Vol VI, No. 11.] History & Ethnology of N.-E. India— II. 641 



[N.S.] 



of the reverse. Mr. Botham suggests that this may refer to 

 Gaurinatha's age at the time, and the probability of the sugges- 

 tion is evident from the following argument derived from the 

 Buranji dates. Lakshmi Sirhha was the youngest son of Rudra 

 Simha who died in 1636. Hence Lakshmi when he died in 1702 

 must have been at least 66. He is not likelv to have had a son 

 before he was 15 or 16, so that Gaurinatha, his eldest son, was 

 probably not born till 1652. If Gaurinatha happened to have 

 been born in this year, his age in 1716 would have been 64, 

 which is a sufficiently close approximation to 68 for us to assume 

 that Mr. Botham 's supposition is correct. It follows from this 

 that Gaurinatha was born in 1648, while the age of Lakshmi 

 Simha (67) at the time of his death would appear to have been 

 understated by Mr. Gait. 1 Gaurinatha evidently ceased to 

 acknowledge his indebtedness to the British as soon as they left 

 the country and the half-coins of the following year clearly bear 

 R.Y. 16. Rupees of 1717, like the later ones of 1716, have no 

 regnal year number. 



With regard to the muhur of 1718, noted by Mr. Allan as 

 being in some other Cabinet than that of the British Museum, 

 it is, indeed, possible that this coin is a posthumous one struck 

 by the Burha Gohain while he was arranging for the accession 

 of Kinaram (Kamale^vara) ; but as Gaurinatha is stated to have 

 died on December 19th, 1795, while the Sfika year 1718 only 

 began on April 9th, 1796, it is hardly likely that Gaurinatha's 

 death could have been concealed for nearly 4 months. In this 

 case, therefore, 1716 should probably be read for 1718, just as 

 with the first quarter-rupee of Rudra Simha there was con- 

 fusion between 1616 and 1618. 



In addition to the coins already catalogued by Messrs. 

 Vincent Smith and Allan with obverse reading £H Sfi Hara 

 Gauri charanaravinda (or kamala) makaranda madhukarasj/a, 

 Gaurinatha introduced various changes in the inscription on the 

 reverse of his coins in the year 1706. The chief one is a com- 

 plete reversion to the inscriptions found on Rudra Simha's 

 rupee. 



Obverse. Reverse. 



(1) SH ffri mat sva (1) SH Sri Ha 



(2) rga deva S'ri Gau (2) ra Gauri pa 



Sake 



Simhasya (3) d ambuja madhu 



(4) karasya 



(5) 5 (< Sim ha' facing Right.) 



[S. C. and B.] 



The Daflating find also placed the Shillong Cabinet in 

 possession of a unique series of half-rupees, many with Regnal 



1 History, p. 188. There is also contradiction between the state- 

 ment made on this page and that found at the top of p. 184. 



