East India Company - Madras Presidency, "Swami
Pagodas"
Single Swami / Star Gold
Pagoda - 3.26g
Three Swami Pagoda - 3.4g
Three Swami Pagoda - 3.4g
The East India Company
(EIC), often informally called John Company, was originally chartered as the
Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, and
more properly called the Honorable East India Company (HEIC). It was an English
joint-stock company, formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but ended up
trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent, Qing Dynasty China, North-West
Frontier Province and Baluchistan. The company rose to account for half of the
world's trade, particularly trade in basic commodities that included cotton,
silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium. The company also ruled the
beginnings of the British Empire in India.
The company received a
Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, making it the oldest
among several similarly formed European East India Companies. Wealthy merchants
and aristocrats owned the Company's shares. The government owned no shares and
had only indirect control. The company eventually came to rule large areas of
India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming
administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after
the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian
Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown to
assume direct control of India in the new British Raj.
Initially, the Java trade
was the most profitable, but this was displaced soon by the India trade. The
company's first factory or trading post was established in 1611 in Masulipatam
on the southeastern coast. In 1639, the company received a grant of a lease of
Madras from the king of Chandragiri. There they built Fort St. George and
Madras replaced Masulipatam as the company's principal settlement on the
Coromandel Coast.
At the time that the
company received the grant of Madras, they also received a grant to mint coins
at a price of paying the Chandragiri Raja one and a half per cent as a royalty.
The first British coins made in India were gold pagodas, made to resemble the
coins of the Vijayanagar kings, who were the Chandragiri Raja's suzerains.
Pagoda was a unit of
currency, a coin made of gold or half gold minted by Indian dynasties as well
as the British, the French and the Dutch. It was issued by various dynasties in
medieval southern India, including the Kadambas of Hangal, the Kadambas of Goa,
and the Vijayanagar Empire.
The word
"Pagoda" traces its origin from the Portuguese 'Pagode' (early 16
century) perhaps from or influenced by the Tamil 'Pagavadi' (house belonging to
a deity) derived from the Sanskrit 'Bhagavati' ("goddess" fem. of
'Bhagavat' "blessed, adorable," from *bhagah " meaning good
fortune). Pagoda also relates to an Indian and Far Eastern temple, especially a
tower, with several different stories, each of which has its own roof that
originally served religious purposes as memorials or shrines.
The gold pagodas were
minted using the ancient hammering technique. Basically small discs or blobs of
gold of the correct mass were placed on a reverse die, and the obverse die (the
so called hammer die) hammered into the blank coin producing the design. This
results in an irregularly shaped coin that can often be weakly struck and the
flan can show cracks along the edge.
There were two types of
pagodas coined by foreign traders. The most valuable and dominant gold issue of
the early Madras Presidency was the Gold Star pagoda, worth approximately 8
shillings, issued by the East India Company at Madras. The second was the Porto
Novo pagoda, issued by the Dutch at Tuticorin and also by the Nawabs of Arcot,
and worth about 25% less than the Star pagoda.
There were two types of
gold pagoda coins struck by the East India Company. The more commonly found
single figure 'swami or star' pagoda is about 11 millimetres in diameter and
contained 3.41 grams of 82.3% pure gold. The less common 3 figure pagoda is
slightly larger at 12-14 millimetres but contains almost the same amount of
gold.
The 'Star Pagoda' showed
a single standing figure on the coin, also called the "single swami"
pagoda; the other so-called "3-swami" pagodas were introduced in
1691. Of these, the early type shows the figures full length, on a more compact
flan relative to the later type. The Full length 3-swami pagoda shows on the
obverse the figure of Lord Venkateswara (or Tirupati Balaji, principle deity in
South India) standing facing, flanked by his two consorts, Sridevi and Bhudevi
with a granulated field on the reverse. The later type shows the 3-swami
figures standing only three quarters of a length. (In Sanskrit, Ven-kata-eswara
means: 'vem' = all the links with one's own sins, 'kata' = will be cut off in
total to the one who surrenders to him, 'Eswara' = Supreme God).
The 'swami' gold pagodas
were issued by the British East India Company (E.I.C.) between 1740 and 1807.
In 1807 new machinery was
introduced and mint produced 2 silver coin in European style with oblique
milling. One series based on Hindu standard consisted of One and Two pagoda in
gold, Half and Quarter pagoda and Fanams in silver. The Obv of the pagoda coins
had value in English and Persian on ribbon around Gopuram (temple) design while
the Rev had value in the local vernacular script, Tamil and Telugu. The copper
coins consisted on Cash denominations. The other series based on moghul
standard were gold mohurs and fractions of mohurs: ¼, ⅓ and ½ . They
issued rupees together with fractions down to ⅛ and 1⁄16
rupee in silver.
After
1818, Rupee was made the standard coin and the weight was fixed at 180 grains
with smaller pieces in proportion. The pagodas and fanams were demonetized from
that year. In 1835, the East India Company unified all the coinage under the
Coinage Act and the new coins minted in 1835 had the effigy of William IV on
the obverse and the value on the reverse in English and Persian. The coins
issued after 1840 bore the portrait of Queen Victoria. Following the First War
of Independence in 1857, from 1862 to 1947 coins were stuck under the authority
of the crown. The first coinage under the crown was issued in 1862 and in 1877
Queen Victoria assumed the title of the Empress of India.
Source: Wikipedia,
British Museum, Others (internet)
Blog Post Author: Mitresh singh
