Kabul Shahi
opposite sides
I picked up just a small handful of these curious coins from the old cigar box of miscellaneous coins at the show this month. The mystery and intrigue of identifying and revealing their stories is what drives me. It is just amazing to grab 1000 year old artifacts for a few bucks.
On the small dull silver one I could see the image of a crowned king with a staff on horseback. Later I found out the horse is said to be caparisoned ,decorated for battle or show with the three Buddhist symbolic icons on the hindquarters. After determining the value to be only $100 at most I cleaned it as I prefer it shiny and legible more like originally minted.
Opposite side was like a Rorschach test. At first I found on the left the eyeballs, then the horns so I guessed it to be a bull. The bull has always been a sacred animal in India.
After several hours of Googling, the coin was revealed to be a "bull and horseman" actually the 903-915AD Kabul Shahi Kingdom Kamaluka jital coin. It is the northern Pakistan India Afghanistan region today. For perspective, just think of it as the our war zone for the last 10 years, Bin Laden's hideout in Abbotabad, or the capital city of Kabul where our troops are headquartered (forever). The Historical records of India are sketchy for this time frame not to mention complicated. There was a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism here for many centuries. By 750 the Turks had apparently taken over this area, but by 870 the (Islamic Arab) Muslims were coming in from the west and taking parts of the region. I thought it fitting to superimposed the coin over our Afghan prayer rug that Joey Gerace brought back from Peace Corps in Kabul about 1972. My preliminary findings are that the Turkmen, nomads from Turkistan made it. Needs more research. Regime change seems to be a way of life in this part of the world.
The recumbent Kabul bull facing left has ajhula (saddle cloth), a Nagari legend on top (predecessor of devanagari) for King Khudarayaka (Kamaluka) (Kamalavarman) and a trishula or "TRIRATANA" on rump. That three pronged symbol on the right hindquarters of my coin represents the three jewels or spiritualism of Buddhism enlightenment. Robert Tye has perhaps the most definitive identification. Mine appears to be a type Tye 23 coin since the staff or spear is nearly vertical or only angled forward a few degrees and the "Adl" script is to the right of the horseman.
A fine example of the coin could fetch a hundred dollars.
The King on horseback seems to be a throwback another thousand years to Heraios on his coin from 1-30AD from the Kushan Empire that previously ruled this same area. A gold coin from Vasudeva I a hundred years later includes the God Nandi the bull. Note that Instead of Oscars, in India they give Nandis for movie awards.
Not wanting to get involved in international geopolitics but couldn't help noticing this article in today's paper linking the same turmoil of Kabul - Pakistan - India that is represented in my coin. For more fun, explore the "Buzz" words: Haqquani, Waziristan, Hindu Hush, and Kashmir.
Two unsolved mystery coins to go...
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