Money of the People- A Survey of Some Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Tokens of India

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Tokens in one form or other, are known to have been in use in several areas of the world since ancient times. Religious tokens, specially, hold a distinctive place in the category of metal media, though orthodox numismatists are not inclined to treat this media in any serious study on coins, except perhaps as an exercise in 'para-numismatics. The origin and antiquity of tokens in India are not known for certain. Nor is opinion unanimous as regards the place they originated from. The claims of Northern India and of India south of the Vindhyas, as the original home of these tokens rest on grounds which seems however, to favour the South more than the North. While some of these pieces have been assigned to the period dating from the tenth to the fourteenth century, the fact, curious though, remains that by far the largest number of such tokens, are the products of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Notwithstanding our inability to trace, with any amount of precision, the origin and antiquity of these media there is little or no scope of difference in regard to the purpche and utility of the religious tokens of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The name by which such tokens are generally known, viz. Ramatanka is itself suggestive that these were but 'temple souvenirs' used by pilgrims on visit to various holy sites and temples scattered over the whole country, from areas, each with its own currency different from that of others. For all practical purposes the religious tokens were "money of the people".

Dr. Niyogi in her brief but extremely stimulating dissertation on the religious tokens has anticipated some interesting questions; and what is perhaps more important has chosen to answer them. These are concerned with the remarkable phenomenon of the wide prevalence of these tokens in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the diversification of the tokens so as to include motifs other than those of Rama and Sita, the influence of coin-types minted by the East India Company, the ultimate substitution of gold by silver and even base metals, the use of these tokens as media of exchange in growing temple-cities even for non-religious purposes, the failure of ready supply of silver to meet the growing needs of the mints in the post. Palast period, the role of the financial dynasty of the Jagat Seths and the gradual changes in Bengal economy in the wake of the Palast Plunder, and above all, the role of the religious tokens in the socio-economic life of the Subat during the period of transition of power from the Mughals to the British, from Murshidabad to Calcutta.

Familiarity with both coins and tokens for over a couple of decades made me conscious of several interesting characteristics of some silver and base metal tokens manufactured in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most of these are religious tokens generally described as Ramajankas, while the others are the Indo-British tokens commonly believed to have been ornament pieces. Curiosity impelled me to undertake a critical survey of these two classes of Indian tokens in the politico-economic background of the period of their production.

This dissertation embodies the result of the survey which indicates that though the precious Rimajaikas of the early days were produced to serve as religious tokens or souvenirs, their low-valued cousins of the later period were sometimes forced by circumstances to play a new role in the economic activities of the country as the money of the people. Similarly some Indo-British tokens also of the period were fabricated not as ornaments but as coin-tokens to facilitate monetary transactions especially of the trading class of people.

Gold tokens do not come under the scope of this survey as those have always been too costly to serve as the money of the people. The Islamic religious tokens (like the Haj souvenirs and tawijes, some of which resemble the muhrs and sikkas of Akbar) also have not been included in this review, because these tokens do not seem to have been used as media of exchange by the deeply religious-minded Muslims to whom these were too sacred for mundane purposes. A critical analysis of the contemporary politico-economic condition of India limits the chronological compass of the survey within a period extending from the mid-eighteenth century to the sixth and seventh decades of the next.

Both topically and chronologically the scope of the study is to some extent a restricted one. However, to bring out clearly the characteristic difference between the religious souvenirs of both the earlier days and the later period and the tokens of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it has been felt necessary to discuss briefly the origin and characteristic of the early Ramatarikas and also to describe and illustrate a few pieces of later souvenirs and medallions. To indicate how and under what circumstances the Ramalankas came to be fabricated in such a way as to serve as the money of the people if and when required, various political and economic trends of the age have been reviewed and analysed at some length.

