Coinage of Nepal
The earliest coin minted in today's territory of Nepal was in Shakya Mahajanapada, along the India-Nepal border around 500 BCE. Shakya coins were an example of a coin invented in Indian subcontinent and continued to be used in Nepal alongside India for over 1500 years. Never Minted in Nepal but Maurya Empire. Punch marks were used in southern region of Nepal and imported in hills and Kathmandu valley. Mauryan coins were punch marked with the royal standard to ascertain their authenticity. Another major coinage found in Nepal is of the Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century CE, it spread to encompass much of Afghanistan and the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent at least as far Nepal. These coins were used in Southern region of Nepal but was used in Hills and Kathmandu valley region; these coins depicts the image of Buddhist Deity. Some scholars believed that Kushan King Kanishka's ascending of the throne in 78 CE,marked the beginning of the Saka calendar era, used up until 1600 in Nepal for dating coins.
However, this date is not now regarded as the historical date of Kanishka's accession. Kanishka is estimated to have accessed to the throne in AD 127 by Falk; the Licchavi Kingdom of Nepal established its root in the Kathmandu Valley from c. CE 576 to 750, it marks the beginning of Classical period of Nepal. Lichhavi Coins are the first coins used in Kathmandu Valley and its surrounding hills. Minted in copper these coins had legends in Gupta scripts, suggesting significant cultural influence of other major kingdoms of the Classical Period; these coins are religious in nature and few have Kings names depicted on it. The known denominations of these coins are Pana, Pana-Purana, Matrika out of which some were struck in cast blank flans and some were stuck from cut piece; some of the known coins are Mananka, Vaisravana, Pashupati and Jishnu Gupta The only known conversion rate is 1 Karshapana = 16 Pana. The coinage in Medieval Period of Nepal is known little due to the lack of references and contemporary records about coinage of this period.
Scholars believe that most due to Tirhut and Muslim invaders from India the coinage system of Nepal failed and turned back to either using lumps of unstamped copper or gold dust and Islamic coins imported from India. Some inscription suggest that earlier Lichhavi coins namely Pana, Pana-Purana were continued until the introduction of new system by King Sivadeva/Simhadeva; the only known coins of this period struck by different minor rulers are Gold Sivaka, Silver Dam and Nava-Dam-Sivaka and copper coin with legends Sri deva Yadasya. After period death of coinage system a new coinage system developed in Nepal Kathmandu valley and Surrounding hills in the Malla of Nepal; these coins were struck by the sons of Yakshya Malla in separate kingdoms of Kathmandu, Patan and by Kings of Dolakha & Gorkha. The usual design on the coins suggested by some of Akbar's and Jahangir's issues, consists of elaborate geometrically ornamented borders surrounding a central square or circle, with the legends in Nagari fitted into the spaces left in the design.
On the obverse appear the king's name and date, on the reverse various symbols, accompanied sometimes by a further title or a religious formula. Tankas or Tanka were debased silver coin struck in 10 g. weight with minor denominations of 1⁄4, 1⁄32, 1⁄123, 1⁄512 Tanka Dam. These coins were designed on the image of Muslim coins of Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire which were circulated in Nepal by then. Struck by King Indra Simha of Dolakha followed by King Mahendra Simha of Kathmandu and by all three Kings. Most of these coins had no names and date except the one struck by King of Patan Siddhi Narasimha in NS 759. After a major reform in coinage New style of silver coins called Moharwere struck in Nepal with reduced weight standard of 5.4 g. in silver. All three Kingdoms of the kathmandu valley along with Gorkha Kingdom struck these coins up until and with little modification after the unification of Nepal by King Prithvi Narayan Shah; these coins were struck in new artistic design of Hindu-Buddhist Yantra and were struck in the denominations of 1⁄4 Mohar called Mohar Suki and 1⁄128 Mohar called Mohar Dam.
