1867.] The Initial Coinage of Bengal 39 



his army was in turn defeated, and himself and Riziah met their 

 deaths near Kaithal in the month of Kabi-al-Awal, a.h. 738. * 



The contemporary biographer in his official lists styles this queen 

 ^iiJ| <u*3j lylLLJf, a title which she affects on the ordinary copper 

 coins, f but on the silver money she adopts the designation of &&*> 

 urt*J\ 



Jalalat-ud-din. Riziah. 



Coin No. 2. 



Laknauti, a.h. ? 



Silver. Size, vii. Weight, 168 grs. Plate I., figure 1. 



Type, Obverse, the whole surface is occupied by the legend. 



Reverse, chculer area, enclosing a double-lined square. 

 Narrow margin. 

 Obv. Rev. 







Reverse Margin, * * &•* fjtj&l *^iJ| I^a * * 



(See also a similar coin from the Laknauti Mint, Plate i., fig. 

 27, page 19. Coins of the Pathan Sultans of Hindustan.:} 



* Tabakat Nasiri, pp. 183, 185, 251. See also Ibn Batutah, iii. pp. 1G7, 1G8. 

 t Pathan Sultans, Nos. 28, 29. 



$ It would seem from the orthography adopted in this earliest record of the 

 name of Laknauti (.-Jji&J \ that the original Semitic transcription was designed 



to follow the classical derivation of LakshmanavaU (^^mj^fft) which was 

 soon, however, adapted to the more colloquial Luchhman (^+$=J\ by the addi- 

 tion of an h after the fc, as ^Jj.^SJ ; in which form it appears under the first local 



Sultans (coin No. 3, etc.). Minhaj-ul-Siraj relates its elevation to the rank of the 

 capital in supercession of Nuddeah by Muhammad Bakhtiar in the following terms : 



Printed edit. p. 151. The same author, at p. 162, gives a full account of the 

 remarkable size, progress, and general topography of the city as existing in 641 

 a.h. od the occasion of his own visit. 



It is difficult to say when the name of the city was changed to Gaur, a denomi- 

 nation which is never made use of by the older authorities. Abul Fazl says, 



