A fine Mughal silver seal, India, dated 1178 / A.D. 1764-5

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

of bell-shaped form with loop terminal, the base incised with a nastaliq inscription

Catalogue Note

inscription

'Jasarat Jang Bahadur Muftakhir al-Dawla, Mr Lyster [Lester?] the devotee of the Conqueror King, Shah Alam 1178 (A.D. 1764-5), [regnal] year 6'

Shah Alam, whose original name was 'Ali Gauhar was the son of the emperor 'Alamgir II by Zinat Mahal. Following the murder of his father Shah Alam ascended to the throne in 1759. In 1765 he granted the East India Company the Sanad of the Diwani of Bengal on the Company agreeing to pay him 24 Lakhs annually from the revenues of the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Returning to Delhi in 1771 he was then cruelly blinded by Ghulam Kadir Khan, a Rohila chief. He was re-assumed to the throne and died in 1806. The name Lyster [Lester?] is not recorded in Buckland, C.E., Dictionary of Indian Biography, reprinted 1999.