156 



KNOWLEDGE, 



[July 1, 1899, 



keep in readiness in gold and silver abont two millions in all the 

 cities, without being discovered to the king or any of the court. . . . 

 The day being appointed, she sent away messengers to all the 

 cities, commanding them on that date to coin rupees of gold and 

 silver to the value already mentioned. . . . The thing was so 

 suddenly done, especially in the cities near at hand, that within 

 two hours after she was sate upon the throne, she caused several 

 quantities of that gold and silver to be thrown among the people, 

 which during the reign of JahSngir went currently for rupees. 

 But when Sidtan Kliarram, who took upon hira the name of Shah 

 Jahfm, came to the throne after the death of his father, he forbade 

 all persons to use those rupees upon pain of death, and commanded 

 all that had any of them, either in gold or silver, to carry them to 

 the mint, where they should receive the T:ilue of them, to the end 

 they might be melted down. For which reason they are at present 

 very rare, particularly those in gold. Among the rest, two or three 

 of them are so hard to be found that an hundred ci-owns has been 

 given for one of them. The rupees of gold are worth one-aud- 

 twenty livres of our money, and those of silver thirty sous. The 

 queen, during her reign of twenty-four hours, had that respect for 

 the king that, on the back-side of the pieces, whereon the twelve 

 signs were engraven, she caused the name of Jahfmgir to be 

 stamped with her own, and the name of the place where they were 

 coined, all in Arabic letters."* 



" One is tempted to regret the necessity to relegate this 

 artless story to the domain of fiction. But its refutation 

 comes from the coins themselves, for the dates they bear 

 cover no less a period than nine years, the Higri years 

 from 1026 to 1034. Still, that there is a substratum of 

 truth in the legend may perhaps be granted from the fact 

 that at least three of the zodiacal coins do present the 

 name of Nar Jahfm. These are : («) A gold Sagittarius 

 of 1035, now at Paris ; (//) a gold Cancer of 1034, mint 

 Ajmir, once in the possession of the late Hon. Mr. James 

 (iibbs ; (c) A silver Leo of 1028, described a century ago 

 by M. Anguetil du Perron. f 



" The many evident errors in Tavemier's narrative not- 

 withstanding, I confess I should be surprised if ' my lady 

 magnificent,' who at this time so distinctly held the */>/< 

 of ' predominant partner ' in matters imperial, should 

 prove to have been entirely innocent of connection with 

 these zodiacal coins, forming, as they do, a series quite the 

 most beautiful of all issued in Jahangir's reign. That he 

 himself claims them as ' my own innovation,' ; scarcely 

 determines the question, for, as Talboys Wheeler says, 

 ' Jahangir always exaggerated ; he never told the truth in 

 anything.' j 



The emperor's own account is given in the Wagi'at-i- 

 Juhdnglri : — 



" ' Formerly it was customary to strike my name on one side of 

 the coin, and that of the place and the month and the year of the 

 reign on the reverse ' — this, we have already seen, had been the 

 custom during the seven preceding years, that is, from 1020 to 

 1027 H. — ' It now occurred to my mind,' Jahfingir adds, ' that 

 instead of the name of the month the figure of the sign of the 

 Zodiac corresponding to the particular month should be stamped. 

 . . . . This was mv own innovation. It had never been done 

 before.' "— Dowson's " Elliot," YI., 357. 



" Of the zodiacal coins it would seem that ' with one or 

 two exceptions the gold muhrs were all struck at Agra and 

 the silver rupees at Ahmadsbad.' This at least was the 

 conclusion arrived at by the late Honourable Jlr. James 

 Gibbs, C.S.I., and communicated to the Bombay Branch 

 of the Eoyal Asiatic Society in a paper read by him as 



* " The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier," made English by 

 J.P., 167S Edition, page 11. 



t " Notes on the Zodiacal Rupees," by the Hon. J. Gibbs, in 

 Journal of the Bonihaij Branch of the M.A. Sociffi/^ Vol. XIV., 

 No. 36 pages 157, IGO, and li. M. Catol. Mughal Emperors, page 

 LXXXI., Note *. 



