Victorian era British India gold coins issued way back in 1835 with the inscription of King William IV, the first English monarch to have appeared on Indian coins in the Presidency period, and with the Victorian Queen who appeared subsequently in the collection — these are just some of the rare coins displayed at the ‘Coins from Bygone Realms’, the third outreach programme of Rukmini Varma’s solo art exhibition at gallery g, Lavelle Road, which concludes on Monday.
The rarest of nearly 70 coins and some notes displayed bring in relevance to the works of painter Rukmini Varma (of Raja Ravi Varma lineage), where her idea of painting an Egyptian queen was taken from. Coins dating back to the 1800s issued by Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, the last and forgotten queen of the House of Travancore, played an important role in Rukmini Varma’s life.
The connection with present day Kerala to I BC when the Romans came looking for spices in exchange for their gold coins, the Chinese coins of the 7th Century, and numismatic rarities from 6 BC bringing coins from the Guptas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Mysore and Vijayanagara empires are the other rare inclusions.
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“Most of the coins we have brought in at gallery g have relevance to the south of India and one need not wait to see them at numismatic exhibitions,” said Rajender Marudhar from the Karnataka Numismatic Society, as he took the audience through ancient treasures along with his son Archie Marudhar, who also delved into details pertaining to the first known coins of India dating back to 600 BC.
“The first known coins of India, the silver bent bars of the Gandhara Janapada region (Afghanistan, which was part of India), were punch marked coins with symbols of flowers on each side dated 2500 years ago,” explained Mr. Archie, who holds a masters in numismatics.
His presentation on the history and design of various coins included those of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, ancient India covering the Kushan dynasty, Sultanates, Gupta dynasty, and Travancore, to name a few.
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