Vol. X, No. 1 1.] Numismatic Supplement No. XXIV. 

 [N.S.] 



139. Chronology of the Jaintia Kings. 



459 



Mr. Gait described a small collection of the coins of the 

 Jaintia Kings in an article l published in the Journal in 1895. 

 The collection consisted of whole coins of Saka 1591. 1592 

 1630, 1653, 1696, 1704, 1707 and 1712, a quarter coin of 

 1653 bearing the name of Raja Bara Gosain, and a quarter 

 coin of 1712 bearing the name of Ram Simha. The whole 

 coins, as is the case with all known whole coins of the Jaintia 

 Kings, are anonymous. Some of the coins described are not 

 uncommon in Assam, but no fresh coins appear to have been 

 discovered. 



The following is a list of the Jaintia Kings for the period 

 covered by these coins, with the tentative chronology assigned 

 to them in Mr. Gait's History of Assam. 



Date of 



Pratapa Singha 

 Lakshmi Narayan 

 Ram Singh I 

 Jay Narayan 

 Bar Gosain 

 Chattra Singha 

 Bijay Narayan 

 Ram Singh II 



• 4 



Accession. 



1669 

 1678 

 1694 



1708 



1731 

 1770 



1780 

 1790 



Death 



1678 

 1694 



1703 



1731 

 1770 



1780 



1790 

 1832 



The dates in bold type are given by Mr. Gait as conjectural. 



I venture to think that in framing this tentative chrono- 

 logy Mr. Gait has not attached sufficient weight to the pro- 

 bability that all the dates borne by the coins described by him 

 represent dates of accession. The only Jaintia King the date 

 of whose accession is known for certain from other sources is 

 Jay Narayan, who is known from the Ahom Buranjis to have 

 come to the throne in a.d. 1708 (1630 Saka), which is one 

 of the dates represented on the coins. The coins of the Ahom 

 Kings, to which the Jaintia coins are closely related, bore 

 only the date of accession of the issuing ruler until the institu- 

 tion of 



Rudra Singha. 



The Jaintia 



annual 



coinage. 



an annual coinage by 

 Kings do not appear ever to have issued an 

 The coins of 1707 and 1712 Saka are sufficiently common to 

 make it probable that intermediate coins would have been 

 discovered had they existed. The probability therefore is, in 

 my opinion, that, "like the earlier Ahom Kings, the Jaintia 

 Kings issued coins bearing only the dates of accession. 



a.d. 1670 (1592 Saka) was the date of the death of 

 Ahom King Chakradhvaja, and the accession of his successor 



the 



i J.A.S.B. 1895, p. 242. 



