Was Chittagong ever a capital city- A fresh study of some rare coins of Chittagong
ABDUL KARIM
10/22/2005
Chittagong, the port city of Bangladesh, has got a chequered history of her own. In the early period, she was known to the Arabs, the Portuguese and all other European and Asiatic traders as the chief sea-port and a gateway to Bengal, being the most prominent port compared to other ports like Pipli, Tamluk, Satgaon and Hugli. In spite of lavish praises showered upon Chittagong by the foreign writers, she is not known to have attained the rank and status of a capital city. In the medieval period, Chittagong was a bone of contention among the neighbouring powers, the Sultans of Bengal, the Kings of Tippera and of Arakan, each power establishing hold over the area at one or the other period. Some of the rulers used Chittagong as a mint town. Thus Sultan Ghiath al-din Azam Shah and Jalal al-din Muhammad Shah of Bengal issued coins from the Chatgaon mint,1 Danuja Marddana Deva and Mahendra Deva of Bengal issued coins from Chatigram mint2 and Dhanya Manikya of Tippera also issued coins commemorating his conquest of Chatigram ( Chittagong ), though it is not known whether he issued coins from Chatigram mint.3 The Kings of Arakan did not inscribe the names of mint-towns in their coins, so it is not possible to say whether they also issued coins from the Chittagong mint. But there are some bi-lingua coins, with Burmese letters on one side and Arabic/Persian or Bengali letters in the other, which throw important light on Chittagong’s history. They may probably suggest that for a short period of time, Chittagong gained the status of a capital city. Some of these coins were discovered long before in the mid 19th century by the great scholar A.P. Phayre who for the first time brought the history of Arakan to the view of modern scholars, but the significance of the coins was apparently missed by him. The object of this paper is to study the coins afresh.
The early 15th century is a turning point both in the history of Bengal- Arakan relationship and the minting of regular coins in Arakan. Before that although there were symbolic coins of the Chandra dynasty rulers (4th to 8th century A.D.), there is little evidence of coins in Arakan, or any part of Burma until the 15th century.4 In the early 5th century, a fugitive Arakanese king took shelter in the capital of Bengal and later go back his throne with the help of the host king. The relationship thus established between the two bordering kingdoms helped in the introduction of regular coinage in Arakan. Briefly speaking, the facts are, as Robinson and Shaw write, “In Arakan, which was independent from Burma, and which was a state bordering on Bengal where coined money had been in use for some centuries, it seems that the art of coining was learnt from across the border. When Arakan was invaded by the Burmese in 1404 A.D. King Narameikla ( also known as Min Saw Mun ) took refuge in Bengal. It was 26 years before he finally repossessed Arakan with the help of the Sultan of Bengal and, according to Harvey, it is from about this time ( 1430 A.D. ) that coins appeared in Arakan. These coins were copied style of Bengal tankas, bearing the Kalima on one side, and an assumed Muslim title on the other. It is probable that these early coins were minted in Bengal, and that some of them were used to pay tribute due from Narameikla to the Bengal Sultan.”5
This important piece of evidence was first collected by A.P. Phayre,6 but he could not place the events in proper chronological order, because correct chronology of the Bengal Sultans was not available in his time.7 The information is so meagre that a true picture of the events cannot be obtained. What is evident, however, is that the Arakan king Narameikla was restored to his throne by the armed intervention of a Bengal Sultan and this event took place in 1430 A.D. Jalal al-din Muhammad Shah, son of Raja Ganesh, was then the reigning Sultan of Bengal. The restored king of Arakan, Narameikla, must have agreed to some undertaking, but the terms are not known. What is known, however, is that from this time onward regular silver coinage was introduced in Arakan and the coins were minted in the style of those of Bengal. Not only that the Arakanese copied the Bengal coins to improve their medium of exchange or copied them as mere works of art, but probably they were compelled to do so by force of circumstances. If the restored king had undertaken to pay tribute, it was easy to do so by minted coins similar to those of Bengal. Robinson and Shaw’s opinion that the Arakanese coins were minted in Bengal may not be correct, because in that case the Arabic or Persian letters would not have been so crude as they are found in the Arakanese coins. Whatever that may be, for the purpose of this article, the more important point to he noted is that from this time onward, coins were minted in Arakan with Arabic/Persian legends and Muslim titles of Arakanese Kings.8 These coins may be broadly divided into four categories.
(i) Initially the coins bear Kalima on one side and the Muslim titles of Arakanese kings on the other.
(ii) Coins bearing Burmese writings on one side and Arabic/Persian writings on the other. Both sides give only the names and titles of the kings, the Arabic/Persian writings giving the Muslim titles.
(iii) Coins bearing Burmese writings on one side and Arabic/Persian writings on the upper part and Bengali writings on the lower part of the other side. The Arabic/Persian and Bengali writings give the Muslim titles.
(iv) Coins bearing Burmese writings on one side and Bengali writings on the other side. The Bengali writings give the Muslim name/ title of kings.
With this background in mind, we now describe the coins under discussion:
Title: Was Chittagong ever a capital city- A fresh study of some rare coins of Chittagong
Author: ABDUL KARIM
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Date: 10/22/2005
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