A total of 164 coins, possibly of the Mughal era, have been found kept in a pot in the sand dug up during a stone quarry work in Madhya Pradesh's Tikamgarh district, an official said on Thursday.

District mining officer Prashant Tiwari told Outlook that after a private contractor involved in stone mining informed them about the coins, they went to the spot, located in Nandanwara village, about 55 km from the district headquarters in the Bundelkhand region, on Wednesday.

“In total, 164 coins, including 12 made of silver and the rest of copper, having engravings in Urdu or Persian, were found in an earthen pot. The weight of these coins has been recorded and they have been sealed. Now they are deposited in the district treasury," he said.

 

A team from the archaeology department would analyze the coins, the official said.
The accurate period to which the coins belong and the language written on them would be known after the study, he added.

Notably, Orchha in Niwari district, famous for its Ram Raja Temple, is located about 45 km from Nandanwara village. The Niwari district was carved out of Tikamgarh in 2018.

 

This region of Bundelkhand had a strong footprint of the Afghans and Mughals.

According to history, Jujhar Singh became the king of Orchha in 1626 and vowed not to remain a vassal of the Mughal Empire.

His attempt to assert independence from the reigning Mughal emperor Shah Jahan paved the way for his downfall.

The Mughal army, then led by Aurangzeb, invaded his land and conquered it in 1635, forcing Singh to retreat to Chauragarh.