162 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [April, 1910. 



wounded and narrowly escaped capture. In the following 

 year, however, the fortune of war changed, and after the 

 Muhammadan leaders Bangal, Taju, Turbak and Husain Khan 

 had been one after the other slain, the Musalman forces broke 

 and fled. The pursuit continued as far as the Karatoya river, 

 and before returning the Ahom commander is said to have sent 

 an envoy to the King of Gaur with presents and received back 

 a princess for the Ahom King. (Gait, History, pp. 87 — 92). 



At the time in question, A.H. 934 — 939, Nasrat Shah was 



still on the throne of Gaur, but his brother Ghiyasu-d-Din 



Mahmud is also found issuing coins as co- ruler (cf. Bloch's 



notice of the Jasodal find — J.A.S.B.,_Proc, 1898, page 172). 



Prinsep states, on the authority of the Asam Buranji of Huliram 



Dhaikiyal Phukan, 1 that Assam was invaded by Dulal Ghazi, 



son of Husain Shah, in 1498. and immediately afterwards, 



in the same connexion, come the names of Musundar Ghazi 



and Sultan Ghiyasu-d-Din. This clearly points to the Great 



Vizier having been none other than Ghiyasu-d-Din Mahmud, 



and the suggestion is strongly supported by two facts — {a) that 



(as noted below) the Assamese coinage is based on a type of 



coinage simultaneously in use both by Nasrat Shah and Ghiya- 



su-d-Din, and (6) that (as recently pointed out by Walsh in the 



Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1908 — Coinage of Nepal, 



pp. 685 — 688) the Nepalese under Jaya Mahendra Malla, King of 



Kathmandu from 1566 to 1576, shortly afterwards adopted Ghiya- 



su-d-Din's characteristic coinage, with a small circle in the 



middle of the coin, as a model for a new type of coin for use 



both in Nepal and Tibet. The pattern of coin might well have 



been taken to Nepal by Nara Slmha, brother of the Koch King 



Nara Narayan, who, after being defeated by his brother, fled 



there for refuge about 1540 (Gait, History, p. 48); but (on the 



analogy of the coin of Ava referred to later) it is also possible 



that the Tibetans, in addition to supplying the silver for the new 



coinage, also supplied the type coin, which they could easily 



have obtained through their relations with Bhutan (Gait, idem, 



p. 49). In any case, however, this strange influence on the 



coinage of Nepal, Tibet and Assam could hardly have been 



exerted unless Ghiyasu-d-Din had exercised for a considerable 



period military influence at the base of the_Himalayas. 



Up to the reign of Suhunmiin, the Ahoms do not appear 

 to have needed any regular coinage, but as soon as Suklenmiin 

 succeeded to the throne in 1539, after killing his father Siihun- 

 mun, we find coins being issued, modelled either on a type of 

 Nasrat Shah's coins minted in A.H. 927, or less probably, on a 

 unique undated coin of Ghiyasu-d-Din Mahmud of a similar type, 

 which is wrongly ascribed in the Indian Museum Catalogue, Vol. 

 II, Part II, No. 217) to Nasrat Shah. This affiliation will be 



1 Blochmann, Koch Bihar and Asam, J.A.S.B., 1872, p. 79, note. 



