Exploring the Kashmir coinage

A very interesting coin type locally called as dirham, with motif of standing king and seated goddess, has been one of most popular coin types of this land.  It has almost remained one of the constant coin types for more than 1200 years, struck first time by Maharaja Kanishika in circa first century AD. It continued to serve the Kashmir money market till last Hindu rajas.

Alexander Cunningham, the father of Indian archaeology was first to indentify such coin types and document it. In his monumental book on Indian numismatics, he has catalogued Kashmir coins of Hindu rajas. In a brief description about these coins, he has written:

‘The constant type of the Kashmir coinage, the standing Raja and the sitting goddess, was adopted from the money of the Kushan kings, Kanshika, Huvishka, and Vasu Deva. It was the common type also of the great Gupta dynasty of India from its adoption by Samudra Gupta in the middle of the fourth century A.D.’

On certain earliest specimens of the Kashmir kings of Hun period, the coins of Miherakul, and others, the king is represented as standing to the front with his face turned towards left. His left hand holds a spear upright, and his right hand is stretched out over a small object which is supposed to be an altar. On the reverse there is a seated goddess, named Ardoksho, who holds a cornucopia in her left hand, and a royal fillet or diadem in her right hand. On these coins Ardoksho represents the “earth goddess”.

On the coins of Toramana and his son Pravarasena the cornucopia is replaced by the lotus; but on the later coins the arms of the goddess are gradually displaced by the letters of the inscription. At first the left arm is omitted, as on the coins of Sankara Varma and Gopala Varma; but on the later coins the right arm gives place to the title of Sri, which proceeds to most of the names. But the types rapidly become more and more degraded until it is difficult to trace them back to their originals.

Durlabhavardhana was the first king of Karkota dynasty whose coins are known to have a rude figure of a standing king on the obverse with words Jaya and Kidera, the reverse carries the motif of a seated goddess identified with Lakhsmi with legend Sri Durlabhadeva.

The king seems to have retained the title Kidara that was introduced by Kidara princes. Another Karkota king whose coins have been found not only in Kashmir but in different parts of India is Lalitaditya Mukhtapida, the king on his coins depicts the legend Sri Pratapa. Such coins have been found in hoards at Bhitaware (Fiazabad) Manu (Banda) Sarnath and Rajghat (Varanasi) Monghyr and at the ancient site of Nalanda.

(These places are situated in Utter Pradesh and Bihar). The discovery of ‘Sri Pratapa’ type coins from these far-flung places also speaks of the political and commercial links the king had with these regions. The coins bear the traditional motif of rudely executed standing king on obverse and seated goddess on reverse with legend Sri Pratapa inscribed to the right. These coins have also retained the title Kidera, written to the right, on the reverse side.

Jayapida’s coins are found to bear his common name Vinayaditya written on the obverse side of the coins. These coins are of the same type and bear a rude motif of a standing king on obverse and seated goddess on reverse.

The coins of other Karkota filers are not known; however, typologically similar to the coins of Karkota and executed in the same fashion stand few coins, the attribution of which to any known king of Karkota dynasty has become difficult. Karkota kings had no golden coinage, their coins are found in electrum (base gold), silver and copper.

Their copper coins by some numismatists are viewed as forgeries. Cunningham says that copper coins of the Karkotas were simple forgeries that were originally minted to be passed as genuine coins.  Aurel Stein also thinks that no genuine copper coin exists which bears the name of any Karkota monarch. He believes that the genuine copper coins bear the figure of the legend Tormana.

A long series of copper coins devised in similar typology have carried the legend motif of Sri Toramana. Such coins are reported to have been used in the empire for a very long period. There are historical evidences which suggest that few Kashmiri Muslim Suitans did not coin their own money but propagated their money market with the available coins of Sri Tormana. However, the copper coins of few Karkota princes are known and their genuineness cannot be doubted.

Generally speaking the numismatic history of this period is little bit confusing. The coins of only few of the Karkota rulers are known, archaeologists have found silver and base gold copper coins of few of the rulers of this dynasty. The legends on these coins are in Gupta brahmi letters which reads the names of  Sri Vinayaditya, Sri Vigraha Deva Sri Durlaba and Sri Pratapa on the right field of the coins and left carries the major title kidera. The coins carrying the legend Sri Durlaba and Sri Pratapa are identified as the coins of Sri Durlabhadeva and Laitaditya Mukhtapida.

The coins carried legend in Gupta Brahmi as Sri Durlaba and Sri Pratapa, with crude figures of Standing King and seated Godess. The attribution of other coins is confusing. In fact, this series of coins itself is confusing; the motifs on these coins are very much crude and it is very difficult to make which side carries standing figure and which one carries the seated one.

Such coins have been also found in hoards at Bhtawara (Fiazabad) Manu Banda Sarnath and Rajghat (Varanasi) and at the ancient site of Nalanda. If these coins are certainly believed to have been issued by these Karkota Rajas then it clearly speaks of Karkota’s expiditions towards north Indian parts and Kalhan's observations are then also collaborated by the numismatic evidences.

But I am not sure about this fact, indeed such coins are well recorded to have been found in such distant lands. I am myself not sure about these coins to have been issued by these Karkota Rajas.

The only new types in the Kashmir series according to the observations of Genral Cunnigham were those introduced by Harsha Deva - gold and silver coins. The “elephant” type, which he used for both metals, was copied from the coins of Karnata, and the “Horseman” type was imitated from the money of the Brahrnani kings of Kabul.

Cunnigham has also given a photograph of these two types in his catalogue of coins of north India, however, I could not find a single coin of the type which cunnigham mentioned. But a friend of mine told me that such coins of this Raja have been found somewhere in Pakistani Punjab.

The slandered coin type of Kashmir thus remained unchanged from the type of Kanshika in A.D.78, down to the Muslim conquest in AD 1339. Of course the types became so degraded that it is difficult to say which figure is intended for the standing king and which for the sitting goddess on the coins of Jaga Deva and Raja Deva of the thirteenth century. The Kashmir coinage therefore offers an almost unique example of coin type remaining unchanged for upwards of twelve centuries.