Bengal was brought into subjection to the Dehlī kingdom in 1202 (A.H.
599) by Baḵẖ̱tiyār Ḵẖ̱iljī, who became the first governor of the
province. Till 1338 it was nominally ruled from the capital, Lakhnautī,
by independent governors; but at least six of these issued coins in
their own names; and after 1310 there was a divided governorship,
the rulers of East and West Bengal each assuming the right to coin.
Independence was gained under one of the rulers of East Bengal,
Faḵẖ̱ru-d-dīn Mubārak; and, after a year of discord, Shamsu-d-dīn
Ilyās Shāh, in 1339, brought the whole province under his control.
From 1339-1358 Bengal was ruled by four dynasties, the house of Ilyās
Shāh, 1339-1406 and 1442-1481, the house of the Hindu rāja, Ganesh,
1406-1442, the Ḥabshī kings, 1486-1490, and the house of the greatest
of Bengal kings, ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain Shāh, 1493-1538. Bengal was then
ruled from Dehlī by Sher Shāh and his family; then independently from
1552-1563 by younger members of his dynasty; and finally by three
sovereigns of the Afg̱ẖān Kararānī family till 1576, when Bengal
became a province of Akbar’s empire.
Gold coins of Bengal are very scarce, and but one billon coin, of
the governor G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Bahādur (1310-1323) has been found.
The place of copper, it is supposed, was supplied by cowries. Silver
coins are known of twenty-nine out of the fifty-six governors and
sultans, but the silver is inferior in purity to the Dehlī coins; and
that of the Sultans is struck to a local standard of 166 grains: they
are frequently much disfigured by countermarks and chisel-cuts made
by the money-changers. The coins of the governors and Sultans until
Shamsu-d-dīn Ilyās Shāh show Dehlī influence in fabric and inscription,
and this influence reappears occasionally later. The issues of the
earlier governors bear the Kalima on the obverse; for this later
governors substitute the name of the last Khalif of Bag̱ẖdād, Al
Must’aṣim. The independent kings adopt various titles expressing their
loyalty to the head of Islām, such as “_The right hand of the Khalif,
aider of the commander of the faithful_” and “_Succourer of Islām and
the Muslims_.” The convert, Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad (1414-1431), revived
the use of the Kalima, which is continued with two exceptions by all
his successors till ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain Shāh’s reign. The most usual
personal titles are “_The mighty Sultan_,” or “_The strengthened by
the support of the Compassionate_,” but certain rulers adopt striking
formulæ of their own. Shamsu-d-dīn Ilyās Shāh, following ’Alāu-d-dīn
Muḥammad of Dehlī, called himself “_The Second Alexander_,” and
Sikandar Shāh (1358-89) was evidently imitating Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq
in “_The warrior in the cause of the Compassionate_.” One of the most
curious and interesting titles appears on a coin of ’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥusain;
it runs as follows: “_The Sultan, conqueror over Kāmrū and Kamtah and
Jājnagar and Urīssah_,” alluding to his invasions of Assam and Orissa.
The coinage assumes a characteristic local type first under Sikandar
(Pl. IX, 1), son of the founder of the house of Ilyās, and henceforth
there is much variety of design, the Sultan’s name and titles being
enclosed in circles, squares, octagons, sometimes with multifoil
borders or scalloped edges; margins occur more usually on the reverse
only, sometimes on both sides, in which are inscribed the mint and
date in Arabic words. Nāṣiru-d-dīn Maḥmūd I (1442-59), abolished the
marginal inscription; and from his reign the mint name and date, in
figures, appear at the bottom of the reverse area. For some of his
coins Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad used _Tughra_ characters, which, owing to
the up-strokes being elongated to the upper edge of the coin, give the
curious appearance of a row of organ-pipes. It must be admitted that
the majority of Bengal coins are entirely wanting in artistic form,
the depths being reached perhaps in some of the issues of Ruknu-d-dīn
Bārbak (1459-74); the calligraphy is of the poorest quality; and the
Bengali die-cutters frequently reveal their ignorance of Arabic. The
fine broad coins of the two Afg̱ẖān dynasties display an immediate
improvement; they are identical in form and inscription with the Dehlī
Sūrī coinage, and are struck to Sher Shāh’s new silver standard. A
special feature of the Bengal coinage is the number of its mints;
twenty-one names have been read on the coins, but it is uncertain
whether some of these are not temporary names for better-known towns.
The most important mints were Lakhnautī, Fīrozābād, Satgāon, Fatḥābād,
Ḥusainābād, Naṣratābād and Tānda. Also certain coins are inscribed
as struck at “The Mint” and “The Treasury.” The broad silver coins of
the little state of Jayantāpura, though struck two centuries after the
independent coinage of Bengal had disappeared, seem to be a late echo
of the popularity it achieved, particularly in the neighbouring hill
states.