The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, might have been forgotten by his country and his people, but the interest in everything associated with him among numismatists and history enthusiasts around the world is soaring high. On August 28 numismatists and historians gaped in amazement when a Nazarana Gold Mohur of Bahadur Shah Zafar from the year 1839 was sold for an astounding sum of £571,500. This amount comes to around Rs 6.8 crore. The auction was conducted by Spink Auction, one of the most credible auction houses with a history of more than 350 years.
Not many are surprised at the interest shown in the Nazrana Gold Mohur of the last Mughal emperor as everything associated with the doomed emperor is still very attractive to historians and numismatists. Bahadur Shah Zafar, or Bahadur Shah II (24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862) the last Mughal emperor of India was not just a vestige of past, he was a very popular leader, poet, sufi and a great freedom fighter who rose with his people against the tyrannical and brutal rule of the British East India Company.
While the mutiny was defeated in a matter of months, Bahadur Shah Zafar lost badly, sacrificing his sons who were butchered by a British officer, faced sham trial where there was no hope of justice and the judge was doing all to punish the King and then faced the worst humiliation possible for any human to endure, let alone the king.
Bahadur Shah II was the 20th and the last Mughal emperor.
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Born Mirza Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad he succeeded his father, Akbar II, upon his death on 28 September 1837. His rule ended on 21 September 1857 when the mutineers lost the battle and the Emperor was arrested in Delhi, near Humayun’s Tomb by Major William Hodson. Bahadur Shah II was a titular emperor, or a namesake king as the Mughal Empire existed in name when he ascended to the throne as the authority of the empire had shrunk only to the walled city of Old Delhi or Shahjahanbad.
The country or the community haven’t done justice to the poet king, whose sacrifices for the nation and his opposition to the colonial rule have completely been ignored. Several of his sons and even grandsons were mercilessly massacred by the rampaging colonial officers in the wake of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s defeat and his eventual arrests. He was also packed off to a faraway Rangoon, Burma where the last Mughal emperor spent his life in extreme penury and helplessness.
Merely four years into his crushing and degrading imprisonment in the year 1862, at the age of 87, the last Mughal emperor developed some illness. Due to utter lack of healthcare facilities for the octogenarian emperor and his family, his condition deteriorated and became serious.
There was only a farce treatment given to Bahadur Shah Zafar, but he couldn’t survive the humiliation heaped upon him over the last four years by brutal and wicked colonial rulers. The Emperor breathed his last on Friday, 7 November 1862 at 5 am. Instead of allowing the family to mourn the death of the emperor the Raj was more intent to force the king perpetual obscurity by keeping his grave away from the eyes of the world. He was buried at 4 pm and only two male members with a moulwi were allowed to offer truncated funeral prayer.
It should be noted that Nazarana Gold Mohur coins struck in the name of last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II and minted at Shahjahanabad are extremely rare. For long, British used their Gold Mohur coins for transactions in Delhi and other parts of India under their control, though the minting of nazrana Gold Mohur coins in small quantities occurred sometimes under the direct supervision of the British officials.
