The Deccan province, after a series of revolts extending over four
years, became finally severed from the Dehlī kingdom in 1347 (A.H.
748). Certain copper coins in the Dehlī style, bearing this date, have
been attributed to Nāṣiru-d-dīn Isma’īl, the first officer to assume
the state of royalty. But in the same year he was superseded by Sultan
’Alāu-d-dīn Ḥasan Bahmanī, founder of a dynasty which ruled till 1518,
when its bloodstained annals as an independent kingdom closed, though
nominal sovereigns supported the pretensions of royalty until 1525. The
earliest known coin of the dynasty bears the date A.H. 757. The kingdom
at the height of its power, under Muḥammad Shāh III (1463-82), extended
from the province of Berār in the north to the confines of Mysore
in the south, and east to west from sea to sea. Until the time of
’Alāu-d-dīn Aḥmad Shāh II (1435-57) the capital was Kulbarga, renamed
by the founder of the kingdom Aḥsanābād; Aḥmad Shāh moved the seat of
government to Bīdar, which henceforth, under the name Muḥammadābād,
appears on the coinage in place of Aḥsanābād. No other mint names have
been found.
The gold and silver coins are fine broad pieces modelled on the tankahs
of ’Alāu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Dehlī. In the earlier reigns there is some
variety in arrangement and design: the legend on the silver of Aḥmad
Shāh I (1422-35), for example, is enclosed in an oval border, and
there is a gold piece of the versatile bigot, Fīroz Shāh (1399-1422),
corresponding in weight and fabric to Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s heavy
issue. But by the reign of Aḥmad Shāh II a single design had been
adopted for both metals (Pl. IX, 2); on the obverse are inscribed
various titles which changed with each ruler; on the reverse appear
the king’s name and further titles within a square area; while in the
margins are the mint name and date. The legend on the gold coins of
Maḥmūd Shāh (1482-1518), perhaps the commonest of the rare Bahmanī gold
issues, may serve as an example: obverse, “_Trusting in the Merciful
one, the strong, the rich, the mighty Sultan_”; reverse, “_The father
of battles, Maḥmūd Shāh, the guardian, the Bahmanī_.” Small silver
pieces were struck by the first two rulers, weighing from 15 to 26
grains.
The earliest copper follows closely that of Dehlī, but innovations
soon made their appearance, and after the reign of Aḥmad Shāh II coins
are found varying from 225 to 27 grains in weight; the copper standard
seems to have been continually changed. Some of the titles appearing on
the silver are usually to be found on the same ruler’s copper, but many
varieties in type are found, especially among the issues of Muḥammad
I (1358-73) and the later kings; of Maḥmūd Shāh seven varieties are
known, and seven are also known of Kalīmullah, the last nominal king,
struck probably by Amīr Barīd of Bīdar.
During the reign of Maḥmūd Shāh the great kingdom of the Deccan was
split up into five separate sultanates. Copper coins of at least three
of the Niz̤ām Shāhs of Aḥmadnagar (1490-1637) are known: they appear to
have had mints at Aḥmadnagar, Daulatābād and Burhānābād. The coinage
of Gulkanda is confined to a single copper type, struck by the two
last Qut̤b Shāhī kings, ’Abdullah and Abu-l-Ḥasan; the reverse bears
the pathetic legend, “_It has come to an end well and auspiciously_.”
The copper coins of the last five ’Ādil Shāhī rulers of Bījāpūr are
rather ornate, but usually very ill-struck; small gold pieces bearing
a couplet are known of Muḥammad (1627-56). Most interesting of all
Bījāpūr coins are the curious silver _Lārīns_,[58] or fish-hook money,
issued by ’Alī II, 1656-72 (Pl. IX, 10), which became one of the
standard currencies among traders in the Indian Ocean towards the end
of the sixteenth century. The coinage of the sultans of the Maldive
Islands, whereon they styled themselves “_Sultans of land and sea_,”
was based on that of Bījāpūr and survived till the present century.
[58] The name is derived from the port Lār, on the Persian Gulf, where
this coin was first struck.