They were struck with the date in Nepal Sambat and with a date in which the issuing king was crowned rather than the date of issue. Before the Conquest of the Kathmandu Valley Prithvi Narayan Shah issued coins based on the existing Malla-Mohar system. First coin to be issued in his name was in CE. 1749, after which he issued few coins to mark special occasion and in need of the Unification of Nepal. One of the few innovative difference between Shah's coin and Malla coins are that the coins are struck with date of issue rather than year of coronation and change in the dating system from Newari Samwat to Saka era. Along with the coins issued as a king of Gorkha few coins from Patan were issued in Prithivi Narayan Shah and his wife Queen Narendra Rajya Laxmi Devi's name after he was unanimously selected as a King of Patan. After the conquest of Kathmandu valley King Prithivi Narayan Shah withdrew all the old Malla currency and in order to stop there circulation, devalued there exchange rate. Apart from regular issue of Mohar, dam coins were struck in queen Narendra Lakshmi's name and a new coin double in value and weight of Mo
Nepal
Nepal the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas but includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. With an estimated population of 26.4 million, it is 48th largest country by population and 93rd largest country by area. It borders China in the north and India in the south and west while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is largest city. Nepal is a multiethnic nation with Nepali as the official language; the name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent, the era in ancient India when Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal.
Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The centrally located Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of Indo-Aryans, was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala; the Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley's traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal; the Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rajput Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonized but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and British India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005; the Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the proclamation of a secular republic in 2008, ending the world's last Hindu monarchy. The Constitution of Nepal, adopted in 2015, establishes Nepal as a federal secular parliamentary republic divided into seven provinces.
Nepal was admitted to the United Nations in 1955, friendship treaties were signed with India in 1950 and the People's Republic of China in 1960. Nepal hosts the permanent secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, of which it is a founding member. Nepal is a member of the Non Aligned Movement and the Bay of Bengal Initiative; the military of Nepal is the fifth largest in South Asia. Local legends have it that a Hindu sage named "Ne" established himself in the valley of Kathmandu in prehistoric times, that the word "Nepal" came into existence as the place was protected by the sage "Nemi", it is mentioned in Vedic texts. According to the Skanda Purana, a rishi called. In the Pashupati Purana, he is mentioned as a protector, he is said to have taught there. The name of the country is identical in origin to the name of the Newar people; the terms "Nepāl", "Newār", "Newāl" and "Nepār" are phonetically different forms of the same word, instances of the various forms appear in texts in different times in history.
Nepal is the learned Sanskrit form and Newar is the colloquial Prakrit form. A Sanskrit inscription dated 512 CE found in Tistung, a valley to the west of Kathmandu, contains the phrase "greetings to the Nepals" indicating that the term "Nepal" was used to refer to both the country and the people, it has been suggested that "Nepal" may be a Sanskritization of "Newar", or "Newar" may be a form of "Nepal". According to another explanation, the words "Newar" and "Newari" are vulgarisms arising from the mutation of P to V, L to R. Neolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people have been living in the Himalayan region for at least eleven thousand years. Nepal is first mentioned in the late Vedic Atharvaveda Pariśiṣṭa as a place exporting blankets, in the post-Vedic Atharvashirsha Upanishad. In Samudragupta's Allahabad Pillar it is mentioned as a border country; the Skanda Purana has a separate chapter, known as "Nepal Mahatmya", with more details. Nepal is mentioned in Hindu texts such as the Narayana Puja.
Legends and ancient texts that mention the region now known as Nepal reach back to the 30th century BC. The Gopal Bansa were one of the earliest inhabitants of Kathmandu valley; the earliest rulers of Nepal were the Kiratas, peoples mentioned in Hindu texts, who ruled Nepal for many centuries. Various sources mention up to 32 Kirati kings. Around 500 BCE, small kingdoms and confederations of clans arose in the southern regions of Nepal. From one of these, the Shakya polity, arose a prince who renounced his status to lead an ascetic life, founded Buddhism, came to be known as Gautama Buddha. By 250 BCE, the southern regions had come under the influence of the Maurya Empire of North India and became a vassal state under the Gupta Empire in the 4th century CE. There is a quite detailed description of the kingdom of Nepal in the account of the renowned Chinese Buddhist pilgrim monk Xuanzang, dating from about 645 CE. Stone inscriptions in the Kathmandu Valley are important sources for the history of Nepal.
