Our world just spread over four miles radius. In this small but beautiful world, I had discovered my wonderlands, which excited me, thrilled me and filled my heart with joy. The Siraj bazaar, with shops of fur boots, bridle makers, sports goods, musical instruments, ankle bells (ghungroo) reminiscent of old times of Hafizas Nagamas Belle dances that were once part of the cultural landscape of Srinagar city was one of such wonderlands. I had once called this bazaar as my Oxford Street, truly it was so far me; another wonderland for me Maharaj Ganj; the busiest market of the city that throbbed with life like a human heart round the clock.
In this biggest mall of the city, it was not the big wholesale shops with Khojas and Lalas reclining against big white bolsters, rows of Munshies squatting behind ornate wooden desks writing on massive red ledgers that invited my attention. It was not also the bales of cloth, packed to fill with gunny bags of tea, groceries and rock-salt (Pakistan-noon) inside these shop that caught my attention but what attracted me the most in this market place were some small kiosks of old coins along the wall of Badshah’s Dome; the mausoleum of mother of greatest king Qf Kashmir Sultan Zain-ul-abidin. Whenever, I visited this market fax buying slate chalks, Farsi kalam or four-line notebook and Zed nib from the famous shop of Ghulam Muhammad Noor Muhammad Tajrian-e-Kutab, I spent a lot of time at these kiosks, watching hundreds of old coins, of different denominations spread over a big copper plate. I didn’t understand what he was doing with these coins and why he was buying even bad-coins (Khut Paisa).
The coins tell history; coins on the copper plate were telling stories about the British colonizers and their agents in the states. And it was not history but the images of the kings on the coins that caught my imagination and many times drowned me in reveries. I have graphic impressions about the coins during our childhood. It was in the second or third primary that we were taught and made to cry louder in Urdu, one Rupee is equivalent to sixteen Annas, One Anna is equivalent to four paisa and one Paisa is equivalent to three pies. We also sang deafeningly in our mathematics class; one mound is equivalent to forty seers, one seer is equivalent to sixteen chahtang and one chahtang is equivalent to five tolas and one tola is equivalent to twelve Masha, the cries; Bari Masha Ki Eik Tola resonate in the hinterland of mind to this day.
One Rupee coin was a big amount and it carried images of King George IV and King George V and the rarest one Rupee coin where those that carried images of Queen Victoria and King Edwards. Then there were coins of other denomination that carried the images of these British emperors, Eight Annas, Four Annas, Two Arenas, One Anna, Half an Anna (Taka) and one Paisa. The one paisa coin was of copper. It had had been minted in two types, one round that we called as double-paisa and another with a whole in the middle. Paisa Gaadhdar-paisa. The coins on one side carried image a British emperor and on the other side was embossed with image of a lion. I remember King George’s portrait on one Rupee coins replaced by the Lion Capital of the Ashoka Pillar and the lion on the reverse side by sheaf of corn-but the coins with portraits of British kings remained in market for many years.
Z.G.Muhammad is a noted writer and columnist
Short Story
