India - Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaja

Maratha Emperor - Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaja

Chattrapati Shivaji [1630-1680], the great emperor , the founder of Hindu empire 'Hindavi Swarajya', who I admire the most, who is a pride of state of Maharashtra. Why Maharashtra? because today's Western Maharashtra was the major territory of his empire when he founded it. The empire is commonly know as 'Maratha Kingdom'. He was the great warrior and the only one who recreated and established Hindu empire at the time when the entire Hindustan was under the rules of 4 major Muslim dynasties Mughal, Adil Shahi, Qutb Shahi and Nizam Shai. Under these rules, the life of Hindu common man was nothing less then hell, when this great man rose by saying 'Hey Rajya Vave Ye To Shrinchi Iccha' means 'Its a God's wish this empire to be created (for Hindu common man)'! and took out the people from the shadow of Muslim rules to build 'Hindvai Swarajya' (Self-rule of Hindu people).

As far as coinage of his era is concerned, coins of gold, silver and copper are found. All coins bear the same wordings on both sides as below:

Obverse: Shri Raja Shiva
Reverse: Chatra Pati

The gold coin is known as 'Hon'. These 'Hon' coins are said to be very rare as it is believed that major number of gold coins were melted by Aurangzeb and British force when they overpowered the Maratha empire. Hence today, the price of 'Hon' is said to be in lakhs of rupees in India. Below is a snap of 'Hon' which I got to capture in one exhibitions held in Pune in 2011.

The silver coins is known as 'Raupya Mudra'[ means 'Silver coin']. This is also very rare in existence. Below is the snap of Raupya Mudra I saw in another exhibitions held in Pune in 2013.

I do not have both Gold and Silver coins of Shivaji Maharaja in my collection due to their high price.

However, I do have copper coins know as 'Shivrai' in my collection and as a numismatist I feel proud to have those in my collection.

Shivrai - After Corronation of Maharaja Chatrapati Shivaji Bhosale

The shivrai shown above is of the period after the corronation of Shivaji Maharaja as 'Chatrapati' [ after 1674]. This coin bears slight different design of doted circle inside which 'Shri Raja Shiva' and 'Chatrapati' is stamped on both sides of the coin.

Shivrai - said to be of Peshwa regime

The Shivrai shown above is a copper coin of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaja. This is said to be of the period of Peshwas who were acting as a prime minister to Chatrapati Shahu Maharaj during the 18th century. There are lot of patterns observed in Shivrai coins in the form of symbols on it. In the above coin we can see a cresent [Chandra Core] after the letter 'Sri'.

These copper Shivrai coins were very popular in the British Bombay Presidency region [i.e. present day Maharashtra and Gujarat] and were in circulation even in 19th and early 20th century.

We dont find many patterns of coinage from Shiva Chatrapati period. This is because it was a time when Shivaji Maharaja built his empire from scratch by fighting with 3 major muslim dynasties. Hence he was completely busy in expanding and protecting his empire. Even he passed away at the age of just 50 years. Hence he didn't get time to think on coinage. After Shivaji Maharaj, Maratha kings 'Sambhaji Raje' and ' Rajaram Raje' kept Maratha fight alive for 27 years with Mughal emperor 'Aurangzeb'. Naturally the coinage of this period don't have much patterns and designs unlike Maharajas in Northern India who accepted alliance with Aurangzeb.

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