Administrative System of the Marathas c13: Appendix D

Administrative System of the Marathas c13

Language: English

Appendix D

c13.2

I have not been able to identify all the gold coins mentioned by Sabhasad.

c13.3

(1) Gambar is probably the same as Gubbur a coin current at Bombay in 1763. It was worth at that date 3 Rupees 12 annas and 6 pies. Hunter, *Annals of Rural Bengal*, Appendix O, p. 474.

c13.4

(2 & 3) Mohar and Putlis are rather common coins, the value of a Putli is about 4 Rs.

Hon, Varaha and Pagoda are synonymous terms. The word Hon may be a corruption of Sanskrit Suvarna; Gerson da Cunha says that the original meaning of hun in Kanarese is gold (*Contribution to the Numismatics*, p. 10). Shivarai, Achyutrai, Devarai and Ramchandrarai Hons were Vijayanagar coins named after different kings who issued them, according to a custom prevalent in the country. The Portuguese chronicler Fernão Nuniz refers to this custom in the following words :—" On the death of that king Bucarao there came to the throne his son called Pureoyre Deorao, which in Canara means "powerful lord" and he coined a money of pardaos which even now they call "puroure deorao"; and from that time forward it has become a custom to call coins by the names of the kings that made them; and it is because of this that there are so many names of pardaos in the kingdom of Bisnaga." Sewel, *A Forgotten Empire*, pp. 300-301. Kaveripak, Sangari, Guti, Dharwari, Advani, Chandavari (Tanjore), Veluri and Ramnathpuri Hons, I suppose, derive their names from mint towns. Ibhrami was current in coast towns of Persia and Western India. It has been mentioned by Fryer as Embraims and Dr. Crooke explains in a foot-note—"probably Ibrahimi of Abraham. See John Fryer's *East India and Persia*, Vol. II (Hakluyt Society's edition), p. 137 and also Bird's *History of Gujrat*, p. 109. Katerai Hon was the Mysore Pagoda. For its weight and intrinsic value see Prinsep—*Useful Tables*. Forrest says "Six Canterai pagodas are nearly equal to five star pagodas"—*Selection, Maratha Series*, p. 717. Ananda Ranga Pillai mentions Saiyid Muhammad, Amaldar of Tadpatri (see *The Private Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai*, Vol. VIII, p. 31 and p. 51) and we also read in his pages of Tadpatri *dupattis* (p. 208). Tadpatri Hon probably was a coin current in the district of that name.

c13.6

Prinsep mentions in his *Useful Tables* a gold coin with the figure of a trident on it, probably in it we find the Trisuli Hon of Sabhasad. Is Afraji the same as Aftabi, a gold coin of Akbar, worth 10 Rs. or Aparanj of Princep?

c13.7

Fanams were small gold coins current in Southern India. "The Fanam was originally worth about 1¼ Rupees; later it was coined of silver or base gold."—Crooke in Fryer, Vol. I, p. 106. Three silver Fanams were equivalent to three half-pence when Heber wrote in 1825.

c13.8

The silver coins mentioned by Sabhasad hardly present any difficulty.

c13.9

The silver Asrafis were nothing but Portuguese Xerafins. A Xerafim was equal to 300 reis or pies. The word, Prof. Dalgado supposed, was derived from Perso Arabic Ashrafi. See Dalgado, *Glossario Luso Asiatico*, Vol. II, pp. 424-425.

c13.10

Abashi must be Abasee of Fryer. Thevenot says that this coin was very common at Surat. The coin was of Persian origin and was named after Shah Abbas II according to Dr. Dalgado (*Glossario*, Vol. I, p. 4). Fryer says that in his time it was current at Calicut. "They (the people of Calicut) have yet a correspondence with Persia as may appear by their Abasees, a sixteen penny piece of silver, current among them" (*East India*, I, p. 143). According to Thevenot it was equivalent to 18 pence. *The Travels of Monseiur de Thevenot*, London, 1687, part III, p. 2. Dalgado says that Abassi was a silver coin of the value of about 300 reis (or 100 pice).

c13.11

The word Kabri, I believe, is a misreading of Lari, a silver coin current in the coast towns of Persia and Western India. Gerson da Canha dealt with the origin of Lari in a learned article contributed to the *Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.* The Portuguese called it "tanga larim" and Emerson Tennent says that money in imitation of them, struck by the princes of Bijapur and by Sivaji, the founder of the Mahrattas, was in circulation in the Dekkan as late as the seventeenth century (Ceylon, Vol. I, p. 463). According to Dalgado (Glossario, Vol. I, p. 513) its value varied from sixty to hundred reis (or pies). In Sabhasad's list we read of Laris of Dabhol, Chaul and Bussora.

Linked texts (1)

Suvarṇasūtra — Sanskrit