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'paiwastah bar zar surkh wa safed sikkeh-i-mubarak' - "On red money and the white (gold and
silver) will always be stamped with the auspicious coin-legend, which has
been engraved and sent to me from the Court which is the Asylum of the
Universe”. This also finds
mention in the treaty concluded between the two rulers in AH1045, where
Shahjahan acknowledges the fact that “…[Qutb ul-Mulk] has promised that the faces of dirhams and
dinars (silver and gold coins) shall be adorned with our auspicious
coin-legend and that in all parts of his kingdom… money will be stamped with
our auspicious name”. The background
of this treaty was the renewed nuisance posed by Shahaji
Bhonsle, who had resurrected the Nizamshahi sultanate by elevating a boy to a
putative ‘throne’. The Emperor therefore sent
written commands to the Sultans of Golkonda and Bijapur to abstain from
supporting Shahaji and his allies and to pay
tributes regularly in recognition of Mughal suzerainty. Abdullah, the Sultan
of Golkonda had already felt the Mughal wrath in 1629 and unable to resist
the Mughal might, quietly acquiesced to these demands. When Abd al-Latif the
Mughal envoy approached Golkonda, “Sultan Qutb ul-Mulk came forth 5 kos to
receive him and conducted him to the city in great honour.
He had the Khutba read aloud in the Emperor’s name;
he several times attended when it was being read and bestowed gifts upon the
reader, and he had coins struck in the Emperor’s
name and sent them to the Court” (quoted from Badshahnama). The interesting mention here is that Qutb ul-Mulk says that the “auspicious coin legend” had been “sent to him from the Court”. This is a clear reference that the dies were engraved in a Mughal atelier and then sent to the Qutbshahi capital. This is in accordance with the good standards of calligraphy evident on this coin. Hodivala himself was not aware of a coin struck in AH1045, but this coin proves him right! |
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