The Coinage of Assam: Pre Ahom Period (Volume I)

The Coinage of Assam, Vol. 1, is indeed a seminal work of N.G. Rhodes and S.K. Bose on the coinage and monetary development in Assam in the Pre-Ahom Period. The authors have not only exhaustively listed and elaborately discussed the numismatic aspects of the coins issued by various political authorities in and outside Assam but discovered in the soils of Assam and the currencies of other types, e.g. the cowrie shells, but also placed them in the historical perspectives of Assam in the Pre-Ahom Period to explain the linkage of the coinage in socio-political and cultural development in the context of time and space. The study provides a general historical survey of the period reviewed and a brief history of the dynasties which ruled in succession, followed by discussions on the coinage of each dynasty in various sections. The details of the coins of the hitherto known important hoards like those found in Paglatek, Dhulapadung, Neogpara Kaliagaon, Tulip, Nakuchi-Bargaon, Patrabari-Morigaon, Cooch Hehar, Guwahati, Harishinga, etc. have been approapriately integrated in the study. The shape, weight and measure, metal, language, legend and symbol, besides photograph, of each of the coins have been meticulously worked out and included in the text with textual and contextual analyses. In short, the volume is a standard work on the coinage in conformity with the latest state-of-the-art in numismatic study and will remain so for a long time.