COINS AND HISTORY WRITING

                   

                                                                                      -BageshwarJha

The Department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, Jharkhand Govt and the State Museum, Ranchi jointly hosted a three-day (Feb. 19 -21, 2015) national workshop in the Museum auditorium, Hotwar, Ranchi on the topic, “Writing of Indian history on the basis of coins”. Sh. SaileshPandit, Deputy Director, Doordarshan Ranchi was the chief guest. After the inaugural function, the academic session started.

 

The first session was presided over by Dr H.S. Pandey, ex-HOD, History, Ranchi University. It started with the keynote address by DrUmesh Chandra Dwivedi from Patna. He tried to draw the outline of the old coins excavated or privately procured all over the country. His emphasis was on the numismatic discoveries in Bihar. He revealed that the metal coins on a big scale started being issued after the 6^th CBC. However, he lamented that so far only two coins could be recovered in Jharkhand region. He hoped that the state now having its own govt, archaeological activities would pick up momemntum and new artefacts including coins could be unravelled.Dr. I.D. Choudhary, Ex-HOD/History, Ranchi Vaesity argued that when there was a problem in writing history due to the lack of dependable sources, a coin would be of great help. He added that in Indian history, Akbar was the first emperor with a well managedminiting. DrChoudhary also said that there was no impression of a queen on coins till the middle ages. However, the first coins with the impression of Noorjahan was found in Jharkhand.

  DrSaileshRoy,V.C., Vinobabhave University, Hazaribagh touching upon minting in some foreign countries, hoped that the history students of Jharkhand would be greatly benefited by this scholarly workshop. DrChitranjan Prasad Sinha of Patna presented a very good paper on religious aspects revealed by coins. He mentioned  particularly about the Kushana and Gupta period coins which showed as motifs  different deities like Ganesha, Shiva, Kartikeya

etc. In this session some other  scholars like ShAjit Shah of Patna, Dr Sayed Alam of Patna, Amit Pandey of Ranchi and Faiyaz Ahmad of ZarinaKhan Museum, Chitarpur,Jharkhand also presented their papers. In his concluding presidential remarks DrH.S.Pandey (above) emphasized the need of concerted excavations in Jharkhand areas so that history writing could get the desired impetus.

  The academic session on the second day had Dr. I.K. Choudhary in the chair. The first speaker was ShBageshwarJha, Curator, Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, New Delhi who presented his paper entitled, : ‘Coins Can Coin Annals’.ShJha traced the history of coinage since the Days of Harappan Settlements till the 14^th CAD. He mentioned how the Cholas, Pandyas,Satvahnas, Pallvasetc had their pet animals as motifs seeing which no historian would have problems in recognizing and assigning the to the concerned issuing authorities. He said that

previously we knew about only two kings in western India in the post-Alexander aggression period. However, now with the help of coins, in total, 30 of them have been identified. ShJha also said how Mohammad iii bin Tughlaq after the fiasco of Delhi to Daulatabad and back,had to stop issuing silver tankas and resorted to copper tankas. The people not only counterfeited them on large scales but also the foreign traders refused to accept them. So there was a huge heap of such rejected coins in front of his treasury, which is said to have remained there for a hundred years.

Other speakers in this session were Sh. JitendraAnupam of Hazaribagh, Dr Gita Ojha of Ranchi, DrMunmunMondal of Calcutta, Dr Mathura Das of Ranchi, DrSubhash Chandra Yadav of Varanasi, AlakhDeo Srivastava of Ranchi and

DrVishiUpadhyay of Patna. In their papers they threw light on different aspects of coinage and their utility in writing authentic history. In his presidential speech, DrChoudhary briefly touching upon the presentations of different scholars, thanked

 

the organisers for hosting such a useful workshop. He strongly stressed the need of more concerted efforts to bring to light the priceless artefacts underground in Jharkhand.

On Feb.21, the organisers took the delegates to a historical site named Itkhori in Chatra district of Jharkhand. It has a museum containing remnants of temples of Pala period. The main deity known as Bhadrakali was earlier stolen, which was later recovered from Calcutta and installed in a grand temple in 1988. The statue has an inscription naming Mahendrapal who did not belong to the Pala lineage. As a matter of fact Bhadrakali is Tara of Buddhism but has become popular with the Hindus.