The jital was a silver coin introduced by the Kabul Shahis around 750 CE.
History The term jital (uncertain etymology) is used by numismatists for coins derived from the Shahi bull-and-horseman by one or more evolutionary steps.Tye, R., & Tye, M. 1995. Jitals: a catalogue and account of the coin denomination of daily use in Medieval Afghanistan and North West India. R. Tye. p. 32. Silver jitals were accompanied by copper coins of lower denomination, often struck with the same die. The bull-and-horseman design (see images at right and below) was copied and adapted by subsequent Hindu and Muslim Medieval authorities in the territories corresponding to modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, North West India and eventually beyond.Coins of India Through the Ages. 1953. Government Museum, Madras. See VIII Coins of the Rajput Dynasties, p. 4. The jital, issued in vast numbers, perhaps hundreds of millions, by the Hindu Shahi, is credited with expanding the geographic reach of a monetized economy in Medieval India.Kalra, M. 2019. Ancient Indian Monetary Systems and Minting Techniques c. 600 BCE c. 1200 CE. In History of Ancient India: Volume VII: Economy, Agriculture, Crafts & Trade ed. Dilip Chakravarti. p. 4.Tye, R., & Tye, M. 1995. Jitals: a catalogue and account of the coin denomination of daily use in Medieval Afghanistan and North West India. R. Tye. p. 34. Valued for their reliable silver content, bull-and-horseman jitals were circulated along trade routes from their Afghan source to northeastern Europe.Flood, F. (2009). Objects of translation: material culture and medieval "Hindu-Muslim" encounter. p. 25. Retrieved from https://hdl-handle-net.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/2027/heb31437.0001.001.
After the Shahi period, the silver jital gave way to the Rajput billon jital of silver mixed with copper, an alloy with continued use in the early coinage of the Muslim rulers of Delhi based on the silver taka or tanka currency. During the 11th and 12th centuries, bull and horseman coins were simultaneously issued by Ghaznavids, Tomaras and Chauhans from different mints. This may have prompted the use of the name of the issuing monarch on the reverse of the coins, a feature of Ghaznavid and subsequent jitals.Bhatia, P. (1977). BULL/HORSEMAN COINS OF THE SULTANS OF GHAZNA, AD 1030—1186. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 38, 765–773. p.772. Iltutmish, founder of the Delhi Sultanate, introduced the coinage system at Delhi: silver tankas and copper jitals.Ray, A. (2019). The Sultanate of Delhi (1206-1526): polity, economy, society and culture / Aniruddha Roy. (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 65. At the time of the eighth Mamluk sultan, Mahmud I (1246–1266), the average billon jital contained 14.4 grains of silver, leading Wright (1936) to conjecture that these early jitals of the Delhi sultanate were worth 1/12 of a tanka.Wright, N. 1936. The coinage and metrology of the Sultans of Delhi incorporating a catalogue of the coins in the Authorʼs Cabinet now in the Delhi Museum. Government of India, Delhi. Central Secretariat Library, Government of India Source URL: http://192.168.1.42:8080//handle/123456789/6208 p. 398. Later, the jital was variously valued at 1/48, 1/50, 1/60 and 1/64 of a tanka, and the jital, in turn, was made up of lower denomination gani. The number of gani that made up a jital also varied, in some cases based on the silver content of the jitalWright, N. 1936. The coinage and metrology of the Sultans of Delhi incorporating a catalogue of the coins in the Authorʼs Cabinet now in the Delhi Museum. Government of India, Delhi. Central Secretariat Library, Government of India Source URL: http://192.168.1.42:8080//handle/123456789/6208 pp. 167, 292. but the values of gani were not proportional to their silver contentTye, R., & Tye, M. 1995. Jitals: a catalogue and account of the coin denomination of daily use in Medieval Afghanistan and North West India. R. Tye. p. 78. and often unknown.Goron. S. & J.P. Goenka. 2002. The coins of the Indian sultanates: Covering the areas of present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. p. xvi Wright reports larger denomination coins of 2, 3, 4, 6, and of 12 jitals (a quarter tanka).Wright, N. 1936. The coinage and metrology of the Sultans of Delhi incorporating a catalogue of the coins in the Authorʼs Cabinet now in the Delhi Museum. Government of India, Delhi. Central Secretariat Library, Government of India Source URL: http://192.168.1.42:8080//handle/123456789/6208 pp. 109, 167. Copper falūs were also issued by the Delhi sultans that may have been worth a quarter jital.Goron. S. & J.P. Goenka. 2002. The coins of the Indian sultanates: Covering the areas of present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. p. 10. The unstable value of the tanka currency system was brought to a crisis by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1321–1351) when he introduced representative coins of copper and brass that could be exchanged for fixed amounts of gold and silver from the Sultanate treasury. This created conditions for rampant forgery that led him to withdraw the system within eight days, reportedly buying back his brass coins.Tye, R., & Tye, M. 1995. Jitals: a catalogue and account of the coin denomination of daily use in Medieval Afghanistan and North West India. R. Tye. p. 45. Jitals were also issued in the south of the subcontinent. An early 15th century Ilkhanid ambassador to Vijayanagar (Karnataka) reported three types of coin in use there: gold alloy, pure silver and copper jital.Deyell, J. 2019. Hard Money and ‘Cashless’ Economies: Medieval Bengal and the Greater Asian World, in Deyell & Mukherjee, eds. From Mountain Fastness to Coastal Kingdoms: Hard Money and ‘Cashless’ Economies in the Medieval Bay of Bengal World. Routledge. p. 197Mitchiner, M. 1998. The coinage and history of southern India: Part 1 Karnataka - Andra. Hawkins Publications.
