Akbar coins have a special place in numismatics. It is because he started inscribing the month of issue of the coin along with its Ilahi date which in fact is his regnal year.
Akbar began Ilahi calendar as a solution to the tax problems of the peasants. Tax collection was based on Lunar months of Hijri year. Each lunar year falls short by eleven days of a solar year. (When Solar calendar advances 33 years, Lunar calendar advances 34). This created confusion to the tax payers since agriculture was based on solar calendar. Akbar decided to solve this problem with the help of some renowned experts of the period.
For this purpose, he created the Ilahi calendar. Ilahi literally means "divine". Each year was divided into twelve months that together ran 365 days. The months were given names. Week days also were assigned new names. Months corresponded to zodiac signs. Months were sequentially named as 01- Farwardin (Aries), 02-Ardibhisht (Taurus), 03-Khurdad (Gemini), 04-Tir (Cancer), 05-Amardad (Leo), 06-Shahr e war (Virgo),07-Mihr (Libra), 08-Aban (Scorpio), 09-Azar (Sagittarius), 10-Di (Capricorn), 11-Bahman (Aquarius), 12-Isfandarmuz (Pisces).
When Akbar began the new calendar, he counted his coronation as its starting point. Ilahi year started officially being on records from his 28th year of reign in 1584.
His coins came out with Ilahi year and month of production struck on them. This continued into the reigns of Jahangir and Shahjahan, but Aurangazeb discontinued the Ilahi system but retained using regnal year (sanah) on his coins.
Here I am illustrating a few coins of Akbar showing Ilahi months. Name of the month is written on the picture below its position on the coin.
01-Farwardin
Edited by drnsreedhar
08/08/2022 3:43 pm
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Posted 06/07/2022 2:23 pm
