The Feudatory Coins of Hyderabad State

The Hyderabad State has largely been presented as having a sole center of power, dominated by the Nizam, his minister, and a handful of British officials. However, this impression is misleading. In fact, the state had multiple centers of power and multiple participants who negotiated their power within the state. Amongst those participants dotting the countryside were the capitals of the samasthan (Hindu kingdoms) kings whose origins predated the arrival of Muslim rule in the Deccan.

Following are some of my feudatory coin collection of Hyderabad state:

1.    Hyderabad Feudatory Shorapur - Bahiri Rajas:

Obverse: Balaji symbol of the world famous Tirumala Temple, conch, tilak & chakra.

Reverse: "Bahiri 1262" in Nagari.

2.    Hyderabad Feudatory Gadwal Mint:

Silver Rupee in the name of Shah Alam II, RY-Ahad

3.    Hyderabad Feudatory Wanaparthi, Nusratabad mint:

Silver Rupee in the name of Mohammad akbar (II).

Obverse: ‘ja’ in Nagari. Inscription: Mohammad Akbar (II). AH 1235

Reverse: ‘A’ in Nagari.

4.    Hyderabad Feudatory Narayanpett:

Silver Rupee of Sikander Jah of Hyderabad State of Dilshadabad Mint.

Sikander Jah, Dilshadabad, Silver Rupee, AH 1186 / 1181, Obv: sikka-e-mubarak badshah ghazi bahadur shah alam, mint mark ‘ti’ in Nagari is visible Rev: julus memanat zarb dilshadabad manus.

5.    Hyderabad Feudatory Narayanpett, Dilshadabad Mint:

Silver Rupee, (AH 1252), in the name of Shah Alam II, Obv: sikka mubarak badshah ghazi, nagari "Go", Rev: sana julus zarb and nagari "La".

Following are the mint marks of Narayanpett mint:

 

These kingdoms began as military service providers to the Kakatiya and Vijayanagar empires of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. As the Deccan came under Indo-Muslim rule, they negotiated their power and authority with their new masters. Over time, their survival and resilience led them to become the oldest members of Hyderabad’s polity. At the same time, they shared their position within the Nizam’s dominions with other nobles.

These kingdoms were led by rajas and sometimes their wives, ranis (queens). Hyderabad State had fourteen samasthans, as seen in the below map 1, which in order of prestige were: Gadwal, Wanaparthi, Jatprole, Amarchinta, Paloncha, Gopalpet, Anagundi, Gurgunta, Narayanpet, Domakonda, Rajapet, Dubbak, Papanapet, and Sirnapalli.

As table 1 indicates, their combined lands formed nearly 10 percent of the state’s territory; their populations topped 1.2 million people, or about 10 percent of the state’s total population; their annual combined income was over six million rupees; and their peshkush (payment, tribute) to the Nizam was nearly one-third million rupees.

As rulers within the Nizam’s dominions, and as neighbors to British India, the samasthan families negotiated their power vis-à-vis the Nizam’s government, and at times, through the Nizam with the British.

The characteristic of a feudatory state is that it operates under the over lordship of another sovereign or state and owe feudal homage or allegiance to that overlord.

Hyderabad became a large sovereign state when it broke away in about 1724 from the Mughal Empire. As a former Mughal Subah it covered much of the Deccan and several depending (feudal) states owed allegiance (loyalty) to Hyderabad and therefore are called feudatory states.