• Source: Jital coin

The jital was a silver coin introduced by the Kabul Shahis around 750 CE.




History


The term jital (uncertain etymology) is used by numismatists for coins derived from the Shahi bull-and-horseman by one or more evolutionary steps. Silver jitals were accompanied by copper coins of lower denomination, often struck with the same die. The bull-and-horseman design (see images at right and below) was copied and adapted by subsequent Hindu and Muslim Medieval authorities in the territories corresponding to modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, North West India and eventually beyond. The jital, issued in vast numbers, perhaps hundreds of millions, by the Hindu Shahi, is credited with expanding the geographic reach of a monetized economy in Medieval India. Valued for their reliable silver content, bull-and-horseman jitals were circulated along trade routes from their Afghan source to northeastern Europe.
After the Shahi period, the silver jital gave way to the Rajput billon jital of silver mixed with copper, an alloy with continued use in the early coinage of the Muslim rulers of Delhi based on the silver taka or tanka currency. At the time of the eighth Mamluk sultan, Mahmud I (1246-1266), the average billon jital contained 14.4 grains of silver, leading Wright (1936) to conjecture that these early jitals of the Delhi sultanate were worth 1/12 of a tanka. Later, the jital was variously valued at 1/48, 1/50, 1/60 and 1/64 of a tanka, and the jital, in turn, was made up of lower denomination gani. The number of gani that made up a jital also varied, in some cases based on the silver content of the jital but the values of gani were not proportional to their silver content. Wright reports larger denomination coins of 2, 3, 4, 6, and of 12 jitals (a quarter tanka). The unstable value of the tanka currency system was brought to a crisis by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1321-1351) when he introduced representative coins of copper and brass that could be exchanged for fixed amounts of gold and silver from the Sultanate treasury. This created conditions for rampant forgery that led him to withdraw the system within eight days, reportedly buying back his brass coins. Jitals were also issued in the south of the subcontinent. An early 15th century Ilkhanid ambassador to Vijayanagar (Karnataka) reported three types of coin in use there: gold alloy, pure silver and copper jital.




Visual elements of the jital


On the Shahi prototype, the obverse face of the coin shows a seated humpbacked Zebu bull with a Sharada script legend above with a dotted border. There is a horse and rider on the reverse. The bull is draped with a jhula (saddle-cloth), has a trishula on its rump and a star shaped object hanging from its neck. As a sacred symbol of Hinduism most associated with Shiva, the trishula establishes the bull as Nandi, Shiva's mount and devotee. The jitals of Chandela ruler Sallakshana-Pala-Deva, Tomaras Ananga-Pala-Deva and others feature a variety of marks on the jhula, while numbers appear on the jhula of jitals issued by the Delhi rajas. The horse is caparisoned including a back-strap with three or four circular pellets and the rider holds a lance with a waving pennon. The legend above the bull features formulaic language such as Śrī Spalapati Deva (Radiant Spalapati the God) or Śrī Samanta Deva. Spalapati means "war-lord" (from Persian spala, army + Sanskrit pati, master) and Sāmanta, "governor" or "feudatory lord," thus the coins reference generic titles rather than specific persons, despite the apparent existence of a Hindu Shahi king called Sāmand (c. 850-870 CE). On the Spalapati coins, the horseman wears turban-like head gear with a globule at the top whereas on subsequent Samanta coins the rider's head is stylized, resembling a cross. Corrupted Bactrian script runs across the margin before the horseman which some interpret as Śrī Ispahbadh, the Persian equivalent of Spalapati. The image of the sacred bull, communicating virility and power, amplifies the imputed divinity of the issuing authority and may have meant to assert Hindu sovereignty over their Turk Shahi predecessor or against the encroachment of neighboring Muslim rulers. It would not be the last time that rulers in this contested frontier zone created numismatic self-representation with an eye on powerful neighbors. Coin circulation also serves to redraw cultural boundaries. Shiva's bull with trishula continued as a device on coins issued by Muslim rulers as far afield as the Abbasid caliphs of Iraq. A war elephant, an Indic military feature adopted by Muslim rulers, sometimes takes the place of the bull. Jitals issued by Muslim authorities featured bilingual Nāgarī/Persian language inscriptions or used Persian or Nāgarī alone. The skillful execution of images of the early high silver content jitals gave way to coins of cruder make and lower or no silver content both over time and when issued by mints at the geographic margins. The reverse sometimes names the issuing ruler and may contain a single nāgarī letter such as A, Gu, K, Bhi, or M or other device beside the horseman that may indicate, per Bhatia (1973) the proper names of the Shahi rulers, or per Tye (1995), the badge of minting cities. The motif of the armed horseman extended beyond jitals to other denominations such as the gold tankas and quarter tankas of Muhammad of Ghor, who also issued jitals (see Ghurid jital below). The horseman on these tankas wields a mace, axe, or sword rather than a lance. The mace (danda) is an ancient symbol of sovereignty in India. Singh argues that the choice of weapons depicted on the coins held a propaganda function, to validate new Turkic rulers and their Islamic regime to the subjugated population.




