The Treasure Lost

The year was 1885 when Alexander Cunningham, known as the father of Indian archaeology, was sailing in a ship named SS-Indus, from Kolkata to Landon via Colombo. His cargo besides other things carried his official and personnel possessions which mostly comprised of archaeology and numismatic treasure troves.  Unfortunately the ship in which he was sailing ran aground in the northern coast of Sri Lanka, although there was no loss of any life; but in this accident Alexander Cunningham lost his official treasure trove and his personnel collection as well.

His collections included wonderful bronze and stone sculptures which he had recovered from Buddhist and Hindu archaeological sites of then India, besides a valuable numismatic collections consisting of ancient Greek Scythian, Parthian and Kushan coins. His numismatic treasure carried number of such coins which he had collected from upper and lower Jhelum valley. These were the masterpieces of his collection which he was transporting for an international exhibition which then was to be held in London Museum.

Sir Alexander Cunningham basically was an engineer in the British army but was later elevated as Major general of British Army in India. Surprisingly he had less interest in the gun and ammunition culture and took more interest in research of Indian ancient history, art & culture, archaeology, numismatics, paleography and architecture. He wrote several books, research papers and monograms on Indian ancient history, archaeology and architecture.  In view of his interest, he in the year 1861 was appointed as the head of newly created Indian archaeology   department.  He made extensive researches and discoveries in these fields and collected a grand treasure of valuable antiquities and artifacts of the then India which included sculptures and ancient coins. Although some collections of gold and silver coins, a group of Buddhist sculptures   and jewelry were brought by the British Museum, but most of his precious collections mainly comprised of gold silver and copper coins was lost  in  this  northern Coast of Sri Lanka.

Indeed there are no such  details of his collections which he lost in his ship wreckage, but most the researchers believed that the collection which he lost consisted of two groups; one was the official collections which carried masterpieces of  Gandhara sculptures of Buddhist sites of north and central  India, particularly the relics excavated from Buddhist monastery of  Jamal Nagari  and Bharthut Stupa, and the other consisted of his personnel collections  which mostly comprised of gold, silver and copper coins.  The personnel collections are also believed to have been mostly collected by him from the upper Jhelum of Kashmir.

During the year 2013-14, the maritime archaeologists from Sri Lanka and India had decided to   jointly start the work to search in the coastal area to retrieve this under sea treasure, but no such progress was made in retrieving the treasure

The treasure still lies buried in the sea; it was a great loss to Indian archaeology particularly to its northern and central regions. Kashmir numismatic heritage also lost its voluble numismatic evidences to this ship wreckage.

Since while tracing the origin of archaeology and  numismatic researches in Kashmir, like other parts of India, we will find that European experts were first who initiated the numismatic researches and later on they were followed by numismatists of our country.

General Alexander Cunningham was the first to take up the coin study of Kashmir. During his stay in the Valley he collected a large number of ancient coins and as a result of close study of these coins and other finds, he was able to elucidate a series of important questions  bearing on the chronological system of Rajtarangini and on the numismatic history of Kashmir.

In a paper published in the numismatic chronicle for 1846 he communicated the results of his search for ancient Kashmirian coins and proved by their analysis the great value of numismatic evidence for the critical analysis of Kalhana’s Rajatarangni and other ancient records. He was the first numismatist who have found number of Greek and Scythian coins on the banks of the Jhelum River in upper Jhelum valley.

Most of his researches were taken in, during colonel period in the 19th and 20^th century. He studied Kashmir archaeology, architecture, epigraphy and ancient coins. Although as a Director General Archaeology Jammu and Kashmir did not fall under his administrative domain as the princely state was never a part of colonial regime. It was ruled by the Dogra Maharajas and it was only on the recommendations of Darbar that sometimes British expert services were sought and utilized for various technical fields. On the same recommendation archaeological, architectural and numismatic services of various European experts were also used for promotion of these research fields.

Alexander Cunningham’s services were also utilized on the same analogy and he initiated the researches in these fields. He had made path breaking archaeological, architectural and numismatic discoveries and published several papers and books on Kashmir. He studied Kashmir monuments and coins and first time described the temple architecture of Kashmir. He also became the first numismatist to collect and study the Kashmir coins. He collected number of numismatic hoards and archaeological artifacts for himself and enriched his personnel collections by his Kashmir finds. It is widely believed that the personnel collections which he lost in the ship wreckage mostly carried Kashmir treasures.

Apart from the treasure lost by Cunningham, there are number of such treasures believed to have been collected by the treasure hunters from the parts of Jammu and Kashmir which later on reportedly found their way outside this land.  Such treasure troves are recorded in the outside numismatic collections and in fact stood published in the international archaeology and numismatic literatures.  The other Indian and European coin collectors have been publishing such coin hoards which are believed to have been found here in this land.  A very little portion of this treasure trove is learnt to have reached to the state’s numismatic collections, of the SPS Museum Srinagar, Dogra Art Museum Jammu, and in few private collections of Jammu and Kashmir. In fact it was by the efforts of few European missionaries of early 20th century and by the individual efforts of locals that a major portion has also been collected in the numismatic gallery of the SPS museum, which as per records has been housing more than seventy thousand ancient coins  in silver and copper.

The writer is senior archaeologist and an author