Gold of the Mughal Emperors - The Zodiac coins of Jahangir
The astronomical start of spring and today's 20th March not only marks the end of winter and the beginning of a new season, it also marks a change in the astrological calendar. Signs of the zodiac can also be found on the coins of the Mughal rulers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Due to their design and aesthetic calligraphic legends in Arabic-Persian script, they can undoubtedly be described as the pinnacle of numismatic art in the Mughal Empire in India.
Under the Mughal rulers, courtly culture experienced a period of real prosperity from the middle of the 16th century, which had a lasting impact on Indian art, science and literature as a whole. Jahangir (reigned 1605-1627), the fourth Mughal emperor, demonstrates the influence that the Mughals themselves were able to have on the artworks of their era.
On the occasion of the completion of twelve years of rule, which Jahangir celebrated with great ceremonies in March 1618, he initiated a new series of gold coins (Mohur) with the twelve zodiac signs. One side always bears the motif of the star constellation of the month in which the coin was minted. The other side usually shows the minting authority, the year of minting and the mint.
A mohur of the year 1619 (Fig.) shows the ram in front of the rising sun, with the regnal year 14 indicated below. The ram stands for the Iranian month of Farvardin (21th March to 20th April). The reverse, on the other hand, reads "In Agra, the face of gold has been given glamour by Jahangir Shah, Akbar Shah's son" - in 1028 AH, that is, 1619.
All twelve zodiac signs of this outstanding coin series are known in gold, but only five in silver. The minting of the zodiac coins continued for 22 years until Jahangir's death. With his son Shah Jahan (r. 1627-1657), who ordered his father's coins to be melted down, Indian coinage returned to the classic nonpictorial form.
The Zodiac coins of the Coin Cabinet in Vienna were first published in 1799 by Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo (1748-1806), a Carmelite monk who worked as a missionary in India.
