abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
“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.
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.