A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c19.s1.3

c19.s1.3

Akbar, notwithstanding his scant respect for orthodoxy, submitted as a rule to Koranic restrictions in the types of his coinage, which exhibits many varieties of artistic ornamental writing. A highly elaborated specimen, a rupee struck at Agra, is shown in Plate XCVIII, Fig. 5. On three occasions only did he permit himself the luxury of figure types, and the pieces struck on those three occasions are medals rather than ordinary current coins. A falcon (ibid., Fig. 2) commemorates the capture of Asīrgarh, the strong fortress commanding the road to the Deccan. A duck appears on an Agra coin, for some unexplained reason (ibid., Fig. 4). Both birds are well designed and surrounded by pretty floral scrolls. A curious piece, exhibiting the figures of a crowned archer and a veiled lady (ibid., Fig. 3), is a memorial of the submission in A.H. 1013 (A. D. 1604–5) of the King of Bījāpur, who gave his daughter in marriage to Prince Dāniyāl, Akbar's youngest son.