Birmingham Museums Trust, Peter Reavill, 2011-11-07 13:58:19
Title
Post Medieval Coin: Rupee from Assam
Description
English: A late 18th century Rupee from Assam, but a rather rare issue - struck during a tribal rebellion against the reigning king Gaurinatha Simha of the Ahom. dynasty. The rebellion lasted for about 10 years (1787-1797) and was led by Bharatha Simha of the Moamaria tribe, who forced Gaurinatha Simha to flee his capital Rangpur. Bharatha Simha was then installed as the king at Rangpur and struck coins in two phases - first during the king's exile 1791-1794 and then after his eventual death 1796-97.
This coin bears the date 1719 in the Indian reckoning, so it dated to 1797AD and thus falls in the second issue of Bharatha Simha. The inscription is in Bengali script - on obverse it mentions the name of the king as a descendent of Bhagadatta (a mythical Hero) and the date; on reverse it extols the King's devotion to Lord Krishna by calling him 'the Bee who got drunk on the nectar from the lotus placed at the feet of the Lord'!
Sincere thanks are extended to Dr Shailendra Bhandare, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford for her help in the identification of this unusual British find
Depicted place
(County of findspot) Wrexham
Date
1797
date QS:P571,+1797-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Accession number
FindID: 469667 Old ref: HESH-07EB93 Filename: HESH-07EB93.jpg
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Attribution: The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum
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