Jital as evidence against fixed "Hindu" and "Muslim" periods in the South Asian borderlands



For Flood (2009), the bull-and-horseman coin presents a challenge to the common assumptions of historians, social scientists and museum curators. Issued by both Hindu and Muslim authorities, featuring Indic motifs, Persian-Nāgarī bilingual inscriptions, and changing weight systems based on Persian and Indic standards, the jital serves to rebuke modern scholars for dividing transcultural premodern societies and their artifacts into artificially separate categories of Muslim and Hindu periods. The jital provides material evidence that such fixed and separated categories misrepresent the mobile, fluid, heterogeneous, cosmopolitan, polyglot societies of the South Asian borderlands. Flood further suggests that coins are not merely a medium of exchange but vehicles for the circulation of ideas. Robert Tye articulates an assessment similar to Flood's last point based on his study of the Indo-Persian jital, arguing that "peoples united in the use of a particular sort of currency are also likely to exchange ideas about how that coinage should be used, changed and developed.




Identifying jital coins






= Major groupings

=
Weight and visual assessment can identify basic categories of jital. MacDowall (1968) has organized the jitals of Kabul and Gandhara into three major groupings with the following characteristics:

I. Silver coins with Śrī Spalapati Deva, struck between 3.1 and 3.5 gm. with a remarkably uniform content of 70 per cent gold and silver with the types in good style, and a reverse legend in cursive script which is faithfully copied but progressively misunderstood.
II. Silver coins with Śrī Sāmanta Deva, struck to a slightly lower weight standard between 2.9 and 3.3 gm. with good metal but more variety in purity ranging from 61 to 70 per cent, gold and silver. The reverse legend merely survives now as a stylized design, and other features of the types have been copied and progressively misunderstood.
III. Billon coins with Śrī Sāmanta Deva struck to a good weight standard but now merely billon with a gold and silver content of 25 to 30 per cent. There is a further sharp deterioration and progressive stylization of design.




= Matching to catalog types

=
The exact coin is often identifiable by matching the legend and design to a cataloged coin type. Robert and Monica Tye's 1995 Catalog includes images and attributions of 418 jital types that collectors can consult to match and identify coins. A particular challenge is that the legends are often partially off flan, (beyond the edge of the coin), leading collectors to make educated guesses based on visible parts of the legend.




= Dating jitals

=
Some jitals display the year of issue. Most of these show the lunar Islamic Hijri calendar denoted by numismatists as AH, for Anno Hegirae, or year of the establishment of the first Muslim community, while some jitals display the solar Indian Saka calendar year. Dates may appear as numerals or, less frequently, spelled out. In addition to general guidance to reading Arabic and Persian script found on coins, Plant's Arabic coins & how to read them (2019) provides instructions for reading AH coin dates and converting them to common era calendar dates. Tye & Tye (1995) provide a helpful chart of 14th century Indo-Muslim and 13th century Nagari numerals to assist identification, especially where Medieval subcontinental numerals differ from Arabic or Persian norms.
For an undated coin, a range of years in which it was issued may be established if the issuing authority is clearly marked and if the start and end dates of that authority's reign are known from the historical record. When clear dates or issuing authority is missing or unclear, the relative chronology of a coin can often be determined from archeological coin deposits by examining such data as weight ranges, flan size, manufacturing methods, designs and other marks, metallic composition, overstrikes (especially when both old and new designs are discernible), signs of wear relative to other coins in the find indicating relative length of circulation, etc.




