250 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1914. 



7. Obv. : Sacred tree within enclosure and front part of 

 elephant. Kh. legend, on top, (Ma) hadevasa. 



Rev.: Three-storeyed temple, trident, with banners, below 



snake. Br. legend: on top (Ma) hadevasa ra (Ha); to right 

 Rudradasasa. 



8. Obv. : Sacred tree inside enclosure and front part of 

 elephant. Kh. legend : on top Mahadevasa rana ; to left 

 Rudradam (sa). 



Rev. : Three-storeyed temple, below snake. Traces of Br. 

 legend on top ; to right Odu (m) barisa. 



R. D. Banerji. 



135. Bairata or Barar ? 



[Plate XXI.] 



Some time ago M. Muhammad Abdus-Saboor, who is en- 

 gaged in cataloguing the coins of the Nagpur Museum, sent me 

 a cast of a rupee of Akbar of the type hitherto supposed to have 

 issued from the Bairat Mint, He expressed some difficulty in 

 reading the mint name as Bairat and suggested that the word 

 looked more like " Barar." 



Appreciating his difficulty, I corresponded with some of 

 the members of the Numismatic Society of India on the sub- 

 ject and eventually by the kindness of Mr. Framjee Jamasjee 

 Thanawala was able to procure two other rupees of the same 

 mint on which the terminal letters of the mint name were 

 more clearly visible than is usual on coins of this type. An 

 examination of these coins satisfied me that there was good 

 reason to prefer the reading Barar to Bairat or Bairata. This 

 view was strengthened by the comparison of the coins with 

 rupees of Akbar of Elichpur, the capital of Barar (Varhad). 



The fact that Barar was the name of a subah and not of a 

 town need, I think, be considered no obstacle to the acceptance 

 of the proposed reading. We know that there are rupees 

 of Akbar assigned to the subah of Bangala, whereas in later 

 times there are instances of coins *^ &.*> w > (struck in the 

 subah of Awadh). 



Mughals by treatv in 1004 



i 



the 41st year of Akbar's reign, and as far as I know there are 

 no so-called " Bairata " rupees which bear an earlier date 

 than 42 Ilahi. 



On the other hand fulus from the Bairata mint are known 

 with dates as early as 971.* I have myself two of 979 and 980 

 a.h. in these coins the <fcj at the end of the mint name are 

 quite distinct and bear no resemblance to the terminal letters 

 of the mint name on the rupees in question. Further the 



1 Burgess, Chronology of Modern India, p. .IS. 

 * I.M.C., Vol. Ill, No. Mi9. 



