2018-12-27 Thu

The Malwa Sultanate was a late medieval independent Sultanate of the Turkish origin of the Malwa region. In the present-day, it is located in the Madhya Pradesh state of India. It was founded by Dilawar Khan Ghori, the governor of the Delhi Sultanate, who asserted his independence in 1392 AD.

It has been said that the history of Malwa is fragmented and can be concluded only from the chronicles of the Mughal Emperors and a few original Malwa texts. The kings of Mandu had great artistic taste; they made their coinage, their architecture in various geometrical shapes including the arched design known as the Mehrabi.

Ghiyath Shah ruled the Malwa sultanate from 1469 to 1500 AD. It was probably in his reign the most beautiful coins of Malwa were struck. He introduced gold, silver and copper coins in the denomination of Tanka and Falus and their fractions. These coins were struck in various shapes such as octagonal, square, and round.

This extremely rare octagonal gold 2/3 Nazarana Tanka was issued in Ghiyath Shah’s reign. Todywalla Auctions sold this coin for 18,00,000 in an auction held on 3rd February 2016. The obverse of a coin depicted the legend ‘al washaq al Malij abu al Fath Ghiyas Shah’ while reverse illustrate the inscription ‘bin Mahmud Shah, Al Sultan Al Khalji Khald Malkahu 882’.

Image Source: Todywalla Auctions