Mālwā, annexed to the Dehlī kingdom by ’Alāu-d-dīn in 1305, became
an independent state under the governor, Dilāwar Ḵẖ̱ān G̱ẖ̱orī,
in 1401. His son, Hoshang Shāh (1405-32), initiated the coinage. The
province, after incessant wars with Gujarāt, attained its widest
limits under the usurping minister, Maḥmūd I, Ḵẖ̱iljī (1436-68).
But after a civil war, in 1510, a steady decline set in, and in 1530
Bahādur Shāh of Gujarāt captured Mandū, the capital, and the country
remained a province of his kingdom for four years. It was next captured
by Humāyūn. Then, from 1536 to 1542, it was ruled by a Gujarātī
governor, Qādir Shāh. Finally it was governed by Bāz Bahādur, a son of
Sher Shāh’s nominee, Shujā’ Ḵẖ̱ān, from 1554 to 1560, when it was
conquered by Akbar and made a Mug̱ẖal province.
The first seven Sultans struck coins in all three metals. Maḥmūd I
introduced billon, and this was employed also by his three successors.
The characteristic feature of the Mālwā coinage is the square shape,
also introduced by Maḥmūd I; he and his successor, G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh
(1469-1500), struck both square and round coins, but from the reign
of Nāṣir Shāh (1500-10) the square form is used exclusively. The gold
pieces of the first two kings follow the Dehlī style. Maḥmūd, however,
introduced a new type for the reverse, dividing the face of the coin
into two equal parts by lengthening the tail of the last letter “yē” in
his name, Ḵẖ̱iljī. G̱ẖ̱iyās̤ Shāh used a similar band on both faces
(Pl. IX, 3), and this is a mark of almost all succeeding coins in both
shapes.
The square base silver pieces of Maḥmūd II (1510-30), with the
inscriptions enclosed in circular and octagonal borders, are the finest
coins of the series. The rebel, Muḥammad II (1515), the Gujarāt king,
Bahādur, the governor, Qādir Shāh, and Bāz Bahādur struck copper coins
only. The mint name, Shādīābād (Mandū), “City of Delight,” is inscribed
only on coins of the earlier kings.
With the reign of G̱ẖ̱īyās̤ Shāh a series of ornaments begins to
appear on the coinage; the purpose of these is uncertain, but they
seem to be connected with the dates of issue. Like the Bahmanīs, the
Mālwā sovereigns use elaborate honorific titles for their inscriptions.
Perhaps the most striking is one of Maḥmūd I, who calls himself “_The
mighty sovereign, the victorious, the exalted in the Faith and in the
world, the second Alexander, the right hand of the Khalifate, the
defender of the commander of the faithful_.”
The tradition of the square shape lingered on in Mālwā and the
neighbourhood long after the extinction of its independence; curious
crude little pieces were struck, probably for a century at least, with
a mixture of Mug̱ẖal, Mālwā and Gujarātī inscriptions. Square copper
Mug̱ẖal coins were struck at Ujjain up to the time of Shāh Jahān I,
and Saṅgrāma Siṁha of Mewar (1527-32) also modelled his copper coinage
on that of Mālwā.