The kings of the Lichhavi dynasty have been found to have r
Nepalese banknotes
Between 1945 and 2007 Nepalese banknotes were issued with the portraits of four different kings. Starting in October 2007 the king’s portrait was replaced by Mount Everest on all notes which have been issued since; the early banknotes which were issued between 1945 and 1955 during the rule of King Tribhuvan were not put into circulation by a Central Bank which did not exist in Nepal at that time. The issuing authority was the treasury. Therefore, the notes of king Tribhuvan were not signed by a bank governor, but by a Kajanchi, a high Hindu priest in the same time. Nepal’s early paper currency includes the only notes of the world which were signed by a high priest; these early notes were printed by the Indian Security Press in Nashik and do not have any security features, except for the water marks and the special paper on which they are printed. Starting with King Mahendra who succeeded to his father Tribhuvan in 1955, the banknotes were issued by Nepal Rastra Bank, founded in April 1956; the signature of the governors of this institution is found on the banknotes which were issued after this date.
Under king Mahendra the Nepalese Government became “His Majesty’s Government” and remained this way during the rule of Birendra and Gyanendra. Two series of banknotes were issued during the rule of king Mahendra: The first series shows the king in civilian clothes wearing the Nepalese “topi” while on the notes of the second series the king is shown in military uniform; the second series comprised for the first time notes of the high value of 1000 rupees. During King Birendra’s rule one can distinguish between two major series of banknotes; the first series features the king wearing military uniform while on the notes of the second series the king is wearing the traditional Nepalese crown adorned with feathers of the bird of paradise. During this period regular banknotes of 2 and 20 rupees and special banknotes of 25 and 250 rupees were issued for the first time; the banknotes issued during this period have the same basic design as those of King Birendra whose portrait was replaced by that of his younger brother and successor Gyanendra.
The low values of 1 and 2 rupees, the special values of 25 and 250 rupees were not issued any more. The legends found on the last issues of Gyanendra revert to Nepal sarakar, thus omitting the reference to the king. In October 2007, a 500 rupee note was issued on which the king’s portrait was replaced by and image of Mount. Everest; this reflects the historical change from kingdom to republic. Further notes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 1,000 rupees with Mount Everest and without references to the king in their legends followed in 2008; the first issues of the 500 and 1000 rupees notes were printed on paper which still had the king's crowned portrait as a watermark in the "window" on the right part of the face of the notes. It was decided to print a red Rhododendron flower on top of the watermark. Notes of these denominations which were issued in 2009 and thereafter are printed on paper which has a Rhododenron flower as watermark instead of the royal portrait and were therefore released without the additional overprint in red.
In 2012, Nepal Rastra Bank issued a revised banknote series that are similar to the 2007 series, but now include inscriptions in English and the date of issue on the back. The currency unit of the Tribhuvan and early Mahendra notes was the mohar, a silver coin which weighed about 5.4 grams and represented about half an Indian Rupee. The notes of Mahendra and the issues of the subsequent rulers Birendra and Gyanendra were issued with the denomination rupee; the banknotes with the portrait of The King Tribhuvan were printed in Nashik. The issues were supplied by firms such as De La Rue and Giesecke & Devrient. Agrawal and Gyawali, Kamal Prasad: Notes and Coins of Nepal. Nepal Rastra Bank Golden Jubilee Year 2005/06, Kathmandu, 2006. Bertsch, Wolfgang: "The Legends on the Banknotes of Nepal", International Banknote Society Journal, vol. 48, no. 3, 2009, p. 39-44. Jha, Hari Jaya: An Overview of Nepalese Paper Money. Manjeeta Jha, Lalitpur, B. S. 2058. Khatiwada, Shyam: Glimpses of Nepalese Paper Currency.
