The Cis-Sutlej States

Patiala

Ala Singh (1714–1765), grandson of Phul and third son of Rama, founded the Patiala state from a holding of twenty-two villages in the Bhatinda district. Beginning at Rampura Phul and expanding steadily eastward, he established a fort at what would become Patiala in 1753, shifting his capital there in February 1764 — the same month the Dal Khalsa destroyed the Mughal fort of Sirhind just thirty kilometres away and allowed Ala Singh to absorb the ruins of that once-feared city.

Ala Singh navigated his position with remarkable dexterity. He took pahul from Nawab Kapur Singh of the Dal Khalsa and a second initiation from Dip Singh Shahid, yet simultaneously maintained tribute relationships with successive Mughal governors and the Durrani court. Ahmad Shah Durrani, recognising a useful counter to the Majha Sikhs, confirmed Ala Singh in ownership of Sirhind in 1762 and granted him the title Raja-i-Rajagan Bahadur — and with it, the right to mint in the name of the Durrani king.

His successor Amar Singh (1765–1781) formally received the minting right around 1767 when he met Ahmad Shah on the Sutlej. The Patiala coins — called Rajashahi rupees — bore the full Ahmad Shah Durrani couplet on the obverse and the mint name Sirhind on the reverse. Though the mint was physically at Patiala, it invariably styled itself Sarhind (the Patiala spelling) — a name which historically described not just the town but the entire swathe of territory from Patiala to Ambala. The spelling varied by state: Patiala used Sarhind, Jind used Sirhind — a subtle but consistent difference that helps attribute otherwise similar coins. Sahib Singh (1781–1813) kept this tradition, though his reign was dominated by domestic conflict with his powerful Rani, whose attacks on Nabha and Jind in 1805 ultimately drew Ranjit Singh across the Sutlej and precipitated the British protectorate of 1809.

Under Karam Singh (1813–1845) and Narendra Singh (1845–1862) Patiala supported the British in both the Sikh Wars and the Mutiny of 1857, receiving additional territories in recognition. The Gobindshahi nazarana series in fact begins during Karam Singh's own reign — a VS 1893/1898 Gobindshahi nazarana rupee bearing Narendra Singh's khanda symbol was struck from a worn die during Karam Singh's time, placing the first Patiala Gobindshahi coin before the fall of the Sikh Empire in 1849. Under Narendra Singh the series was formalised — struck not for circulation but in small numbers before Dusserah for religious gifts, puja and presentation. The state mint closed its regular operations in 1892–93 but Gobindshahi nazaranas continued to be produced for the ruling house under Bhupindra Singh and Yadavindra Singh until the merger of Patiala into PEPSU in 1948.

Nabha

Hamir Singh founded the town of Nabha in 1755, establishing from it a compact state in the heart of the Malwa. Nabha descended from the senior line of Phul's descendants, making its rulers technically the eldest of the Phulkian chiefs — a claim that the more powerful Patiala consistently ignored and that produced generations of bitter inter-state rivalry. Crude undated rupees attributable to Hamir Singh are known, though a regular dated series commences only under Jaswant Singh (1783–1840) from approximately VS 1820.

Nabha's earliest coins were direct copies of the Patiala Durrani type, differing only in the mint name — Sarkar Nabha Lal — and the state and ruler's personal marks on the reverse. From VS 1893 (1836) the Gobindshahi couplet replaced the Durrani inscription on the obverse, making Nabha's transition to Sikh legendary coinage earlier and more complete than Patiala's — and unlike Patiala, these were full circulation issues, not court nazaranas.

The state suffered its most serious political blow when Devindar Singh sided with the trans-Sutlej Sikhs in the First Sikh War. He was removed and nearly a quarter of Nabha's territories confiscated. His son Bharpur Singh recovered by supporting the British during the Mutiny. Hira Singh (1871–1911) was elevated to the title Maharaja by the British in 1911. By the 1930s the Nabha mint was running on Rs 570 per year in administrative expenditure, producing rupees almost entirely for annual Gurudwara offerings — a poignant survival of sovereign coinage reduced to pure religious function.

Jind

The Jind branch of the Phulkian family descended through Sukhchain Singh, who divided his territory among his sons, keeping Jind for himself. The state lay closest to Delhi of all the Phulkian domains — a mere 128 kilometres — and this proximity kept it firmly in the gravitational field of Mughal and later British authority. Sukhchain's son Gajpat Singh (1738–1786) transformed Jind from a landlord's estate into a recognised principality. Present at the Dal Khalsa's conquest of Sirhind in January 1764, he seized a large tract including Karnal, Panipat, Kharkhaudah and Kasuhan.

