

1864.] 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, 



581 



The second coin I have to notice, has the name of one Ali Shah 

 on the obverse. His prenomen was Alauddin, and he calls himself 

 the Alexander of his age, Sekander uljeman ; I have found several 

 specimens of his coinage, but none sufficiently perfect to give me his 

 date in full. • The only word legible is Sabaamaya, or '• seven hundred.' " 

 Traces also are visible of a word which may be taken for arhayin, or 

 forty, but what the unit was I cannot make out. The place of coinage 

 was Lucknouty. Assuming upon those premises that it is a Bengal 

 coin of the 5th decade of the 7th century, I attribute it to Aly 

 Mubarik, the officer of Kaddar Khan, who proclaimed himself king 

 of Bengal, in 742 Hejira, or A. D. 1342, under the prenomen of 

 Alauddin. He was assassinated, after a reign of a year and five 

 months by his foster brother Hajy Ilias. 



The legend on the coin is as follows : — Obv. u TJ1 Sultan ul Azam 

 Ala ul dunia-o-din Abul Mozaffar Ali Shah ul Sultan." Bev* 

 " Sekander ul jeman ul *** zarb ul Sikka Lakhnauti, Saneh Arbayin 

 * Sabamaya." 



I take this opportunity to exhibit two Assam silver coins, placed 

 at my disposal by Col. Guthrie. They bear the names of Surjana- 

 rayana Deva and Surja Deva Chakradhvaja Sinha, with the Saka 

 years 1570, 1575, or A. D. 1648 and 1653. They were the earliest 

 Hindu Kings of Assam, but their dates had hitherto remained un- 

 settled. James Prinsep, following the Assam Burunji of Holirama 

 Dhekial Fukan, placed the first Hindu King of Assam, Chakam or 

 Jayadhvaja Sinha, in the year 1665, with a mark of interrogation 

 after it, and a Chakradhvaja Sinha in 1621, immediately below him. 



The Assam Burunji of Badhanatha Bor Borua removes Chuhun- 

 mung alias Surjanarayana the first Hindu Baja, to the year 1497 ; and 

 then, after two Burmese names, has a Chuhingfa, alias Surjanarayana 

 who after two Burmese successors was followed by a Chutamla, alias 

 Jayadhvaja Sinha, in 1658, and a Chupangmung, alias Chakradhvaja, 

 in 1663. Chakam, alias Jayadhvaja Sinha, is said to have defeated 

 a general of Aurungzeb, and his era, therefore, must be subsequent 

 to 1658, and he is evidently identical with the Surjadeva Chakradh- 

 vaja Sinha of our coin, who commenced his reign before 1653. His 

 immediate predecessor was Surjanarayana, who was probably the first 

 convert to Hindu faith ; for the first prince ^of that name in Radha- 



4 F 





