478 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1914. 



Bengal and the United Provinces, is but the first instalment of 

 a work designed to record the chief types of copper coins that 

 have at any time been issued in any part of India. So large 

 an undertaking calls for much courage as well as much skill 

 and diligence, and we trust that Mr. Valentine will see the 

 completion of a work he has so bravely faced. 



This Part I naturally contains a considerable amount of 

 what may be regarded as matter introductory to the entire 

 series. Unfortunately a Table of Contents is wanting, an omis- 

 sion the more to be regretted inasmuch as so many varied subjects 

 have been included in the preliminary 58 pages. The " Intro- 

 duction," in the first four of those pages, deals with the more 

 personal elements in the preparation of the book, and thus might 

 more appropriately have been styled a Preface. Then from 

 pages 5 to 29, we have a M History of India." This is neces- 

 sarily the merest outline, and contains little more than the 

 names of the different dynasties that at one time or another 

 held sway over the various portions of the country. It is well, 

 however, to have the sequence of these dynasties indicated so 

 clearly as they are in the marginal insets. Next follow ( 1) 

 chronological lists of the Sultans of Dehli, also of the English 

 sovereigns from the founding of the English East India Com- 

 pany; (2) the characters of the Hindustani alphabet, both in 



Persi-Arabic and in Devanagari ; (3) the numerals in Arabic, 

 Persian, and Hindustani; (4) a glossary of words and phrases 

 present on the coins, also of poetical legends or couplets; (5) a 

 note on eras, followed by a comparative table of the Christian and 

 the Hijrl years; (6) notes on the weights and denominations of 

 the coins ; and (7) a list of abbreviations. It will thus be seen 

 that a large portion of this section is purely elementary. The 

 glossary will be helpful for reference, but both here and in the 

 couplets the transliteration is faulty and the vowel-marks are 

 sadly defective. Surely one does not now-a-days represent <3 by 



k t or yfm by see or ^ifjj t^U by sahib kirani (p. 45) ; nor does 

 one write Urdibihisht, or soubah, or faius, or raij, or butayid. 

 How is it possible to transliterate &**> as khalifat (p. 41) or as 



khalifat (p. 42) ? Unless vowel- marks be indicated with abso- 

 lute accuracy, it were better, I fancy, not to employ them at all. 

 After this somewhat extensive preliminary portion the 

 book proper begins, pages 59 to 80 being assigned to the coins 

 of Bengal and Burma, and pages 81 to 123 to those of the 

 United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Here we have, along 

 with further " history " of the districts specified, excellent 

 lithographed Plates, twenty-two in all, and facing each Plat 

 a page describing in detail each coin represented. This is the 

 really valuable portion of the book, and it is of quite excep 

 tional value. The drawings of the coins, though lacking in 

 shade, are beautifully clear, and much care and skill have been 



