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NOVEMBER, 1889.)
MODERN PANJABI COINS.
831
The Nabha coins are remarkable for an attempt to vary the stereotyped form of the coinage of these Paõjab chiefs, but it will be observed that originality has not gone beyond imitating the legend of the overshadowing State of Lahor. In one instance (No. 40) the year of the reign has dropped out to make way for the date of the era in use. The Nábha legend runs thus:
* دیغ تیغ ننم نصرت و درنگ بافت از نانک گورو گوبند سنگ Obserge
میمنت مانوس ضرب نا بها جلوس
Reverse Griffin, who had never seen the coins, and writing from information, pays, p. 288, footnote, that the words we should be 6, By, but the coins themselves have obviously on them what is above given. The above is the ordinary Sikh or Nanakshahf legend, and the change in legend seems to take place with the reign of Bharpur Singh; but as there are no specimens of Dêvindar Singh it is not possible to say whether the change should be ascribed to the Sikh fanaticism of Dêvindar Singh or to the scholastic tendencies of Bharpur Singh. There is no appreciable change otherwise in type to be observed in these coins between the earlier and the later specimens.
Some reference should here be made to the coinage, real or mythical, of the Kapurthala State. This state was founded by J8888 Singh Ahluwalia (1718-1783 A.D.) one of the most prominent Sikh chieftains of his day. He is said to have struok & ooin, a story widely spread all over the Pañjab, with the following extraordinary legend :
سکہ زد در جهان بفضل اکال ملک احمد گرفت جسا كلال
Griffin, in his Rájds of the Panjab, p. 460, note 2, remarks that the coin could not have been struck before 1762, (whereas Cunningham, History of the Sikhs, makes out they were struck in 1757-8,) that he had never soen one himself, and that the Raja of Kapurthald did not possess one. He then goes on to say: "The Tawdrikh-i-Pañjdb of Ganes Das states that the Sikhs did not strike the coin, but that the Qazis and Mullas in 1764, after the famous Nanakshahi
LALÓr] rupeo had been struck, desiring to anger Ahmad Shah against the Sikhs, coined twenty rupees with this inscription themselves and sent them to the Shhh at Kabul, who was as indignant as they anticipated at the insolence of the Distiller, (kalah) who claimed to have seized his country, mulk-i-Ahmad! The title or term Jassa Kalal is an allusion to the humble origin of the Ahlawâliâ family. Cunningham, p. 97, 2nd ed. quotes Browne, Tracts, ii. 19; Malcolm, Sketch of the Sikhs, p. 93 (wrongly, should be p. 95); Elphinstone, Caubrel, ii. 289; and Murray, Runjeet Singh, p. 15; and he no doubt took his information direct from Malcolm. Mr. Rodgers, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, part I., 1881, pp. 77-8, gives the couplet and makes the remark that he has never been able to find the coin. I may add that I have frequently made similar attempts myself without saccess. It seems that the Kapurthala Rajas never had a coinage otherwise.
Among the more notorious Indian adventarers towards the end of the last century was the whilom able seaman, George Thomas, Raja of Hansi. The authority on the subject of his exploits is the Military Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas, by William Francklin, and they have been dealt with in more or less detail by several writers. Thomas originally came to India in
27 J is a mock Arabicism for pot, cauldron, and refers to the langar or publio kitchen then kept up by every Sikh Chief.
Military Memoirs of 'Mr. George Thomas, who by extraordinary talent and enterprise, rose from an obscure situation to the rank of a general | In the service of the Native powers in the North-West of IndiaThrough the work are interspersed geographical and statistical accounts of several of the states oomposing the interior of the Peninsula, especially the countries of Jypoor. Joudpoor. And Oudipoor, by Geographers denomi. nated Rajputaneh, the Seiks of Punjab, the territory of Beykaneer and the country adjoining the great desert to the Westward of Harrinpeh. Compiled and arranged from Mr. Thomas' original documente.1 By William Franck lin | Captain of Infantry. Member of the Asiatic Society | Author of a tour to Persis | And the History of Shah Aulum Moros, populon et pralia dicam Calcutta | Printed for the author at the Hurkaru Press A.D. 1808 entered at Stationer's Hall.