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Jital Span of issue c.750 — c.1450 CE or 1599 CE Composition Silver, billon (alloy) including lead and antimony,Album, S. 2011. Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd edition, p. 178. copper, base metal Technique Die-struck, hammered Mass Variable including 4.32, 3.6, 3.4, 3.3, and 2.2 gram standards Origin Kabul and Gandhara Legend scripts Bactrian, Sharada, Nagari, Kufic, Arabic, Persian
Visual elements of the jital On the Shahi prototype, the obverse face of the coin shows a seated humpbacked Zebu bull with a Sharada script legend above with a dotted border. There is a horse and rider on the reverse. The bull is draped with a jhula (saddle-cloth), has a trishula (sacred trident) on its rump and a star shaped object hanging from its neck. As a symbol of Hinduism most associated with Shiva, the trishula establishes the bull as Nandi, Shiva's mount and devotee.Gopinatha Rao, T. A. 1997. Elements of Hindu Iconography, Volume 2. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. p. 213. .Flood, F. 2009. Objects of translation: material culture and medieval "Hindu-Muslim" encounter. p. 26. Retrieved from https://hdl-handle-net.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/2027/heb31437.0001.001. The jitals of Chandela ruler Sallakshana-Pala-Deva, Tomaras Ananga-Pala-Deva and others feature a variety of marks on the jhula, numbers appear on the jhula of jitals issued by the Delhi rajas,Tye, R., & Tye, M. 1995. Jitals: a catalogue and account of the coin denomination of daily use in Medieval Afghanistan and North West India. R. Tye. p. 39. while tiny Kufic inscriptions are found on the jhula of some Ghaznavid jitals.Bhatia, P. (1977). BULL/HORSEMAN COINS OF THE SULTANS OF GHAZNA, AD 1030—1186. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 38, 765–773. p. 765. The horse is caparisoned including a back-strap with three or four circular pellets and the rider holds a lance with a waving pennon. The legend above the bull features formulaic language such as Śrī Spalapati Deva (Radiant Spalapati the God) and, later, Śrī Samanta Deva. Spalapati means "war-lord" (from Persian spala, army + Sanskrit pati, master) and Sāmanta, "governor" or "feudatory lord," thus the coins reference generic titles rather than specific persons, despite the possible existence of a Hindu Shahi king called Sāmand (c. 850-870 CE).Cunningham. A. 1894. Coins of Medieval India: From the Seventh Century Down to the Muhammadan Conquests. Indian Institute. On the Spalapati coins, the horseman wears turban-like head gear with a globule at the top whereas on subsequent Samanta coins the rider's head is stylized, resembling a cross. Corrupted Bactrian script runs across the margin before the horseman which some interpret as Śrī Ispahbadh, the Persian equivalent of Spalapati. The image of the sacred bull, communicating virility and power, amplifies the imputed divinity of the issuing authority and may have meant to assert Hindu sovereignty over their Turk Shahi predecessor or against the encroachment of neighboring Muslim rulers.Pronk, T. 2009. Sanskrit (v)rsabhá-, Greek αρσην, ερσην: the spraying bull of Indo-European? Hist. Sprachforsch. 122, 170-181, It would not be the last time that rulers in this contested frontier zone created numismatic self-representation with an eye on powerful neighbors.Flood, F. 2009. Objects of translation: material culture and medieval "Hindu-Muslim" encounter. pp. 44, 241. Retrieved from https://hdl-handle-net.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/2027/heb31437.0001.001. Coin circulation also serves to redraw cultural boundaries. Shiva's bull with trishula continued as a device on coins issued by Muslim rulers as far afield as the Abbasid caliphs of Iraq,Flood, F. (2009). Objects of translation: material culture and medieval "Hindu-Muslim" encounter. p. 26. Retrieved from https://hdl-handle-net.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/2027/heb31437.0001.001. (although some think these to be Indian minted coins in the name of the Abbasid caliphs).Errington, E. (1996). R. and M. TYE, “Jitals” (Book Review) [Review of R. and M. TYE, “Jitals” (Book Review)]. Numismatic Chronicle, 156, 394-. London: Royal Numismatic Society. A war elephant, an Indic military feature adopted by Muslim rulers, sometimes takes the place of the bull. Jitals issued by Muslim authorities featured bilingual Nāgarī/Persian language inscriptions or used Persian or Nāgarī alone. The skillful execution of images of the early high silver content jitals gave way to coins of cruder make and lower or no silver content both over time and when issued by mints at the geographic margins.Plant. R. 1973. Arabic Coins and How to Read Them. Spink. The reverse sometimes names the issuing ruler and may contain a single nāgarī character such as A, Gu, K, Bhi, or M or other device beside the horseman that may indicate, per Bhatia (1973) the proper names of the Shahi rulers, or per Tye (1995), the badge of minting cities.Cunningham. A. 1894. Coins of Medieval India: From the Seventh Century Down to the Muhammadan Conquests. Indian Institute. pp. 63-64.Tye, R., & Tye, M. 1995. Jitals: a catalogue and account of the coin denomination of daily use in Medieval Afghanistan and North West India. R. Tye The motif of the armed horseman extended beyond jitals to other denominations such as the gold tankas and quarter tankas of Muhammad of Ghor, who also issued jitals (see Ghurid jital below). The horseman on these tankas wields a mace, axe, or sword rather than a lance. The mace (danda) is an ancient symbol of sovereignty in India. Singh argues that the choice of weapons depicted on the coins held a propaganda function, to validate new Turkic rulers and their Islamic regime to the subjugated population.Singh, K. 2014. New variety of horseman type quarter tanka of Muhammad bin Sam. Numismatic Digest, 38: 169-180. pp. 175-176.
Jital as evidence against fixed "Hindu" and "Muslim" periods in the South Asian borderlands