98 
The Rupees of the Months of the IWn Years of ATcbar. [No. 2, 
struck at different mints in different years, will take away from the mono¬ 
tonous nature of a series issued from the same place. The styles of the 
coins issued*from the Lahore mint differed very considerably as we shall 
see, but Ahmadabad and Tatta were rigidly monotonous in their issues.* 
Up to the year 992 A. H. the coins of Akbar had been strictly ortho¬ 
dox in their inscriptions. The name and titles of the Emperor had occu¬ 
pied the obverse, the margins containing the mint &c. being in nearly all 
cases illegible. The reverse had gloried in the Kalimah, and its fragmen¬ 
tary margins were embellished with portions of the names of the four 
companions of Muhammad. The first rupees were round and of the size 
of those of Slier Shah and his successors. My first square rupee of Akbar 
is dated 984. Lahore and Fathpur Sikrf seem to have begun coining 
square rupees in 985. After 9S6 for several years I have no round rupees 
in my cabinet. They are all square. The coins in my cabinet with Ilahi 
years on them begin from the 30th year. On these coins, instead of the 
Kalimah, we have ad i\ “ God is the greatest, may his bright¬ 
ness shine forth.” The year and month, and mint complete the inscrip¬ 
tions. The Kalimah rupees, however, did not cease being struck. I have 
them of 993, 994, 995, '-^1 1000 and 1001. 
The use of the Persian months by Akbar leads us to consider what 
the Persian year was. Prinsep in his “ Useful Tables, an appendix to the 
Journal of the Asiatic Society” published in 1836, gives at p. 12 a short 
account of “The Era of Yezdegird III or the Persian Era,” and at p. 37 
“ The Tarikh Ilahy or Era of Akbar.” In “ Historia Religionis veterum 
Persarum eorumque Magorum” by Thos. Hyde, S. T. D. Regius Profes¬ 
sor of Hebrew and Laudianus Professor of Arabic in the University of 
Oxford, published at Oxford in 1700 A. D., there is a full account of the 
various Persian epochs and years in Chap. XIV. In Chap. XV he gives 
the months in Pahlavi and Persian together with the Greek corruptions of 
the names. He also gives the names of the 30 days of the month in both 
Pahlavi and Persian. In Chap. XVI he gives the months and days of the 
year of Yezdegird with the names of the appended five days. In Chap. 
XVII he treats of “ Years and Epochs in general and of the Persian year 
in particular.” In the XIXth Chap, he shows the origin of the names of 
the Persian months. In the (a short account of the con¬ 
tents of which book was printed in this Journal many years ago, and which 
has lately been lithographed and published in India) amongst wonders 
many, is given a sober account of the Persian months. And again in the 
or a most useful little book of 70 pages by 
* Mr. Grant has let me have a coin of Ahmadabad which is similar to the later 
Lahore coins of Akbar. It is of the 47th year and of the month Tir and of same type 
as iso, 2, plate I. 
