134 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XII, 



Obverse, 





Reverse 



»l 



,J ; U* 



This is in the cabinet of Mr. R. B. Whitehead, I.C.S. 



Bareilly. H, Nelson Wright 



167, The Bijapur Rupees of 1091 a.h. 



I should like to say a few words about the rare Rupees of 

 1091 a.h. (24 R. ), which were " issued in Aurangzeb's name 

 six years prior to the capture of Bijapur" by the Mughals. 

 (Wright, I.M.C. xxxviii). Dr. G. P. Taylor has shown in Num. 

 Supp. XV, art. 92, that there is no reason for questioning the 

 reading of the date, and Mr. Whitehead also has accepted the 

 fact of the issue from Bijapur in that year of " Rupees and 

 half Rupees of Aurangzeb's usual silver type" (P.M.C. lix). 

 But our knowledge of the actual circumstances under which 

 these curious coins were uttered is still far from being complete 

 or free from doubt and surmise. Dr. Taylor has described how 

 that city was closely besieged in 1090 a.h, by Aurangzeb's 

 general, Diler Kban ( not Dilawar Khan ), how the investment 

 was vigorously pressed in spite of the noble sacrifice of 

 Badshah Bibi, how the regent Mas'ud Khan begged for the 

 aid of Shiwaji, and how the Mughal commander was obliged to 

 raise the siege in consequence of the Marathas having cut off 

 his supplies. Dr. Taylor has not mentioned his authority, but 

 it was evidently Grant Duff ( Bombay Reprint. 1873, pp. 126- 

 130), though the same events are summarised with his usual 

 skill in "the despatchlike narrative'' of Elphinstone also. 

 (Cowell's ed. 1866, pp. 646-Y). Now Grant Duff says that 

 " Diler Khan was compelled to abandon all hope of reducing 

 the place," and that, when at the end of the rains, he 

 attacked the open country and laid waste the Carnatic, 

 Janardhan Pant " completely defeated him, intercepted his 

 parties, cut several of them to pieces and compelled him to 

 retreat" ( I, p. 130 ). But if the result of the siege was really 

 so infructuous and abortive as Dr. Taylor's authority makes it 

 out to have been, how can we account for this undoubted 

 exercise by Aurangzeb of the sovereign right of issuing 

 money 1 Dr. Taylor offers us the choice of two suppositions. He 

 thinks it probable that " while the siege was proceeding, and 

 while capitulation seemed imminent, the powerful Mughal 

 faction in the city •■ caused these coins to be struck, 



