South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

ruler of Tirhut is indicated by his issue of silver coins, one of which is now under study. It is also interesting to note that Śivasiṁha is the only other Ōinvār king whose coins have been discovered.

In 1913 three small gold coins, out of a lot discovered at the village of Pipra in the Champaran District, were received in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. They were noticed by R. D. Ranerji in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1913-14, 248-49, Plate LXVIII, Nos. 1-3. The coins are round in shape with diameters varying between ·3 and ·325 inch and weights between 13·6 and 14 grains. As on the coin of Bhairavasiṁha under study, the legend on the Pipra gold coins runs on from the obverse to the reverse. The lengend on the obverse reads śrī- and that on the reverse in two lines runs (1) Śiva- (2) sya. King Śiva, who issued these coins, has been rightly identified by Banerji with king Śivasiṁha of the Ōinvār dynasty of Tirhut. A similar coin was previously published by Cunningham in his Coins of Medieval India, p. 54, Plate VI, No. 18. Banerji seems to assign the copper coins^[1] bearing the name of Chamapakāraṇya to the dynasty of Śivasiṁha ; but they were issued by the rulers of the Karṇāṭa dynasty of Simraon (Samaragrāma) and not by the Ōinvārs of Tithut.

The importance of the coin published here is two-fold. In the first place, it shows, as already indicated above, that Ōinvār Bhairavasiṁha ruled for sometime as an independent monarch and signalised the achievement with the issue of some silver coins. Secondly, we learn for the first time from it that Bhairavasiṁha ascended the throne about 1475-76 A. D. and ruled at least for about 15 years down to 1489-90 A.D. The view assigning his accession to 1496 A. D. is thus certainly wrong.

POSTSCRIPT

Another Silver Coin of Bhairavasiṁha

Shortly after my paper on the silver coin of Bhairavasiṁha had been sent to the press, Mr. A. N. Lahiri, one of my Epigraphical Assistants, had occasion to visit Calcutta where he studied some coins in the cabinet of the Archaeological Section of the Indian Museum. In the course of his study, Mr. Lahiri luckily came across another silver coin of Bhairavasiṁha, closely resembling the one discussed above, On his return to Ootacamund, he kindly placed at my disposal the plaster casts of the coin which he had prepared with the permission of Mr. R. C. Kar, Superintendent of the Archaeological Section.

This coin was examined by V. A. Smith and was noticed as No. 3 under the head ‘ Sundry Coins’ at the last page (p. 333) of his Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Vol. I, 1906. He correctly gives the metal, weight and size of the coin respectively as silver, 164 grains and ·9 inch. Unfortunately, Smith, who thought that the provenance of the coin might be Nepal, failed to read any part of the five-line (not four-line as supposed by him) legend on the obverse and the reverse. In the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1913-14, p. 259 (Plate LXIX, No. 31), R. D. Banerji made an unsuccessful attempt to read the legend.

The present coin (No. 2) was struck on a flan slightly smaller than that of Bhairavasiṁha’s other coin (No. 1) dealt with above. As a result of this, some of the letters and numerical figures that can be seen on Coin No. 1 are cut off on Coin No. 2. The two coins, although they apparently bear the same date, were struck from two different dies. In some cases, the forms of the letters are different on the two specimens ; cf. h in mahārāja, s in siṁha, etc. As on Coin No. 1, some letters on Coin No. 2 are damaged owing to later punching by the shroffs ; cf. ya in

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^[1] See V.A. Smith, JASB, Vol. LXVI, 1897, Part I, p. 309 ; and Catalogue (Indian Museum, Calcutta), p. 293 ; C. J. Rodgers, Catalogue (Lahore Museum), p. 12, Plate IV.