Having accumulated three years of unpaid revenues to the Mughal court by 1767, Gajpat Singh was summoned to Delhi. The Mughal court forced his conversion to Islam and imprisoned him for three years. He secured release in 1771 by paying three lakhs of rupees and leaving his son Mehar Singh as hostage. In exchange he obtained the title of Raja, confirmed ownership of his territories, and — crucially — a formal imperial firman dated 25 Shawal 1185 AH (31 January 1772 AD) granting him the right to coin. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia publicly re-administered pahul to him as a mark of Khalsa forgiveness and solidarity. His coins, the Jindia rupees, exactly copied the Patiala Rajashahi type. They were 1¼ mashas in weight and valued at only 12 annas — significantly below the 16-anna Patiala rupee — a discount Taylor attributed to irregular minting and the absence of private bullion tendering. An extraordinary dynastic connection runs through this state: Gajpat Singh's daughter Raj Kaur — known to history as Mai Jindan — married Mahan Singh of the Sukerchakia Misl; their son was Maharaja Ranjit Singh, future sovereign of the Sikh Empire. Jind was thus the maternal birthplace of the Empire.

No Gobindshahi rupees of Jind are documented. Jind's coinage remained the Durrani-type Rajashahi rupee throughout — a reflection of the state's persistent orientation toward Mughal and British authority. An unusual production detail: Patiala shared its own dies with Jind, and Raghbir Singh (1864–1870) never commissioned new dies of his own, having his initials re re-engraved on worn Bhag Singh dies. Ranbir Singh struck a coronation rupee (VS 1940), a 50th-anniversary nazarana rupee (VS 1993) and a nazarana mohur — the only identifiably celebratory Jind numismatic issues.

Kaithal

Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh — the clan founder, from whom the Kaithal ruling house derived — was a close associate of Ala Singh of Patiala, and the two families fought together and divided spoils as equals. His son Bhai Desu Singh — descended from Bhai Bhagtu ji, a devoted Sikh of Guru Amar Das — seized the principality of Kaithal in 1767 from its Afghan chiefs. The two families considered themselves equals. Desu Singh fell out with Raja Amar Singh of Patiala in 1778, sought the patronage of the Delhi Wazir, and was forced to pay four lakhs in back revenue and fines, leaving his son Lal Singh as hostage. Lal Singh was tortured. Embittered, he became a rebel against his own father; upon Desu Singh's death in 1781 he escaped confinement, killed his elder brother Khushal Singh (whose name was afterwards expunged from records and replaced with Behal Singh) and seized the family estates. Kaithal became under Lal Singh the second most powerful Cis-Sutlej state after Patiala at the time of the British advance in 1809.

Kaithal's end came with dramatic suddenness. Udai Singh died on 15 March 1843 without a male heir. The British, then applying their doctrine of lapse aggressively to the princely states, refused to allow the Rani to administer the state and sent a force to annex it. The Rani — in one of the more extraordinary episodes of pre-annexation Sikh history — mounted an armed resistance. Her troops routed the first British column, driving it back to Kamal. A stronger combined force, including Patiala cavalry, eventually took the town. The Rani escaped into the night with her treasure in carts, eluding British pursuit. Kaithal was formally annexed and Henry Lawrence was appointed its first British administrator. Kaithal was the only major Cis-Sutlej state to be absorbed by the British before the annexation of the Punjab itself in 1849.

The most detailed contemporary account of the Phulkian mints comes from a report commissioned in 1869 by the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India and compiled by Major-General R.G. Taylor, C.B., C.S.I., Agent to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Cis-Sutlej States. The report, published by Sir Lepel Griffin as a footnote in The Rajahs of the Punjab, covers the mints of Patiala, Jhind (Jind) and Nabha.

Taylor confirmed that the Patiala rupee — the Rajashahi — weighed 11¼ mashas of pure silver, five ratis less than the British Government rupee in weight but equivalent in pure silver content, and consequently passing at 16 annas in local markets. The mint could strike 2,000 coins per day if required. He noted the inscription had never been altered — only the personal marks changed with each reign.

For Jind, Taylor found that bullion had never been brought by private individuals for coining and that the coin — valued at about 12 annas — circulated only within state boundaries. The Jind rupee was called the Jhindia. For Nabha, he recorded the Gobindshahi couplet in full, noting that the rupee was equivalent to 15 annas and that gold mohurs were occasionally struck. His translations — "food, sword, and victory were promptly obtained from Nanak by Guru Govind Singh" — capture something of the practical, merchant-class view through which officials of the colonial government perceived Sikh religious coinage.

Taylor's report is a rare administrative snapshot of three living Phulkian mints taken just two decades after the fall of the Sikh Empire, when the political meaning of their coinage was still contested and the transition from commercial to purely ritual currency was well underway.