Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Coin: The Emperor Who Remade Mughal Money
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's wars, his taxes, his religious policies. But there's one thing that touched every single person in his empire, from the richest noble to the poorest peasant, and we haven't really looked at it yet. Luna: What's that? Lucas: His coins. The money in people's pockets. Aurangzeb ruled for nearly fifty years, and he was obsessive about what went on his coinage. For him, a coin wasn't just a medium of exchange — it was a statement of faith, of authority, of his vision for the empire. Lucas: Mughal coins had always carried inscriptions — the emperor's name, titles, the date, the mint. But Aurangzeb went further. He insisted that all his gold and silver coins bear the Kalima, the Islamic declaration of faith: 'La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah.' No exceptions. Luna: Wait — that's pretty bold. Didn't earlier Mughal emperors do that too? Lucas: Some did, but not consistently. Akbar, for instance, had the 'Allahu Akbar' phrase and even the Hindu 'Rama' on some coins. Jahangir famously put his own portrait and even his beloved wine cup on coins. Shah Jahan had the Kalima on some issues, but also allowed other designs. Aurangzeb was the first to make it a hard-and-fast rule: every gold mohur and every silver rupee must carry the Kalima. No portraits, no zodiac signs, no personal touches. Luna: That must have been a problem for his Hindu subjects — handling coins with the Muslim declaration of faith. Lucas: Exactly. There's a famous story from the Maasir-i-Alamgiri, the court chronicle. In 1669, a group of Hindu merchants in Gujarat petitioned Aurangzeb, asking for coins without the Kalima. They said it offended their religious sentiments to touch coins bearing the Prophet's name — especially when they had to use them in daily trade, even for things like buying meat or paying tolls. Aurangzeb's response? He refused. He said the coinage was a symbol of imperial sovereignty and Islamic authority. He suggested they handle the coins with a cloth, or keep them in a purse, but he wouldn't change the design. Luna: Harsh. But didn't some previous emperors issue special 'non-epigraphic' coins for just that reason? Lucas: They did. Under Akbar, there were 'bhangar' coins — these were silver coins without the Kalima, used primarily in Hindu-majority areas. Aurangzeb abolished them. He wanted a unified, Islamized currency across the entire empire. And he didn't stop at the Kalima. He also removed the 'trishul' mint mark that some mints used — that's the three-pronged trident associated with Shiva. He banned the depiction of the sun, which was a common motif on earlier Mughal coins. He even ordered that all coins, even copper dam, carry the phrase 'zarb dar al-mulk Shahjahanabad' or similar — the mint name and the emperor's titles. Luna: So he was using coins as a tool of religious homogenization. Lucas: Exactly. And it wasn't just about piety. It was about control. The Mughal mint network was huge — there were dozens of imperial mints across the empire, from Kabul to Bengal, from Lahore to Ahmadabad. Each mint produced coins that bore the emperor's name and the date of his reign. If you rebelled and set up your own mint, that was a direct challenge to Mughal sovereignty. So the coinage was a daily reminder of who was in charge. Lucas: But there's another layer to this. Aurangzeb's monetary policy wasn't just ideological; it was also practical. His Deccan campaigns were incredibly expensive. He needed vast amounts of silver to pay his soldiers and maintain his supply lines. So he increased the minting of silver rupees, especially from the Deccan bullion that came from the newly conquered sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda. Luna: Did that lead to inflation? Lucas: It contributed to it. The historian John Richards estimates that during Aurangzeb's reign, the Mughal mint at Surat alone produced over 20 million silver rupees a year. But as more silver entered the economy — from trade, from conquest, from the New World via Europe — the value of silver dropped. Prices rose. And Aurangzeb's government kept demanding taxes in silver, which put pressure on peasants who often had to borrow from moneylenders to meet their obligations. Luna: Interesting. So the very coinage that symbolized his authority also contributed to the economic strain that weakened the empire. Lucas: Yes, and there's a specific example of that. In the later years of his reign, the silver content of the rupee started to drop. We see this in the coins themselves: earlier rupees are almost pure silver — about 96% — but by the 1690s, some issues from the Deccan mints have only 85% silver, with more copper mixed in. That's a sign of debasement. When a government debases its coinage, it usually means it's running out of money — or it's trying to stretch its resources. And that's exactly what was happening in the Deccan. Luna: So the coins tell the story of the empire's decline too. Lucas: Absolutely. There's even a famous coin type from Aurangzeb's reign called the 'chahar taslim' — 'the four prostrations' coin. It was issued in the early 1700s, and on it, Aurangzeb's titles include the phrase 'Sahib-i-Qiran-i-Sani' — the Lord of the Second Conjunction — which was a title originally used by Timur. It was a statement of world-conquering ambition. But by then, the empire was already fraying. The Marathas were raiding deep into Mughal territory, and the treasury was emptying. Luna: It's amazing how much history you can read from a little piece of metal. Lucas: It really is. And one last thing: Aurangzeb's coinage also shows the limits of his power. Even though he banned non-Islamic motifs, local mints in Rajput states like Amber and Marwar continued to issue coins with Hindu symbols — like the goddess Lakshmi — well into his reign. He couldn't enforce his will everywhere. The empire was too vast, and local power structures too strong. So the coins are a perfect microcosm of Aurangzeb's reign: grand ambitions, ideological rigidity, but also the cracks that would eventually bring it all down. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. That was a fascinating look at something I'd never really thought about. Lucas: My pleasure. Next time you see a Mughal coin in a museum, you'll know it's not just money — it's a message from the past.