1888.] 
27 
C. J. Rodgers— Couplets on coins after Jahangir. 
Couplets on coins of kings after the time of Jahangir* — By Chas. 
J. Rodgers. 
The custom inaugurated by Akbar and continued by Jahangir of 
striking couplets on coins was kept up by succeeding kings, but not to so 
large an extent as by Jahangir. When Shalijahan had built new Delili 
or Shahjahanabad, he seems to have moved his mint into the new city. 
Coins of his early years, struck in Dehli, have simply on them, but 
after the new city was built we have this couplet on mohurs and rupees :— 
M ' 
i. e., “ May the coin of Shah-i-Jahan-abad be ever current in the 
world, by the name of the second Sahib-qiran.” 
This couplet I take from a rupee of mine struck in 1065 A. H., the 
28th of Shahjahan’s reign. In Marsden a mohur is given on PI. XLII, 
No. DCCCLXXIV, but the word is spelt As the coin 
seems from the drawing to have been in good order, I cannot account 
for this. My coin has all the dots required. 
In the “ Proceedings ” of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for January 
1883 is given a figure of a 200 mohur piece of Shahjahan’s. On the 
obverse of this was a rubai or quatrain which is not exactly a couplet 
and so does not belong to this paper. 
Aurangzib ’Alamgir had on most of his rupees the following cou¬ 
plet :— 
i. e., “ The emperor Aurangzib ’Alamgir struck coins in the world 
like the bright full-moon.” 
On his mohurs and on rupees of the Akbarnagar and Zafarabad 
mints was changed to j p- 0 thus :— 
j\\k j^c a} 
B Lp 
i. e ., “ The emperor Aurangzib ’Alamgir struck coins in the world 
like the bright sun.” 
The rupees of A’azam Shah have on them :—• 
/o 
i. e., “ The monarch of the dominions A’azam Shah struck coins in 
the world with prosperity and grandeur.” 
* [The translations of the couplets have been supplied by Maulawi Abdul Hak 
Abid of the Calcutta Madrasah. Ed.] 
