100 
E. A. Gait —Historical Respai'ch in Assam. 
[June, 
tlie old character, as in the reign of the next king, Rudra Simha,* we 
have many coins struck in the Nagari 
* Although it was not until the character. The former may or may not be 
reign of his son that the Ahom . .. £ tt- - 
kings became regular Hindus, it one of the earliest: m the buranp ot Kapi 
was Rudra Simha who took the js^th Tamuli Phnkan the coinage of the 
first step in this direction by im- T . . j ± 
porting Krsna Ram Bhattacar- Ahoms is said to have commenced two 
ji, a Qakta Gosain, from Nadia. re igns later, in the days of Chnchengpha, 
cWcttX clnX™ X -ho came to the throne in 1611 A.D., and 
to have been one of the outward is attributed to the civilising influence of 
and visible signs of the growing g nn( j ar Gosain and others who had been 
influence of Hinduism. 
taken to the Koch capital as hostages by 
Silarai, and who were released and returned home during Chuchengpha’s 
reign. Even if the first coinage was in Chuklenmung’s reign, we have 
still fourteen rulers in the period during which the first class of coins 
was minted. 
4. The coins of the Koch kings are not so well known, and every 
effort should, I think, be made to add to 
f Marsden reads the dates as the number which have been described 
1649 and 1666, but Dr. Hoernie J , . T , , . 
agrees with me that the symbol ^ date. In marked contrast to the 
reads as 6 is really a 5 when used number of Ahom coins in his collection, 
in the eoins of the Ahom, Koch, , T j -i„ ^ ±. 
and Tippera kings. Marsden describes only two Koch coins, 
one of Laksrnl Narayan, dated 1549 
Sak, and one of Pran Narayan, dated 1555 Sak.f In tlie addition to 
these, we have a coin of Nar Narayan, dated 1477 kSiak, which was 
found in the Garo Hills., and was described in the Journal of the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal for 1875, and another of Laksml Narayan, dated 
1509 Sak, which was obtained for me 
Society 6 of Brnigaf, August 1893^° Bardalai.J The Same 
Babu also procured for me two smaller 
coins of this dynasty,J but the names of the kings is not very clear on 
these. Marsden printed a similar small coin (MCCXYIII; under the 
head “ Uncertain.” 
The above meagre collections, so far as I know”, constitutes all that 
we know of the Koch kings’ coinage. We should, I think, do all that 
we can to add to it, as the matter is one not merely of numismatic in¬ 
terest, but is also of importance as helping us to fix the otherwise rather 
uncertain dates of seme of the kings of this dynasty. That a system¬ 
atic search would add to the number of known coins is shown by the 
fact that the three coins procured for me by Babu M. C. Bardalai were 
obtained by him after a very short enquiry. 1 
1 [Since the above was written two valuable papers on Koch and Ah5m coins 
have been received from Mr. Gait, and will duly appear in the Journal of the Society. 
Ed.] 