A token according to the lexicons is a "keepsake, souvenir", "something which represents something else", "a metal piece intended to pais as currency issued by a private party without the sanction of the government and redeemable by the issuer in lawful money". In India and also in many other countries of the world at different times tokens have been issued by individuals and groups and used variously by the people as charms or talismans, as ornaments or as media of ex-change. To the ancient Romans tokens were probably known in the fourth century A.D. Cast bronze pieces in China and Annam and glass tokens in the Arab countries were known. Australia and many American and European countries also have issued tokens during the last three or four centuries. Those issued in England in several series are not only remarkable but also relevant to certain extent to our topic of study. Some of these were seize-pieces, others were issued to meet shortage of small changes of copper or silver or for advertisement by individual traders or trading companies. Religious tokens, fewer in number and variety, were issued by some churches for distribution among their members; religious phrases like Ave Maria Gracia Plena are found on some pieces.

Since tokens have sometimes been used as media of exchange in lieu of coins, quite logically these have been included within the scope of numismatic studies in many countries. However, some numismatists even to-day ignore the tokens as objects unworthy of scholarly attention because these are not coins in the proper sense of the term. The study of tokens may perhaps be permitted to be characterised as paranumismatics; the prefix para, of course, has been introduced to indicate not wrong but irregular. Some tokens can certainly be described as irregular issues which sometimes for a limited period within a limited area serve the purpose of coins operating as close-circuit money. Carson also thinks that "the tokens lie on the periphery of coinage proper" and he describes them as "objects which resemble coins in fabric and shape and like coins have types or designs and inscriptions stamped on one or both faces". According to Linecar these are "the money of the people"; the idea of Linecar may be further extended by characterising some tokens as the money of the people, for the people, by the people.

In India the earliest tokens to be noticed in course of numismatic studies were veral gold pieces published by Marsden, Gibbs, Elliot and M. M. Chakravarti in the eighties and nineties of the last century. Most of these temple souvenirs or "Rama-tisku", as one author called them, were cup-shaped or flat gold or base gold pieces and have been asigned to different periods ranging from the ninth tenth century to the fourteenth century; however, Chakravarti who had opined that the Ramatasikas found so far were not older than the fourteenth century, believed that the particular pieces which he had examined were "still more modern". After an almost barren interval of about six or seven decades scholars have at last started taking some interest in tokens, a number of which have been published recently in different numismatic journals and catalogues. Majority of the tokens noticed are religious ones mostly in silver and base metal (silver-coated); and among these there are also some tokens of a different type which may be described as the Indo-British takens. It should be mentioned in this connection that though some of the Ramatarsikas published in recent years closely resemble some tokens of an earlier period, their weight, fabric and legibility of script indicate that they belong to a much later date.

This dissertation is based upon a study of two distinct classes of tokens which were fabricated in abundance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, namely, the silver, silver-coated brass and copper tokens of different types that go by the generic name of Ramataika and the Indo-British takru in silver, debased silver and base metal. The gold tokens fall outside the scope of this study for the obvious reasons that those were generally the objects of either veneration or vanity for the rich and also that gold has never been 'the money of the people.

Throughout the eighteenth century the central authority at Delhi had been a victim of the centrifugal forces let loose by the wars of succession, degeneration of the characters of kingship and nobility and foreign invasions from the west, till it ceased to be an effective force by the beginning of the next century. Taking advantage of the growing weakness of the Mughal rule and the consequent anarchy in the country the English company of traders gradually secured its position and established political prominence in the coastal areas not so much by trade as by treaties, conspiracies and wars. Thus, it effectively curbed the political aspirations of the rivals, the French and the Dutch trading companies, attained military supremacy and supreme control over the subah of Bengal, after the battle of Palkii; in eight more years the English company was legally recognised as the ruling power in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and won a friendly neighbour in Oudh. More-over, a political relationship was established between the Court of Delhi and the city of Calcutta, the eastern Indian head-quarters of the East India Company. Wars with the Marathas and the Mysore rulers resulted in considerable territorial acquisition by the Company in other parts of India. This process of the growth of political power of the English led to the establishment of British paramountcy in India by the second decade of the nineteenth century. Under the circumstances it was inevitable that the impact of the commercial relations, trading activities, investment policies and financial and monetary experiments of this ruling-trading company from England, would be felt not only on Indian economy but also on the economic life of the people in eastern, northern and peninsular India.