money Archives - SearchKashmir

From personal collection

Queen Didda (979-1005 AD), wife of Raja Kshemgupta and ruler of Kashmir, grand-daughter of Bhimadeva, Shahi ruler of Kabul.

Copper coin of Didda around 950-8 A.D.
[Although I suspect it may be of Kalsa (1063-89)]

Because the queen was the ruler, because the coins carried her name too, the King was known with moniker, Didda-ksema. A lame queen who tortured her own grandson to retain the throne [update. 2018. No, Didda did not kill here Grandsons]. Gave away money and land to Brahmins to check dissent.

Around 1891, when Aurel Stein arrived in Kashmir in he found he found these coins “so common in the Bazars that they might be supposed never to have quite gone out of circulation.”*

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* Notes On Monetary System Of Ancient Kashmir (1899), at Archive.org

Gulmarg

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Picked up: “Tankipora or Teenk’pour near old Secretariat in Srinagar. A place where you could get coin currency in exchange of cash. And it had been like that, a place to get smaller change, for generations. The place gets its name from ‘Teenk'” or ‘Tanki’ of the kind issued by Emperor Akbar. Tanki were the copper coin issued by Akbar from his Ahmadabad, Agra, Kabul, and Lahore mints. System: 10 Tanki (each one weighing 4.15 gram ) = 1 Tanka (230.45 gram)

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He got his first salary – Rs 10. But sadly for him they gave him a ten rupees note. He was absolutely embarrassed. ‘How can I hand just this single note to mother? It seems nothing. She would be dejected.’ So he hit upon an idea. He went to Teenk’pour and changed the ten rupee note for 10 paisa coins. Then he went back home and handed over a full jangling bag of coins to his mother. ‘Son, they pay you so much salary! May you prosper more! May you be an afsar soon! Good bless! Urzu! Urzu!’ Mother was happy.

Tag: money

Didda Rani Coin (979-1005 AD)

Teenk’pour