Published by Mrs. Bhagawati Khatiwada, Kathmandu, 2012. ISBN 978-9937-2-4680-4. Lorenzoli, Giovanni: “Nepali artistic buildings as seen on Nepali notes”. Journal of the International Banknote Society, vol. 43, no. 3, p. 6-14. Shrestha, Ramesh: Nepalese Coins & Bank Notes. Kazi Mudhusudan Raj Bhandary, Kathmandu, 2007. Wittmann, Hans: Die Banknoten des Königreichs Nepal. Unpublished, Wiesbaden, 2002. Https://web.archive.org/web/20120226020850/http://red.nrb.org.np/publications/golden_jubilee/Golden_Jubilee_Publications--Notes_and_Coins_of_Nepal.pdf http://www.nuphil.com/BankNotesofNepal.html Nepalese rupee Mohar
Central bank
A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is the institution that manages the currency, money supply, interest rates of a state or formal monetary union, oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the monetary base in the state, generally controls the printing/coining of the national currency, which serves as the state's legal tender. A central bank acts as a lender of last resort to the banking sector during times of financial crisis. Most central banks have supervisory and regulatory powers to ensure the solvency of member institutions, to prevent bank runs, to discourage reckless or fraudulent behavior by member banks. Central banks in most developed nations are institutionally independent from political interference. Still, limited control by the executive and legislative bodies exists. Functions of a central bank may include: implementing monetary policies. Setting the official interest rate – used to manage both inflation and the country's exchange rate – and ensuring that this rate takes effect via a variety of policy mechanisms controlling the nation's entire money supply the Government's banker and the bankers' bank managing the country's foreign exchange and gold reserves and the Government bonds regulating and supervising the banking industry Central banks implement a country's chosen monetary policy.
At the most basic level, monetary policy involves establishing what form of currency the country may have, whether a fiat currency, gold-backed currency, currency board or a currency union. When a country has its own national currency, this involves the issue of some form of standardized currency, a form of promissory note: a promise to exchange the note for "money" under certain circumstances; this was a promise to exchange the money for precious metals in some fixed amount. Now, when many currencies are fiat money, the "promise to pay" consists of the promise to accept that currency to pay for taxes. A central bank may use another country's currency either directly in a currency union, or indirectly on a currency board. In the latter case, exemplified by the Bulgarian National Bank, Hong Kong and Latvia, the local currency is backed at a fixed rate by the central bank's holdings of a foreign currency. Similar to commercial banks, central banks incur liabilities. Central banks create money by issuing interest-free currency notes and selling them to the public in exchange for interest-bearing assets such as government bonds.
When a central bank wishes to purchase more bonds than their respective national governments make available, they may purchase private bonds or assets denominated in foreign currencies. The European Central Bank remits its interest income to the central banks of the member countries of the European Union; the US Federal Reserve remits all its profits to the U. S. Treasury; this income, derived from the power to issue currency, is referred to as seigniorage, belongs to the national government. The state-sanctioned power to create currency is called the Right of Issuance. Throughout history there have been disagreements over this power, since whoever controls the creation of currency controls the seigniorage income; the expression "monetary policy" may refer more narrowly to the interest-rate targets and other active measures undertaken by the monetary authority. Frictional unemployment is the time period between jobs when a worker is searching for, or transitioning from one job to another. Unemployment beyond frictional unemployment is classified as unintended unemployment.
For example, structural unemployment is a form of unemployment resulting from a mismatch between demand in the labour market and the skills and locations of the workers seeking employment. Macroeconomic policy aims to reduce unintended unemployment. Keynes labeled any jobs that would be created by a rise in wage-goods as involuntary unemployment: Men are involuntarily unemployed if, in the event of a small rise in the price of wage-goods to the money-wage, both the aggregate supply of labour willing to work for the current money-wage and the aggregate demand for it at that wage would be greater than the existing volume of employment.—John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment and Money p11 Inflation is defined either as the devaluation of a currency or equivalently the rise of prices relative to a currency. Since inflation lowers real wages, Keynesians view inflation as the solution to involuntary unemployment. However, "unanticipated" inflation leads to lender losses as the real interest rate will be lower than expected.
