4 N. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.8., XVIII, 
It was in the latter part of the year 1202 A.H. that the 
infamous Rohilla chief Ghulam Qadir Khan occupied Dehli 
and seized the Fort together with the persons of the hapless 
Shah ‘Alam and of the royal household. He put out the eyes 
of the unfortunate emperor and in his place elevated one of the 
young princes to the throne under the name of Bedar Bakht. 
This Bedar Bakht was son of Ahmad Shah Bahadur and grand- 
son of Muhammad Shah. Coins were struck in his name and 
a few specimens are known. The metals and mints are :— 
A’. Ahmadabad, Shahjahanabad. 
AR. Do. i 
Ai; Ahmadabad. 
As far as I know, the copper coin still remains a singleton 
silver is scarcer than gold. The dates are 1202 and 1203 A.H. 
but only the first regnal year appears; the reign lasted two 
months. 
e can only conjecture why coins of Bedar Bakht were 
struck at Ahmadabad as history is silent on the point. His 
power, or rather that of his Rohilla master cannot have ex- 
tended far from Dehli itself. In his excellent paper on ‘The Post 
Mughal Coins of Ahmadabad,’ published in Numismatic Supple- 
ment No XXII (J.A.S.B., 1914), Mr. A. Master, I.C.S., shows 
that the end of the reign of Ahmad Shah Bahadur sees the last 
of the issues of coins by the Mughal emperors in Ahmadabad ; 
that is to say, subsequent issues were struck in the names of the 
regnant emperors by Marathas and later by the British and were 
of a fashion distinct from the true imperial type. A striking 
exception was the Bedar Bakht issue. This interrupted the 
series issued in the name of Shah ‘Alam, all of which bore a 
local symbol. The Bedar Bh&ht coins on the contrary were of 
the imperial Shahjahanabad type. Mr. Master held that these 
were true Mughal coins and that although bearing the name of 
Ahmadabad they really hailed from the capital. He cited the 
parallel of the Ahmadabad coins of NadirShah. “ The desire to 
assert a claim over a wealthy and important city like Ahmada- 
bad which was nominally under Mughal rule, would appear to 
have been sufficient inducement for the striking of these coins 
by Nadir Shah and Bedar Bakht,” J.A.S.B., May, 1914, page 
166. This is only a partial explanation because a few rare Ah- 
which were struck just at this critical period in the name of 
Shah ‘Alam himself. Coin 2858 illustrated in Plate XVIII of 
the second volume of the Panjab Museum Coin Catalogue, 1914. 
isa gold piece of 1202 A.H. Ihave referred to this in N.S. XXV, 
p- 233. One or two silver and copper coins of this exceptional — 
issue have been discovered in the last six years. A compari- 
