ABSTRACT
The right to ‘Sikka’—to have coins struck in the King’s name—constitutes one of the fundamental rights of Kingship in the Islamic concept of Kingship. Exercising the right brought legitimacy to the ruler because coins, by their very nature, circulated as a medium of exchange, and their acceptance as such meant acceptance to the one whose authority they bear. Coins thus were instruments of kingly power apart from being just a monetary medium.
The Mughal rulers of India exhibited an unusual intimacy with their coinage. To them, coins were a medium to exhibit their prowess, patronage and prerogatives. As such, coins played a very important role in court culture, in which elaborate performances were constructed around ritual exchange and distribution of coins. At the centre of these rituals was the concept of the ‘powerful king’, considered to be a ‘shadow of the Divine’, who by his nature as such was visualised to have powers of special grace, favours, healing and authorisation. But occasionally sighting him and being in his close presence could also attract the ‘evil eye’ upon him.
The chapter will contextualise Mughal coins in such instances of courtly and kingly rituals. In particular it will focus on Nazar and Nisar, two rituals of the Mughal court which involved the ‘evil eye’ concept at their heart. Apart from providing an illustrative numismatic summary of Mughal coins struck especially for such purposes, this chapter will attempt to problematise the role of such coins in complex socio-political functions such as ‘gift economy’. It will also highlight how such rituals were continued in Colonial times, when Mughal sovereignty was replaced by British paramountcy.
