|
The story of the rupee has the fascination of which
legends are made of. It has survived ups and downs through more than
four centuries.
The word rupee comes from
the hindi/urdu word rupaiya which is derived from the Sanskrit
word rupya or rupika, meaning coinage or wrought
silver.
The earliest Indian coins
were cut and chipped to desired weights. Sometimes pre-weighed metals
were melted and poured on a flat surface to take its own shape.
Metals were mostly silver but occasionally copper and other
contemporary metals were used. These pieces were then punched-marked
with symbols and designs but there were no inscriptions so the coins
cannot be ascribed to any particular king or dynasty. There are more
than a 100 different symbols and occur in a maddening array of
permutations and combinations. These are called punch-marked coins
and are perhaps the earliest known coins in the world (c 700 BC-c200
BC). The silver required for minting these coins was mined from
modern day Afghanistan and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. Hoards of
these coins were found in Central Asia, Bactria, and in South India.
This shows the extent of the Indian empires and spread of culture
with a well developed fiscal and monetary administration.
The advent of Green
adventurers and their assimilation into the Indian cultural society
around 200 BC gave rise to India-Greek dynasties and the coinage
system was overhauled to show the profile of the then rulers and
their names in Green and in Indian languages—khrosthi and
brahmi. These coins are known as India-Greek and are quite different
from Greek coins.
Coins of various
dynasties, empires and regions continued till the advent of the
Islamic Sultanates (11th century AD). Islamic law strictly
forbade the portrayal of any living being in art or on the face of
coins. Profile or rulers was replaced by the kalima (la ilahi
il Allah…). The reverse side of the coins bore the name of the
king, year of mintage and place of issue. The coins issued were all
of unequal weight “minted mass” i.e. silver coins were
weighed and not counted in any financial transaction during this
period.
The Silver Inspiration
of a Royal Afghan:
The monetary coinage
system was remodeled by Farid-ud-din Sher Shah Suri (1538-1545). The
birth of the rupee is credited to the Afghan ruler for which he was
known as the “Prince of Indian Coinage.” A man of vision,
he also built the Grand Trunk Road transversing a vast sub-continent
from the Khyber Pass to the Bay of Bengal. During his reign he
standardized the metal used for coins. The weight of the copper paise
was fixed at 19.5 gm to 20.9 gm. Similarly the weight of the silver
rupee was fixed for the first time. He standardized it as equal to
one tola of silver which is equivalent to 178 grains according
to the indigenous system of weights or 10.8 gm to 11.5 gm. Hence was
born the first rupee of a fixed weight and it continued to be issued
and used until the British came to India. Though Sher Shah Suri
reigned for just five years the rupee anna system lived for four and
a half centuries.
A Fine Art in Akbar’s
Golden Age:
The first Moghuls, Babur
and Humayun, circulated shahrukhis, each weighing 72 gm of
silver. So did the young Akbar during the first three years of his
reign. But then came the ‘indianisation’ of Akbar who
greatly appreciated Indian culture and philosophy. His reign saw a
renaissance era when Indian arts and ideas flourished with renewed
vitality. Akbar’s long reign of almost half a century from
1556-1605 was a golden age and it is reflected in the coinage of the
period. He adopted the Sher Shah Suri rupee and started the striking
of coins at all important cities. His master minter, Abdus Samad,
introduced the fine art of Persian calligraphy on coins since Islam
forbade portraits.
Other emperors like
Jehangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb also issued silver rupee coins and
by the 17th century the rupee was so highly valued that
people traded in it as they do in dollars today.
After Aurangzeb died in
1707, the Moghul empire began to disintegrate specially during the
reign of Shah Alam (1759-1806). Many local rulers struck their own
rupees of varying purity causing great confusion among merchants and
the populace.