The jital in history: The Shahi problem


The coinage of India, dating back about 2500 years, provides material evidence of the abundance or scarcity of various metals, the names and sometimes dates and mint locations of ruling authorities, of written languages in use, of religious affiliation, the state of metallurgy, systems of weight, currency systems and cultural values. In the Indian subcontinent, indigenous coinage practices were interrupted by a series of invaders—Greek, Turkic, Mongol, and Persian—who variously imposed their own coinage practices, adapted to, or influenced indigenous coinage practices, establishing what can be seen as an enduring dialog in metal coin. Where textual sources are contradictory, incomplete or lacking, as is often the case in the early history of India, coins can be the primary or only evidence of historical facts, and numismatic conclusions may exceed confirmation of historical findings to illuminate government practices and market activities uniquely revealed by coinage. In the case of Shahi jitals, the inscriptions taken for the names of kings do not correspond to lists of kings known from literary sources. These discrepancies constitute what has been called the "Shahi problem."
Al-Bīrūnī's list (c. 1030) of the Hindu Shahi kings below bears few commonalities with names or titles on the coins. Sāmand (which could be a name but more likely a title) appears to correspond to Samanta Deva and Bhīm may correspond to Śrī Bhima Deva but the rest do not appear represented on any coins. The names Śrī Khudavayaka (likely governor of Kabul after 870) and Śrī Vakka Deva appear on coins but not on the list. Kalhana's 12th century Rājataraṅginī provides evidence disputing Al-Bīrūnī's list, maintaining that Kallar is a misreading of the later Kamalaku (Kamalū) and that because Samanta is not known in any other instance as a name, that this is merely a title. Historians and numismatists have not been able to resolve these discrepancies.




Disputed duration


According to Cunningham (1894), the jital denomination and coin form was used for 750 years, continuing as late as the reign of Raja of Kangra, Triloka Chandra (1420-1450), who Cunningham mistakenly claims as a contemporary of Jahangir (1605-1627). Other scholars report that Akbar's zabt land revenue system was assessed in dāms and jitals. Having adopted the rupee currency system introduced by Sher Shah during the Sur Empire interregnum, by most accounts, Akbar did not issue jital coins, but retained the jital as an account value representing 1/25 of a copper dām and 1/1000 of a rupee. This accepted timeline is complicated by the existence of a single copper coin of Akbar's inscribed "jital" and "sanah (regnal year) 43," establishing a physical jital in 1599 which conforms to the theoretical weight of 1/25th dām or 1/1000th rupee. Sher Shah's copper paisa was a direct representative of the billon jital but Akbar did not adopt this denomination from Sher Shah's rupee currency system. Robert Tye published a catalog and account of Jital coins in 1995 which documents the latest jitals as those of Mahmud of Jaunpur 1440-1457 CE. By this reckoning the jital as a coin was in use about 600 years. Accepting the single copper jital of 1599 and the continued use of the jital as a notional value in the Mughal period extends the span of jital use to approximately 850 years.




Buying power of the jital


Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316) regulated the prices of staple foods and essential commodities to prevent famine, discourage stockpiling, increase tax revenue, eliminate bribery, and insure that his military personnel were paid on time and could afford to live on their salaries. Battles could be lost if any part of the imperial workforce walked off the job for non-payment. The salary of a calvaryman with his own horse was 235 tankas per year or 19 1/2 tankas per month (936 jitals). The Delhi market prices during this period of economic and political stability appear below:

During the Tughluq dynasty (1320-1413), seven varieties of grapes were grown in Delhi that sold for 1 jital per seer (c. 25 lbs/9.3 kg). During the reign of Muhammad Tughluq (1325-1351), prices rose considerably due to drought, famine, mismanagement and constant rebellion.




