624 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1910. 



a buffer state, the western and southern border line of Assam 

 formed the North-Eastern frontier of Mubammadan India. 

 The first coin minted in Assam raises a question as to the 

 accuracy of the Buranjis. The striking of new coinage was, in 

 later years, the invariable accompaniment of installation, 1 and 

 except in the case of Gadadhara's coins no evidence exists to 

 show that coins in Ahom script were ever struck, except to 

 mark this occasion. Either therefore the Buranjis are wrong 

 in stating that Siihunmun was assassinated in 1539, or his son 

 does not appear to have been formally installed on the Singari- 

 ghar at Charaideo until four years later. It is of course pos- 

 sible that Siiklenmun did not begin to strike coins until after 

 he had been on the throne for some time, but if this was done 

 in the first instance, it is not clear why the system of an annual 

 coinage was limited to the coins in Bengali script that began to 

 be issued at a much later date. 



The numismatic record for the period between Suklenmiin s 

 coronation and Gadadhara's accession in 1681 is very incomplete, 

 but besides the Ahom coins a system of annual coinage was intro- 

 duced at some date prior to 1648. This will be dealt with in 

 the next section. The only fairly large collection of Ahom 

 coins is that belonging to the British Museum, and the few 

 other coins, that exist are probably all duplicates of those at 



London. Ahom coins of the following Kings are known : 



1. Siiklenmiin, 15th year of 17th taosina — 1 543 A.D. 



2. Siinatpha (Udayaditya), 21st year of 19th taosina = 

 1669. 



3. Siihun, 27th year = 1675. 



4. Siipatpha (Gadadhara), 33rd year = 1681. The com- 

 paratively large number of varieties of Siipatpha' s coins, differ- 

 ing in the presence or absence, and position, of the ornamental 

 Simha, the bird, and the " rising sun," rather point to the issue 

 of fresh coins at intervals throughout his reign with the main 

 inscription and date unaltered. 



5. Pramatta Simha (Sunenpha), 36th year of 20th 



tooaina=1744, 



6 Raje&vara (Surempha)/ 2 43rd year =1751. 



All Ahom coins have practically the same inscription. 



1 Gait, op. cit., p. 232; vide also Marsden, Numismata Oriental^ 

 p. 797, for an account of the minting of coins at the installation of Raj s 

 Ram Ganga Manikya of Tippera in 1821. 



* The meanings of the Ahom names of these Kings are as follows : — 



Suklenmun~-/S# t tiger ; k( l)en 9 splendid ; mfift, country— 4 The splendid 

 tiger of the country. ' 



Su-nat-pha — » The handsome tiger of heaven (pA5). 5 



Sii-huh — 'The great tiger. 5 



Sii-pat pha— < The club(-like) tiger of heaven/ 



Sii nen-pha— * The brave tiger of heaven.' 



Sii rem-pha— * The tiger from the border (rem\ of heaven.' 



