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Coins found in Sivasagar village of Burmese origin, says expert

By Ajit Patowary

GUWAHATI, Sept 7 - The around one dozen coins found at Sundarpur village in Sivasagar district on August 29, 2020 are not Ahom era coins. These coins with the image of a mythical deer printed on one side, are of Burmese (Myanmarese) origin, said renowned numismatist and former president of the Numismatic Society of India SK Bose.

The State�s Directorate of Museums has already placed a formal request before the Sivasagar district administration to help it collect all the coins found by the villagers of Sundarpur on August 29 in a paddy field owned by Jitu Prasad Dutta, while transplanting paddy seedlings. Some of the coins were found in pieces, while some others are found with broken edges. Some of the broken pieces of the coins are now with the Joysagar Police Outpost. A number of coins, found that day, are still in the possession of some of the villagers.

Dr Nirupam Khanikar, senior chemist of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, who is also studying numismatics for the past several years, told this correspondent that all the people of the village are ready to hand over the coins in their possession to the authorities.

Speaking about the size of the coins, Dr Khanikar said each of the coins is 60-65 mm in diameter with a thickness of about one mm.

It needs mention here that farmer Hemanta Dutta, who was engaged by Jitu Prasad Dutta, found some pieces of the coins while transplanting paddy seedlings that day. Following this, all the farmers working in the area conducted a search and found around one dozen coins of the same size and origin, said Dr Khanikar.

When contacted, SK Bose, who is working on Assam coins since a long time, told this correspondent that the pictures of the coins suggest that they were issued in Burma in the 17th and 18th century AD and were in circulation in one of the southern Burmese provinces. The coins bear Burmese script, but their legend is in Pali. The unusual large size of the coins indicate that they were likely to be temple coins, brought by the Burmese soldiers, with the belief that these sacred coins might protect them in the foreign land of Assam.

Prior to this discovery, barring two pieces of �Gahuri Nripa� coins, no Burmese coin has so far been found in any part of the northeastern and eastern regions of India. The image of the animal found on the coins is of a mythical deer with a clear horn, Bose said.

Speaking on the initial reports that the Joysagar Police might hand these coins over to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Bose expressed his annoyance over such act. He asserted that such historically important items should be kept in the Assam State Museum for the benefit of the scholars studying Assam history.

Besides Bose, Heritage Conservation Society of Assam secretary Jayanta Sarma, Cotton University Archaeology teacher Dr Manjil Hazarika, State Information and Transformation Aayog (SITA) member Kashinath Hazarika and Dr Nirupam Khanikar also demanded handing over the coins to the State Museum.

When contacted, State Museum Director YS Wanglengton said he has sent an official letter to the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner and soon the Museum officials at Sivasagar would collect all the pieces of the coins.

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