Thus, Keynesian monetary policy aims for a steady rate of inflation. A publication from the Austrian School, The Case Against the Fed, argues that the efforts of the central banks to control inflation have been counterproductive. Economic growth can be enhanced by investment such as more or better machinery. A low interest rate implies that firms can borrow money to invest in their capital stock and pay less interest for it. Lowering the interest is therefore considered to encourage economic growth and is used to alleviate times of low economic growth. On the other hand, raising the interest rate is used in times of high economic growth as a contra-cyclical device to keep the economy from overheating and avoid market bubbles. Further goals of monetary policy are stability of interest rates, of the financial market, of the foreign exchange market. Goals cannot be separated fr
Indonesia
Indonesia the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world's largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands, at 1,904,569 square kilometres, the 14th largest by land area and the 7th largest in combined sea and land area. With over 261 million people, it is the world's 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population; the sovereign state is a constitutional republic with an elected parliament. It has 34 provinces. Jakarta, the country's capital, is the second most populous urban area in the world; the country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, the eastern part of Malaysia. Other neighbouring countries include Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support a high level of biodiversity.
The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin and gold. Agriculture produces rice, palm oil, coffee, medicinal plants and rubber. Indonesia's major trading partners are China, United States, Japan and India. History of the Indonesian archipelago has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources, it has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and later Majapahit traded with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent. Local rulers absorbed foreign cultural and political models from the early centuries and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Muslim traders and Sufi scholars brought Islam, while European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Although sometimes interrupted by the Portuguese and British, the Dutch were the foremost European power for much of its 350-year presence in the archipelago. In early 20th century, the concept of "Indonesia" as a nation state emerged, independence movements began to take shape.
During the decolonisation of Asia after World War II, Indonesia achieved independence in 1949 following an armed and diplomatic conflict with the Netherlands. Indonesia consists of hundreds of distinct native ethnic and linguistic groups, with the largest—and politically dominant—ethnic group being the Javanese. A shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesia's national motto, "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika", articulates the diversity that shapes the country. Indonesia's economy is the world's 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 7th largest by GDP at PPP. Indonesia is a member of several multilateral organisations, including the UN, WTO, IMF and G20, it is a founding member of Non-Aligned Movement, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, East Asia Summit, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indos and the word nesos, meaning "Indian islands". The name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, Malayunesians—for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago". In the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia. After 1900, Indonesia became more common in academic circles outside the Netherlands, native nationalist groups adopted it for political expression. Adolf Bastian, of the University of Berlin, popularised the name through his book Indonesien oder die Inseln des Malayischen Archipels, 1884–1894; the first native scholar to use the name was Ki Hajar Dewantara, when in 1913 he established a press bureau in the Netherlands, Indonesisch Pers-bureau.
Fossils and the remains of tools show that the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited by Homo erectus, known as "Java Man", between 1.5 million years ago and 35,000 years ago. Homo sapiens reached the region around 45,000 years ago. Austronesian peoples, who form the majority of the modern population, migrated to Southeast Asia from what is now Taiwan, they arrived around 4,000 years ago, as they spread through the archipelago, confined the indigenous Melanesians to the far eastern regions. Ideal agricultural conditions and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the 8th century BCE allowed villages and small kingdoms to flourish by the first century CE; the archipelago's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade, including links with Indian kingdoms and Chinese dynasties, which were established several centuries BCE. Trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. From the 7th century CE, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished as a result of trade and the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism that were imported with it.
