46. NUMISMATIC SUPPLEMENT No. XXIV. 



Vote. — The numeration of the articles below is continued 



from p. 256 of the "Journal and Proceedings M for 

 1914. 



138. The Ahom Coins of a.d. 1648. 



The Ahom coins dated 1570 Saka, or a.d. 1648, have 

 hitherto been attributed to Susengpha or Pratapa Singha. 

 (Vide Mr. Gait's Report on the Progress of Historical Research 

 in Assam; Mr. Allan's paper on The Coinage of Assam, in 

 the Numismatic Chronicle 1909, pages 300-331, and Mr. Staple- 

 ton's Contributions to the History and Ethnology of North- 

 Eastern India, II, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal, Vol. VI, No. II). 



The inscriptions on these coins, which are in Sanskrit, 

 are as follows : — 



(i) Obv. Sri Sri Svarga Narayana devasya Sake 1570. 



Rev. Sri Sri Hari Hara carana paraydnasya 

 (ii) Obv. As on (i) 



Rev. Sri Sri Hari Harendra carana parayanasya* 



As Mr. Gait explains at page 103 of his History of Assam, 

 Pratapa Singha was also known as Buddha Swarga Narayana 

 on account of his great wisdom, and it has usually been 

 assumed that the coins in question were minted by Pratapa 

 Singha under a variation of this title. 



This attribution however is not free from difficulty. 

 According to the Buranjis or Assamese chronicles, which can 

 usually be trusted in the matter of chronology, Pratapa 

 Singha died in a.d. 1641. It is true that Kasinath places 

 his death in a.d. 1649, but Kasinath 's history was published 

 as late as a.d. 1844, and there is nothing to show on what 

 his date was based. It is not impossible that he was influ- 

 enced by the existence of the coins dated 1648, and attributed 

 to Pratapa Singha. Mr. Gait in his History discredited 

 Kasinath and preferred to rely on the Buranjis. Both Mr. 

 Allan and Mr. Stapleton regard the 1648 coin as proving 

 that Mr. Gait was mistaken, but the fact remains that the 

 earlier authorities are unanimous in stating that Pratapa 

 Singha died seven year3 before the date of these coins. There 

 is another difficulty in the attribution of the coins to Pratapa 

 Singha. Even assuming that he lived to a.d. 1649, it seems 

 scarcely likely that, in a reign of 38 years, he should coin only 

 in the year before his death. The usual practice of the Ahom 



