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No. 40-SILVER COIN OF BHAIRAVASIMHA
(1 Plate)
D. C. SIRCAR, OOTACAMUND About the end of November 1957 I was passing through Patna where I met Prof. R. K. Choudhary of the G. D. College, Begusarai, Monghyr District, Bihar. Prof. Choudhary kindly showed me & silver coin with legend on both obverse and reverse. As I had little time to devote on the coin just then, I preparòd plasticine moulds of both sides of it and returned it to the Professor. Some plaster casts of the coin were later prepared out of those moulds for my study. 1
The coin is round in shape and has a diameter of one inch. Its weight is stated to be 10:52 grams or 162:37 grains. On both obverse and reverse of the coin there is a square made of raised lines, within a circular line of the same type. In the four semi-circular spaces between the arms of the square and the outer line, there is in each case a letter or one or more numerical figures between two angular ornamental designs. Inside the square the legend is written in raised letters in five lines diagonally arranged between the upper and lower angles on both the obverse and the reverse. The reverse legend is a continuation of the writing on the obverse. There are thirteen letters on the obverse and an equal number of them on the reverse. Of these thirteen letters arranged in five lines, line 3 in the centre has five aksharas, lines 2 and 4 have three each and lines 1 and 5 only one each. The same arrangement has been followed on both the sides.
The characters belong to the Gaudiya alphabet as prevalent in Bihar in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries A.D. The letters rand s have been written both in the Dēvanagari and Gaudiya fashions. The two types of are very similar respectively to n and v as found in the legend, while y resembles p. Some letters of the legend have suffered from the effects of later punching by the shroffs.
The writting on the obverse and reverse reads as follows: Obverse
Reverse 1 Ma
1 TT2 häraja
2 rabhukti3 Sri-Da[rppa]nārā
3 rāja-sri-Bhaira4 yan-ātma
4 vasimha5 ja
5 sya [*] The legend may be translated as: “(The coin is) of the illustrious Bhairavasimha, the lord of Tirabhukti (and) the son of the illustrious Mahārāja Darpanārāyaṇa".
In the spaces outside the square on the obverse, we have respectively in the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right : [Sa]
kasa In the corresponding spaces on the reverse, there are similarly :
jya
1411
ra
1 Partial and inaccurate readings of the legend on the coin have since appeared in JNSI, Vol. XX, pp. 55-61 (Plate IX, No. 5), where it has been wrongly attributed to king Rämsbhadra of Mithila. It is stated that the coin belongs to a hoard discovered at Bairmo in the Dardhanga District of Bihar.
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