History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s8: Note 1:—Coins of the Ghaznavi Kings.
History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s8
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Note 1:—Coins of the Ghaznavi Kings.
v3.c33.s8.1
We find the following interesting information from a paper by Mr. Thomas in J. R. A. S. IX p. 67 and XVII p. 157. It may be stated that every king in Ghazni, and generally in India, struck coins in his name commemorating his coming to the throne. We, therefore, find coins of Alptagin, Sabuktagin, Ismail and Mahmud showing that they became kings in Ghazni in this order. But in all these coins the name of the Sāmāni emperor, Mansur or Nuh, is also inscribed showing that they were subordinate kings of the Sāmāni empire. Mahmud first assumed independence as his coin dated 389 H. (1000 A. D.) first omits the mention of a Sāmāni king. The first coins of Mahmud describe him as Saif-ud-dowla a title given him by Nuh in 389H. (995 A. D.) then as Al-Amir-Yamin-ud-dowlat-va-Amin-ul-millat, a title given him by the Khalifa, later as Malik-ul-mamālik, and finally simply as Mahmud without any title when he had really become so great as to require no titles. He never calls himself, strangely enough, Sultan or Ghāzi. The title Sultan first appears in the coins of Ibrahim (coins 4652 H. or 1061 A. D.)
v3.c33.s8.2
Mahmud's coins are found in bilingual form also, for the use of his Indian subjects. The legend in Devnāgari is interesting and shows that Indian Pandits were at the court of Mahmud. It is as follows.—“ अव्यक्तमेक मुहम्मद-अवतार नृपति महमूद.” They had made Mahmud an incarnation of Mahomet and identified the prophet again with the Avyakta, though sometimes the simple words अयं टंक महमूद संवत् ४१२ are found. These coins were struck at Lahore. There were mints at Lahore, Ghazni, Nishapur, and three or four more places in the west. There was no mint at Kabul.
v3.c33.s8.3
The Ghaznavi kings copied the Kabul Shāhi coins struck in the name of Sāmantadeva with recumbent bull (Nandi) on the obverse and horseman with the name of Mahmud or Masaud on the reverse. The Hindu bull was copied on Maudud's coins and also later on in Ibrahim's coins dated 432 H. (1041 A. D.) The coins of Sabuktagin and Mahmud approximate to the coins of the Hindu kings of Kabul in weight. It seems that Shahi Brahmin kings' coins were of silver (called dirhams) and Ghazni and Nishapur mint coins were of gold (called dinar); and copper and small silver coins belong both to Hindu and Mahomedan kings.