J Dowson's " Elliot," VI., 3.57. 



§ Talboys Wheeler : " History of India," Vol. IV., Part I., page 

 203, Note 20. 



President in the year 1878. (Jo. B.B.E.A.S., No. 36, 

 Vol. XIV.) 



" Of all these zodiacal coins, the reverses, struck from 

 dies probably engraven by a European artist, and one of 

 no mean order, exhibit on a background of solar rays 

 some one of the conventional signs of the zodiac, while in 

 a few eases (Cancer, Leo) even the stars of the constella- 

 tions are represented. Beneath the sign comes the regnal 

 year 13 and the phrase ' Sanah Julus,' or, in the case 

 of Gemini, Cancer and Scorpio, the word ' Sanah ' alone. 



" Of the complete series of the twelve zodiacal Ahmadabad 

 rupees it will be seen that four (Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius, 

 and Aquarius) are quite unrepresented in the published 

 catalogues. That all the twelve were issued there is no 

 room to doubt, and James Forbes, writuig his ' Oriental 

 Memoirs ' in 1813, expressly states : ' I once saw an entire 

 collection of these rupees in silver, and a few others procured 

 by chance of the same metal.' ('2nd Ed. IL, 215.) While 

 poor imitations of the whole series are still sometimes 

 exposed for sale (in Bombay I have been ofi'ered the twelve 

 for Es. 25), it is much to be feared that the complete sets 

 formerly met with, as Forbes quaintly puts it, ' in the 

 cabinets of the curious,' have long since been broken up 

 and dispersed." 



It will be observed that in the preceding paragraph Dr. 

 Taylor is confining himself entirely to the question of the 

 silver rupees minted at Ahmadabad. As the plate (which, 

 by the kind permission of the Keeper of the Department 

 of Coins and Medals at the British Museum, we are 

 enabled to give) shows, the British Museum collection of 

 coins contains representatives of every one of the signs 

 for the gold mohurs, minted at Agrah, and several forms 

 for some of them. The plate contains nineteen of the 

 mohurs, the twentieth giving an example of the inscription 

 on the reverse. Of the eight signs known to exist of the 

 Ahmadabrid rupees, the British Museum collection con- 

 tains all but Pisces, the last coin in the plate being a 

 reproduction of the reverse of one of the silver rupees. 

 I am indebted to Mr. E. J. Piapson, ji.a., to whom I would 

 here desire to express my great obligation, for the casts 

 from which the photograph was taken. 



In a large number of cases the design is evidently 

 European. Numbers 1 and 21 show us the typical ram 

 of Aries with the reverted head, significant, no doubt, of 

 the position of Aries as the last and not the first of 

 the signs of the zodiac at the time when they were 

 originally mapped out. Number 22 — the Taurus rupee — 

 gives us again the traditional figure, the half bull charging 

 from out of the cloud, which we still have in our atlases. 

 Numbers 2 and 3 are, however, more strictly Indian in 

 design, showing the humped Indian BnU in fuU figure ; 

 and the two examples face different ways, showing that the 

 artist attached no significance to the direction in which 

 the sign was turned, and that strict astronomical accuracy 

 was not sought by him. Numbers 4 and 23 — the Twins — 

 follow the Indian and not the European zodiacs, in 

 representing a man and woman, and not the Dioskouroi. 

 This form — the man and woman — is common to nearly 

 all the Oriental zodiacs, but we have seen its place taken 

 on a Burmese zodiac by a single female figure. The Crab, 

 Numbers 5 and 24, is a very spirited figure, and stands in 

 high and sharp relief. The Lion, Numbers 0, 7, and 25, 

 is one of the poorest designs, and can scarcely have been 

 due to the same artist who designed Numbers 5,14, and 22. 

 It will be seen that the Lions in Numbers 6 and 7, like 

 the Bulls, face different ways. Three forms for the Virgin 

 follow : Numbers H and !) are, without doubt, of Indian 

 design ; Number 10 recalls the conventional one known 

 in Europe. The Scorpion is shown under several forms, 



