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



ic (Coin) of His Majesty (deva) "A bee on the lotus of the 



Rudra Simha of surpassing twin feet of Hara and 



beauty, Lord of Saumara, Gaurl" 

 (struck) in $aka 1619 " 



Saumara l was the former name for the country round Sib- 

 sagar, and the title of Saumare&wara is found in the inscriptions 



as 



as 



ditya. 2 



An explanation of the dearth of coins of 1628 and 1629 is 

 found in the fact recorded in the Buranjis, that an expedition 

 against the Kacharls started in December, 1706 A.D. Rudra 

 Simha left Rangpur for Rah a on the Kalang, south-west of 

 Nowgong, where he remained until, apparently, February, 1708, 

 when the captured Kacharl and Jaintia Kings were brought 

 before him and both kingdoms annexed. An interesting 

 fact recorded by Mr. Gait in connexion with this campaign 3 is 

 that the booty^ included 12,000 pieces of silver minted by 



m, Ahom, Koch and Jaintia Kings. The absence of 



Muhammad 



Kacl 



Kach 



not mint coins of their own. The only specimen of Rudra Sim- 

 ha' s gold coinage appears to be the muhur in Mr. Botham's 



— ■ a ^ a _* ^m _— . — - h a _ A ^ 



Cabinet, dated 1620. 



havin 



dra of Rudra at the beginning of the third line of the obverse, 

 while the 'Simha' faces left instead of right as in the rupees. 

 A reproduction of this coin will be found as Fig. I, Plate 

 XXVII. 



No Ahom coins of Rudra Simha under his Ahom name 

 Sukh(r)anpha, < the terrible tiger of Heaven, 5 have yet come 

 to light. 



■ 



Siva Simha. 



The coins of Siva Simha, Rudra Simha' s eldest son, con- 

 stitute the most interesting series of Assamese coins, owing to 

 the fact that he permitted the names of his various wives to ap- 

 pear on the coinage. The succession of coins issued during Siva 

 Simha's reign will be understood from the following Table, winch 

 gives the dates of all known rupees. Rupees either of Siva 

 Simha alone, or jointly with one of his wives, exist for every 



, 



1 The old kingdom of Kamrup is said in the Yoginl Tantra to have 

 been divided into a number of Pithas, or sacred divisions, each dedicated 

 to biva and bhagavati (Durga). ' Saumara, which was one of the more 

 recent additions to these (perhaps dating from Ahom times), signifies the 

 ~ untry of "Him who holds the Moon (on his forehead)," i.e., S'iva. 



* <^ait, Report, Appendix I, p. 29. 



8 History, p. 173. 



