Bahmani Coinage, and Deccani and North Indian Metrological and Monetary Considerations, 1200-1600.

Abstract

Chapter I is a survey of the coinage of northern and Deccani South Asia and its historical context in the period under discussion. It is accompanied by photographs. Chapter II is a detailed examination of Bahmani coinage. Accompanying that chapter are Appendices I, a catalogue of Bahmani legend types, and II, the transliteration and translation of those legends. The first parts of the chapter concern different types of information in the coin legends and compare them with the materials in Ferishta and Tabataba, the two major historians of the Bahmanis. The last part of the chapter contains an examination of the weights of Bahmani coins and is accompanied by Appendices III, frequency tables for copper coins, and IV, summaries of gold and silver weights. It is concluded that Bahmani coinage went through a major reform in the 1420s and copper coinage was directly linked to silver coinage on the basis of value. Chapter III concerns the meaning of the word gani during the sultanate period, and it is concluded that it indicated value, rather than weight as previously believed. In addition, it is shown that the billon coins of most of the period were actually fractional silver pieces issued in a number of different denominations. Chapter IV, accompanied by Appendices V through VIII (frequency tables for the sultanate, early Mughal, Suri and Akbari periods) concerns metrological and monetary problems. It is concluded that the pre-Mughal metrological system was surprisingly uniform; that Akbar's reforms were based on the old system; that the changes which he made greatly enriched the treasury.