Iqbal Ahmad
During the early nineteenth century we see on the political and administrative landscape of Indian subcontinent emerging a vast empire, known to Indian history as Sikh empire. The empire extending from the plains of Punjab, reached to Khyber Pakhtonkha in the west, to Kashmir in north and Sind in the south and even Tibet in the east. This glorious empire was founded and consolidated by the legendary Sikh leader Maharaja Ranjit Singh, although this empire lasted for very little period of 27 years but the imprints and legacy of this empire has not vanished altogether.
Much has already been said and written about this glorious empire and I am not here to repeat already known facts about this empire, but let us explore the interesting money market of that period which has almost been forgotten and very few people know that Sikhs like Mughals have also got their established currencies, which they struck not only from Lahore and Amritsar mints , but almost twenty such mint names have been encountered on their coins where from different Sikh coins had been issued.
Numismatic studies revealed that the Sikh coinage started in the second half of the nineteenth century and reached its apogee during the rule of Maharaja RanjitSingh.In fact Sikh Gurus from the very beginning were the spiritual masters and had no political authenticity. However, it is said that Guru Gobind Singh persuaded Banda Bahadur to fight against the Mughal authority, so for certain period Banda Bahadur assumed royal authorities of his own territorial area.
The Numismatists claim to have found two coins of Banda Bahadur which are attributed as the earliest evidences of Sikh coinages. These are both couplet type coins which bear Persian couplets mentioning names of Sikh Gurus.
Sikh zar bar har do AlamTeg Nanakwajibast
Fatah Govind Singh shah-i-shahan-FazalSacha sahib ast
ZeenatTakhatMumbarkBakhtiKhalisa
ZabriMasuratShahariBamun-ul-Dhar
Jassa Singh is also known to have issued Sikh coins bearing Persian couplets
Sikh zaa do jahan Ba Fazal Akal’
Malik Ahmad shah grift jassakal ?
But after Sarbat Khalasa was formed, it was decided that coins should not be struck in any personal name. Coins should only be stuck in the name of Guru Nank Ji and Guru Govind Singh JI. Soon such coins were issued from Lahore, Multan, Amritsar and Kashmir mints. Although these mints served as the regular and royal mints , but interestingly there are hundreds of Sikh coins which bear mint names Peshawar, Dera and Derajat which means that Sikh coins had also been issued from such mints.
Broadly speaking, the Sikh coinage is classified into two main classes, which included Coins of Lahore Khalasa and Coins of Amritsar Durbar. And when it was decided that coins should bear names of Guru Nanak Ji and Guru Govind Singh Ji, coins began to be issued in couplet type in the Mughal and Durrani traditions carrying the names of thesetwo Gurus respectively. These couplets more or less are similar on almost all Sikh coins. These couplets are known as GobindShahi and Nanak shahi couplets and read as:
Az Nanak Guru Gobind Singh Yafat
ByedDegTeghwa Fatah waNusrat
Sikh zad Bar seam wazar Fazal Shacha Sahib ast
Fatah Gobind Singh shahntegh Nankwajibast.
Ranjit Singh’s coins are known in Nanak Shahi couplets with reverse displaying Aurangzeb’s formula “Julus Minnat Manous” with date and mint name. Dates are given in Samvet era. These Nanak Shahi rupees are known from Lahore and Amritsar mints. A prominent leaf symbol in association with other few minute symbols appears on Sikh coins which are identified as pepal leaf and sward and are described as their religious symbols.
Although Sikhs in their numismatic traditions completely followed their Mughal and Durrani mint masters and promoted Persian legends on their respective coinages but they also introduced Gurumukhi scripts and promoted their religious symbols and displayed these on their respective coinages to safeguard their religious and Cultural identity.
(The writer is a Senior Archaeologist and Author)
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