Kam Bakhsh (AH 1119-1120/1707-1708 AD), Bijapur Dar-uz-zafar Mint, Gold Mohur, AH 1119/2 RY, 'Din-e-panah' couplet, Obv: Persian legend “sikka zad dar dakkan bar khursheed-o-mah, badshah Kam Bakhsh, dinpanah” with Hijri 1119 in three calligraphic parts, Rev: Persian legend “sana 2 julus” & “zarb Bijapur” with the epithet “Dar uz zafar”, arranged in four calligraphic divisions, 10.90g, 22.5mm, (Variant of KM # 338.1, combination of Hijri and Ry is unlisted), sharp strike, minor test mark on the edge, almost uncirculated, Unique.

Note: Kam Bakhsh was the fifth son of Aurangzeb, born of his Rajput concubine Udaipuri Mahal in 1667. He took active part in the wars, the Mughals fought with the local Sultans and subsequently, the Marathas, in the final decades of Aurangzeb’s reign. He was appointed as in-charge of the Deccani province of Bijapur just before Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 and was on his way there when his father died. In March 1707 he seized the control of Bijapur fort and declared himself the king. Gradually, his sway extended across much of Deccan – winning control over Haidarabad, Gulbarga, Shahpur and Wakinkhera. However, he was an ineffectual ruler; it was rumoured he suffered from fits of insanity and he could not control the infighting among his partisans. This made his new kingdom prone to intrigues and deceits and it could never establish firmly.

In the meantime, Shah Alam Bahadur the oldest son of Aurangzeb had managed quickly to extinguish the challenge posed by his brother ‘Azam Shah to his succession, and ascended the imperial throne. He did not take Kam Bakhsh as a serious contender to begin with, but then he came to realise that Kam Bakhsh had struck coins in his name, he took it a direct indictment of an insubordination. In May 1708, he threatened Kam Bakhsh of a military reprimand but Kam Bakhsh did not pay much heed to the threat. As a result, Shah Alam marched into the Deccan in June 1708. As Shah Alam drew closer to Kam Bakhsh’s domains, many of Kam Bakhsh’s soldiers and officers began deserting him. By September 1708, Kam Bakhsh’s camp was in much turmoil and there ensued a frantic massacre in which a number of his partisans were killed. By December 1708, Shah Alam had advanced to the outskirts of Haidarabad. Kam Bakhsh prepared to face his brother with a smaller but sizeable army. In a pitched battle that ensued between the two armies on 13 January 1709, Kam Bakhsh was captured injured by Zuliqar Khan, the Mughal commander of Deccan and Nawab of Arkat. In spite of the efforts of best surgeons in Shah Alam’s camp, he died of his wounds on the night of 14 January.

The AH date/RY combination on this coin is unusual and important. Coins of Kam Bakhsh are known from a number of mints – Bijapur, Ahsanabad, Nusratabad, Haidarabad, Torgal, Gokak, Imtiyazgarh – but this combination is not yet recorded for any of these issues. We do not know when Kam Bakhsh declared himself the emperor but it must have been sometimes in the month of March 1707, soon after the fort of Bijapur came under his control, but we don’t know the exact date for this event. The Hijri year 1119 begins 25 March 1707 (Julian date) and ends on 12 March 1708. If RY2 of Kam Bakhsh had already began before the end of the year 1119, as this coin suggests, it must mean that he counted his reign from the death of his father on 20 February 1707. As such, the coin is evidently struck within a very short overlap of AH1119 and RY2, probably not more than just a few days. This feature adds to the extreme rarity of the coin.