4 The Initial Coinage of Bengal. _ [No. 1, 



turbed in many of tbe out-lying districts up to the early part of the 

 present century. The consistent adherence of the people to this simple 

 medium of exchange, goes far to explain an enigma recently adverted 

 to* in my paper on the identity of Kranancla as to the general ab- 

 sence of all specimens of money of high antiquity within certain limits 

 northward of the seaboard, and may serve to reconcile the anomaly of 

 conterminous nationalities appearing in such different degrees of 

 advancement when tried by similar isolated tests of local habitudes. 

 For the rest, the arms of Islam clearly brought with them into 

 Bengal what modern civilization deems a fiscal necessity — a scheme 

 of national coinage ; and the present enquiry is concerned to determine 

 when and in what form the conquerors applied the theory and prac- 

 tice they themselves as yet but imperfectly realized. 



When Muhammad bin Sam had so far consolidated his early suc- 

 cesses in India, into a design of permanent occupancy, leaving a 

 viceroy and generalissimo in Dehli, in the person of Kutb-ud-dm 

 Aibek, while his own court was still held at Grhazni, the scattered 

 subordinate commanders each sought to extend the frontiers of the 

 faith beyond the limits already acquired ; in pursuance of this accepted 

 mission, Muhammad Bakhtiar Khilji, Sipahsdlcir in Oude 7 in a. h. 599 r 

 pushed his forces southward, and expelled, with but little effort, the 

 ancient Hindu dynasty of Nuddeah, superseding that city as the 

 capital, and transferring the future metropolis of Bengal to the prox- 

 imate site of Lakhnauti, where he ruled undisturbed by higher 

 authority, till his own career was prematurely cut short in a. h. 602. 



t -i5'z=:12,000._yiL»Jr=100,000, four hushls were estimated as worth one gold 



dinar; but the rate of exchange varied considerably, so that occasionally a 

 dinwr would purchase as many as twelve hustus, or twelve lakhs of cowries I 

 (French edit , iv., p. 121. Lee's Translation, p. 178.) Sir Henry Elliot men- 

 tions that " in India, in 1740, a rupee exchanged for 2,400 cowries ; in 1756, 

 for 2,560 cowries ; and (1S45) as many as 6,500 could be obtained for a rupee." 

 — Glossary of Indian Terms, p. 373. They were estimated in the currency 

 scheme of 1833 at 6,400 per rupee. — Prinsep's U. T., p. 2. Major KennelL 

 who was in Silhet in 1767-8, speaking of the cowrie money, remarks : " I 

 found no other currency of any kind in the country ; and upon an occasion, 

 when an increase in the revenue of the province was enforced, several boat loads 

 (not less than 50 tons each) were collected and sent down the Burrampooter to 

 Dacca." As late as 1801 the revenues of the British district of Silhet " were 

 collected in cowries, which was also the general medium of all pecuniary trans- 

 actions, and a considerable expense was then incurred by Government in effect- 

 ing their conversion into bullion." — Hamilton's Hindostan, London, 1820, i. 

 p. 195. * J. R. A. S., vol. i. ; N. S., p. 473-4. 



