, pretending 

 to take no notice of his melancholy. At length, the fifth day 

 after she had made her petition, the king, no longer able to resist 

 her sharras, nor the strong passion he had for her. told her he 

 would retire for twenty-four hours, and that she might assume the 

 absolute command of the kingdom during that time. ... It was 

 a long time before that the queen had made everything ready, and 

 that she had secretly hoarded up great quantities of gold and silver 

 in all the cities where the mints were appointed, and had distributed 

 the stamps as she thought convenient. And indeed it was a 

 wonderful thing that a woman should so politically carry on so 

 great a design as to have four-and-twenty stamps engraved, and to 



