Curator: Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray
 
Coins of the Realm: A Numismatic Overview of Eighteenth Century India

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Sanjay Garg, Deputy Director, National Archives of India and Officer on Special Duty, Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Min. of Culture, Govt. of India. Dr. Garg is the author of many books on numismatics including Monetary Foundations of the Raj (Manohar & Routledge, 2019) and the edited volume The Raj and the Rajas: Money and Coinage in Colonial India (Routledge 2023)
 

Chair: Dr. Shashank Shekhar Sinha

The eighteenth century in India saw a unique blend of political, cultural, social, and economic transformations. The decline of the Mughal Empire from about the beginning of the eighteenth century and the political ascendency of the British East India Company, a number of revivalist powers (the Sikhs, the Marathas, the Rohillas etc.), and a horde of Indian princely states, was almost simultaneous. The talk will focus on the symbiotic relationships between various coins and currencies – which were in a constant state of flux, vis-à-vis multiple sovereign authorities during major political transitions during the eighteenth century India