Changing metal, coin weight and weight systems in political context



Kushano-Sasanian coin types struck to Persian weight standards dominated Medieval Indian circulation after the fall of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century. The ancient Hindu weight system, dating to Mohenjo Daro, was based on the ratti, the poisonous bright red seed of Abrus precatorius. This weight system appears to have become extinct, at least with respect to coinage. After Kallar founded the Hindu Shahi dynasty (c. 843) in present day Afghanistan with Muslim caliphs at the border, the jital resurrected the ancient weight system at 3.4 grams, the same weight last used as the Mauryan dharana of a thousand years earlier as the weight of the silver punchmarked Karshapana. The early Shahi bull-and-horseman jitals have a consistent weight and high silver content over hundreds of years demonstrating a sound economy and stable political power. By about 1000 CE, the Shahi had lost some of their territory and silver mines and bull-and-horseman jitals had fallen in weight to about 3.2 grams. Decreased silver content is often attributed to shortages of bullion but other evidence suggests hoarding by elites motivated by short sighted greed or deliberate attempts to manipulate the economy are more likely explanations.
The coin weight standard of the Shahi with minor variance would persist another 400 years into the colonial period of British rule. The incursion of Mongol armies in the early 13th century impacted coin weight systems. Coins struck by the Khwarezmian Empire under Ala-ud-din Muhammad, (1200-1220 CE) and the jitals issued by Genghis Khan appear based on the mithqal, the Persian standard silver weight unit of 4.32 grams. A hoard of mostly Mongol jitals showed no standard weight, ranging from 2.6 to 6.2 grams. Tye suggests that variable coin weight may have been a deliberate strategy to destabilize markets to reduce peasants to subsistence levels, pushing them into serfdom. Elites could still make large payments in coin by weighing them, using scales, an option unavailable to peasants making small purchases, driving them into the hands of middlemen. The coins issued after the Ghaznavid period by the Ghorids, Taj al-Din Yildiz, and the Khwarezm Shahs are noted for their "horrible alloy" and high lead content (note coloration of coins below). When the Ghorid armies captured Delhi and Bengal at the end of the 12th century, they established the silver tanka weighing about 10.5 grams. Versions of the bull-and-horseman jitals continued to be issued as subsidiary coinage, having been increased in weight to about one-third of the tanka at 3.6 grams. The dueling Hindu and Muslim weight systems, the use of billon (alloy) with varying degrees of silver content, copper, or crude base metal, and attempts to manipulate economic behavior produced shifting metal content, weight and value of the jital for much of its circulating life.
The currency became stabilized when Sher Shah Suri abolished the use of mixed metals and introduced the rupee of 100 rattis (11.40 grams) of 96% pure silver. Mughal Emperor Akbar further systematized weights and currency as below.

The purchasing power of the rupee was equal to the price of silver in the bullion market and the rupee was the only legal tender and money of account by which all other prices were expressed. Thus while the rupee was a fixed value, its purchasing power fluctuated. The chart above indicates the approximate value of other denominations relative to the rupee but there was no fixed rate of exchange. The dām and rupee coins were also used as weights. The 11.66 gram tola persisted as a unit of mass, eventually adopted as standard under British rule, and while replaced by metric units in 1956, is still in current use in bullion markets and in the measurement of charas (hashish).




Jital-issuing authorities


Robert and Monica Tye's 1995 Jitals: A catalogue and account of the coin denomination of daily use in Medieval Afghanistan and North West India identifies the following issuers.

Shahis, 750-1000 CE (see examples, top right)
Islamic, Anonymous and Minor dynasties, 900-1200
Budaon (Pala empire)
Delhi Rajas
Narwar Rajas
Kangra Rajas, after 1250
Ghaznavids
Ghorids of Ghor (see examples, left)
Ghorids of Bamiyan
Ghorids of Ghazna
Taj al-Din Yildiz
Qubacha (Emirate of Multan)
Khwarazmshah (see example, left)
Saffarids
Ilkhan
Mihrabanids
Mongols
Tomaras of Delhi (see example, left)
Malik of Kurzuwan
Chauhan dynasty (see example, left)
Vijayanagara Empire
Qarlughids
Delhi Sultanate (see examples, left)
Madurai Sultanate
Gulbarga Sultanate (modern Kalaburagi, Karnataka)
Malwa Sultanate
Jaunpur Sultanate




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Jital coin
• Razia Sultana
• Masud Shah
• Coinage of India
• Garuda
• Vijayanagara Empire
• Ruknuddin Firuz
• Krishnadevaraya
• Firuz Shah Tughlaq
• Vijayanagara coinage