Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

  The tiny Nāga coin (No. 138) is also important. It seems to be a unique issue. The obverse representing the head of bull to front is unusual in the Nāga series of coins. Its reverse legend shows that the name of its issuer was Mahārāja Vṛishabha and not Mahārāja Vṛishanā[ga] as hitherto supposed.

  The collection of Lt. Col. Pythian Adams contains some comparatively well-preserved specimens of Andhra coins. Coin No. 308 is interesting as a rare specimen of the medieval South Indian temple-money. Compared to the few crude specimens published by Sewell in Ind. Ant., 1903, this coin seems to be a better executed and well-preserved specimen. The square Pāṇḍyan copper coin (No. 310) and the big round Andhra lead coin (No. 303) represent two interesting types of the ancient coins of South India.

   Mr. Venkatadasappa’s collection contains some well-preserved Mysore coins besides a few rare South Indian types. Coin No. 370 showing on the reverse ‘ a square of four equal compartments each having a floral design’ seems to be an unpublished type of Mysore coinage. Coins No. 365 and No. 355 depicting respectively what appear to be Garuḍa and Lakshmī are rare specimens of the medieval coins South India.

INSCRIPTIONS IN ARABIC AND PERSIAN

   Appendix C of the Report comprises the list of Arabic and Persian epigraphs copied by the Assistant Superintendent for Arabic and Persian inscriptions since the inception of the Arabic and Persian section in 1946 down to the year under review.

   During this period, about 160 inscriptions were copied from various parts of India—25 during 1946-50, 34 during 1950-51, 30 during 1951-52 and the rest during 1952-53. More than half of the total were copied from the various Museums in India.

   Two inscriptions (Nos. 3-4) bearing the earliest dates are epitaphs now stored in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. The earlier of the two (No. 3) is from the grave of Makhdūm Mas’ūd, son of Aḥmad, son of Muḥammad al-‘Atā, who died in A.H. 606, Dhī’l Hajja 13 (1210 A.D., June 8) while the other (No. 4), much damaged, seems to refer to Amīr al-A’zam al-Mu’azzam Shaikh Dhu’n Nūn and to bear the data A. H. 654 (1256 A.D.).

   The epigraphs in the present collection, bearing the names of rulers, etc., are not earlier than the Tughluq period. They are six in number, the earliest (No. 138) being from Mahoba, Hamirpur District, U.P., mentioning the completion of a mosque during the region of Ghiyāthu’d Dīn Tughluq Shāh by Malik Tāju’d Duwal Aḥmad, governor of that part, in A. H. 722 (1322 A.D.). The same noble is mentioned in No. 112 originally from Patan Somnath in Saurashtra and now stored in the Museum of Antiquities, Junagarh. It records the construction of a mosque during the reign of Sultān Muhammad Shāh, son of Tughluq Shāh, by Ḥamid Aḥmad when Tāj-i-Duwal Aḥmad was the governor (wālī) of the part. It is dated A. H. 726, Dhi’l Qa’da (1326 A. D., September-October). The Corpus Inscriptionum Bhavnagari (Bhavnagar, 1889), wherein this inscription was first noticed, records the name of the governor as ‘ Tajoo bin Ahmed ’ and the date as A. H. 720 and states in the foot-note at p.5 that ‘ 720 A.H. does not seem to be the proper date, because Juma Khan (sic.) who assumed the name of Sultan Mahomed came to the throne in 725 A.H.’ Barani does not mention any person of this name in his list of the nobles of Ghiyāthu’d Dīn Tughluq Shāh or his son ; however, one Tāju’d Dīn Aḥmad is mentioned by him in the list of grandees of Qutbu’d Dīn Mubārak Shāh Khaljī (Tārīkh-i-Fīrūz Shāhī p. 379). We would not be far from truth in identifying Tāju’d Dīn (or Tāju’d Duwal) Aḥmad of the present records with the governor mentioned in the said list. Another inscription (No. 111) of Ghiyāthu’d Din Tughluq Shāh, unfortunately fragmentary, comes from Chitorgarh and is now stored in the Victoria Hall Museum at Udaipur, Rajasthan. Though at least half of the slab is lost, the inscription is important for the reconstruction of the history of Chitor, for which the local sources give different versions. The date portion of the text is lost ; but the name of the governor, obviously of Chitor, viz. Malik Asadu’d Din Arsalän, is fortunately preserved. From this, it follows that Chitor was under Muslim rule at least upto the time of Ghiyāthu’d Din Tughluq. As regards Malik Asadu’d Din Arsalän, Baranī mentions him as Tughluq Shāh’s nephew (Tārīkh i-Fīrūz Shāhī, p. 428). The Bibliotheca Indica edition, however, gives the title