324 On the Coins of the Independent [No. 173. 



The coins which record the names of the obscure Muhammadan 

 dynasties of Bengal have, it must be confessed, nothing in common with 

 the high interest attached to the relics of ancient India and Bactria, 

 which bring us in contact with times and persons of classical renown ; 

 or illustrate those dark but profoundly interesting periods in the world's 

 history, upon which the light of tradition falls but dimly. Yet, even in- 

 dependently of their more important use in correcting or in confirming 

 the narrative of the historian, they have an interest of their own in their 

 very rarity, which is such, that it is far easier to procure the coins of 

 Alexander or his successors, than those of the Sultans of Bengal, of 

 whom indeed few other monuments, and scarcely even these, remain. Of 

 Gour, or Laknauti, the once vast and magnificent seat of their govern- 

 ment, the capital whose wealth and splendour claimed for it the title of 

 the ' seat of paradise,' scarce a vestige is to be seen : over its entire site, 

 once instinct with thronging multitudes, nature has resumed her quiet 

 sway, and the last traces of the mighty city are fast disappearing under 

 the peaceful labours of the husbandman. 



It is with the view of preserving a few authentic memorials of a dynasty 

 of kings, of whose history so little is known, that I venture to submit 

 a series of such coins as escaped the disasters above alluded to, or were 

 happily figured before them. Some of these are in less perfect preser- 

 vation than is desirable ; but let us hope, that such collectors as may be 

 in possession of better specimens, will be induced to supply impressions 

 of them, by means of which, these defects may be remedied on some 

 future occasion. 



The first of the Muhammadan rulers of Bengal who attained any 

 thing approaching to real independence was Iliyas Shah, who success- 

 fully resisted the arms of Feroz Shah, and concluded a treaty of peace 

 with that Emperor at Akdala, a. h. 757. He caused the coin of his 

 kingdom to be struck in his own name, the least equivocal sign of inde- 

 pendent sovereignty, without experiencing that immediate interference 

 on the part of the Emperor of Delhi which attended all similar manifes- 

 tations of his predecessors. In this respect, as well as in the permanence 

 of his dynasty, Iliyas Shah must be regarded as the first independent 

 Sultan of Bengal ; for his predecessor Fakhar ud-din, who is generally 

 considered so by native historians, had scarcely thrown off his allegiance 

 to Delhi, when his unstable authority was subverted by AH Mobarik, an 



