1881.] 
C. J. Rodgers —On the Coins of the Sikhs. 
85 
1838. Negotiations about Shall Shuja. 
1830. Ran jit Singh dies, 27th of June. 
The rupees of the next two or three years follow one of the preceding 
types. They were struck in Lahore and Amritsar. The latter rupees, 
however, from 1861 S. (perhaps 1859 S.), show another sign. I have drawn 
on Plate V, figs. 11, 12, 13, 11, 15, 16, and 17 to show them. The first 
four have a sign on the obverse, of a double branch. This is supposed to 
represent a peacock’s tail. The one on No. 15 is a different attempt, I 
cannot say better. The figure on No. 16 is quite different. It represents 
the drisi or thumb mirror worn by women of loose character. No. 17 has 
a branch only on it. The dates are 1861, 62, 62, 62, 63, 63 and 66 respec¬ 
tively. 
During all these years a woman named Mora, whom Ranjit Singh first 
saw at a dance at the Shalimar gardens at Lahore, a dancing girl, ruled 
Ranjit Singh. Such was the power she had over him that the two often 
appeared in public on an elephant in a state of intoxication. One day she 
laid a wager that she would do the same as Niir Jahan had done with 
Jahangir, get her name on the rupees of Ranjit Singh along with his. This, 
Cunningham says, she accomplished. “ In 1811 he caused coins or medals 
to be struck bearing her name.”* But the coins do not hear out the asser¬ 
tion. She put her mark on the coins. Mora means a peacock. Hence the 
tail of the peacock is her mark. The coins are known as Mora Shahi rupees 
amongst the bankers, although the profession of the woman is always added 
Mora Kanehni (the prostitute). The mark on No. 16, the arisi is not 
necessarily the mark of a dancing girl. It is often worn by wealthy, vain 
women of all castes. There is one feature of all these rupees of Mora. 
The alif in the word Akdl is left out. The inscriptions are the same as 
on fig. 2 of PL V. Mora was afterwards discarded. According to the 
Sakhi Book one of the most grievous sins a Sikh could commit was to keep 
a Muhammadan woman, and Mora was a Kashmiri and therefore a 
Muhammadan. The Sikh community stood it for a long time. But they 
determined to punish Ranjit for his continued debauchery. They there¬ 
fore in the first place refused his offerings to the temple. Then they 
summoned him before an assembly of priests at Amritsar and the conqueror 
of the Panjab, with folded hands and hare feet, had to acknowledge his sin 
and profess penitence and ask for forgiveness from the representatives of 
the Khalsa. They fined him a lakh and a quarter of rupees : hut the wily 
sinner pleaded poverty and got off by paying 5,000 rupees. The fine was 
probably more than the gifts they had refused, and Ranjit packed offf 
* History of the Sikhs. 2nd Edition, p. 179. 
f She was the cause of all Ranjit’s hesitation and folly on the occasion of Metcalfe 
going to the Panjab court. It was for her sake he was always returning to Amritsar. 