Reflecting the
Grandeur of Princely States of India:
Mirrored in a wide
variety of Indian rupee specimens is the great diversity of Princely
States through four historical categories: 1) States dating back to
medieval times like those ruled by Rajputana chieftains or the
Maharanas of Mewar, Alwar, Jaipur, Jodhupur, Bikaner, Tonk,
Jaisalmer, Bharatpur. 2) States that originated during the Moghul
provincial government whose governors became independent princes like
the Nizam of Hyderabad or the Nawab of Oudh, Bawda, Bhopal. 3) States
claimed by military adventures and chiefs such as Indore, Gwalior or
Mysore under Hyder Ali. Also Punjab States like Faridkot, Nabha,
Jind, Patiala, Malukotia. 4) States created by the British with
rulers like the Wodiyars of Mysore (post Tipu Sultan) or the rulers
of Jammu & Kashmir. The result is that the historical variety of
Indian rupees is perhaps without parallel anywhere in the world.
The British Indian Rupee:
The Danes, Dutch, French,
Portuguese and British all came to Indian as trading companies thus
proving that politics and economics are two sides of the same coin.
Their attempts to introduce their own coinage ended in economic
chaos. Finally the rupee was adopted by the French who issued coins
initially in the name of the Moghuls. Anonymous designs followed and
slowly they adopted French national symbols. The Portuguese issued
coins only in European designs. The Dutch and Danes issued only
anonymous coins for a short period of time. The first to adopt the
rupee in 1672 were the British through the British East India
Company. They issued coins initially in the names of local rulers
form the Bengal, Madras and Bombay Presidencies. The British started
machine minting coins and technology helped them fix the weight of
the silver rupee at 11.21 to 11.66 gm. This weight difference is
attributed to the various machine minted coins of the Presidencies
and the contemporary regulations. More than a century and a half
passed before the Company began to put a portrait of their ruler,
King William IV (1835), on the rupee coin. In the same year when a
uniform colonial currency of East India Company was introduced for
entire India, the weight of the then silver rupee was fixed at 11.66
gm with a fineness of .917%. The British mints were located in
Calcutta, Murshidabad, Patna, Farukhabad, Dacca, Bombay, Surat,
Madras, Pondicherry…
After two decades came
India’s First War of Independence. Had the war been successful
no other British monarch would have featured on the rupee. In 1862
Queen Victoria became the first monarch to adorn coins of all
denominations. Curiously there was no date mark on any coins from
1863 to 1873.
Rupee Highlights of
Post Victorian Monarchs:
Edward VII was the next
monarch to appear on coins from 1903-1906. George V, crowned in 1910,
was the first monarch to visit India. A massive coronation durbar was
commemorated by tokens and medals similar to the rupee. Bank notes of
one rupee and two rupee denominations began to appear. Edward VIII
who married for love was never crowned but koris were struck
in his name by the romantic ruler of Kutch for local circulation
only. George VI reigned from 1936 to1947 when India won her
independence. Critical rupee changes resulted in the rupee due to the
steep rise in the price of silver owing to World War II and
inflation. The fineness of the silver rupee was reduced by .500 from
1940-1947.
As silver coins were
being melted down, nickel coins were introduced and the first nickel
rupee was introduced in1946. The last silver rupee was struck in 1945
after which the rupee was struck in nickel and then in cupronickel.
The last British Indian rupee issued in 1947 was minted of nickel.
After over a century the silver rupee with its characteristic thunk
when dropped passed into history.
After Independence the
nickel rupee of 11.66 gm showing the profile of the Ashoka Lion
instead of the British monarch continued to be minted till 1957.
Indian currency was decimilized in 1957. In 1962 the first Indian
rupee of 10 gm was issued. This was followed by a copper nickel rupee
of 8 gm in 1975. The first commemorative rupee coin was issued in
1964 on Pt, Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1969 silver coins on Mahatma Gandhi
were issued. Silver was used now only for commemorative coins of Rs.
10 and over.
Thus a long era of silver
coinage popularized by the Sultans of Delhi, systemized by Sher Shah
Suri and standardized by the British, came to an end.
| 