Between the 8th and 10th century CE, the agricultural Buddhist Saile
Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 paise, though as of 2018, coins of denomination of 50 paise or half rupee is the lowest value in use; the issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India. The Reserve Bank manages currency in India and derives its role in currency management on the basis of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. In 2012, a new rupee symbol'₹', was adopted, it was designed by D. Udaya Kumar, it was derived from the combination of the Devanagari consonant "र" and the Latin capital letter "R" without its vertical bar. The parallel lines at the top are said to make an allusion to the tricolour Indian flag, depict an equality sign that symbolises the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity; the first series of coins with the new rupee symbol started in circulation on 8 July 2011. Before this India used to use Rs for Re to depict one rupee. On 8 November 2016 the Government of India announced the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes with effect from midnight of the same day, making these notes invalid.
A newly redesigned series of ₹500 banknote, in addition to a new denomination of ₹2000 banknote is in circulation since 10 November 2016. ₹1000 has been suspended. On 25 August 2017, a new denomination of ₹200 banknote was added to Indian currency to fill the gap of notes due to high demand for this note after demonetisation. In July 2018, the Reserve Bank of India released the ₹100 banknote; the word "rupee" was derived from Hindustani rupaya. Panini characterised rūpya as a stamped rūpa. Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, prime minister to the first Maurya emperor Chandragupta Maurya, mentions silver coins as rūpyarūpa. Other types of coins including gold coins, copper coins and lead coins are mentioned; the history of the Indian rupee traces back to Ancient India in circa 6th century BCE, ancient India was one of the earliest issuers of coins in the world, along with the Chinese wen and Lydian staters. Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, prime minister to the first Maurya emperor Chandragupta Maurya, mentions silver coins as rūpyarūpa, other types including gold coins, copper coins and lead coins are mentioned.
Rūpa means example, rūpyarūpa, rūpya -- wrought silver, rūpa -- form. During his five-year rule from 1540 to 1545, Sultan Sher Shah Suri issued a coin of silver, weighing 178 grains, termed the Rupiya. During Babar's time, the brass to silver exchange ratio was 50:2; the silver coin remained in use during Maratha era as well as in British India. Among the earliest issues of paper rupees include; the rupee was a silver coin. This had severe consequences in the nineteenth century when the strongest economies in the world were on the gold standard; the discovery of large quantities of silver in the United States and several European colonies resulted in a decline in the value of silver relative to gold, devaluing India's standard currency. This event was known as "the fall of the rupee." India was unaffected by the imperial order-in-council of 1825, which attempted to introduce British sterling coinage to the British colonies. British India, at that time, was controlled by the British East India Company.
The silver rupee continued as the currency of India through the British Raj and beyond. In 1835, British India adopted a mono-metallic silver standard based on the rupee. Following the First war of Independence in 1857, the British government took direct control of British India. Since 1851, gold sovereigns were produced en masse at the Royal Mint in New South Wales. In an 1864 attempt to make the British gold sovereign the "imperial coin", the treasuries in Bombay and Calcutta were instructed to receive gold sovereigns; as the British government gave up hope of replacing the rupee in India with the pound sterling, it realised for the same reason it could not replace the silver dollar in the Straits Settlements with the Indian rupee. Since the silver crisis of 1873, a number of nations adopted the gold standard. Around 1875, Britain started paying India for exported goods in India Council Bills. "If, the India Council in London should not step in to sell bills on India, the merchants and bankers would have to send silver to make good the balances.
Thus a channel for the outflow of silver was stopped, in 1875, by the India Council in London.""The great importance of these Bills, however, is the effect they have on the Market Price of Silver: and they have in fact been one of the most potent factors in recent years in causing the diminution in the Value of Silver'as compared to Gold.""The Indian and Chinese products for which silver is paid were and are, since 1873–74 low in price, it there fore takes less silver to purchase a larger quantity of Eastern commodities. Now, on taking the several agents into united consideration, it will not seem mysterious why silv
Mahendra of Nepal
Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was King of Nepal from 1955 to 1972. Mahendra was born 11 June 1920 to King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal. Although Tribhuvan was nominally king since 1911. Mahendra was captive in Narayanhity Royal Palace a gilded cage. In 1940 he married daughter of General Hari Shamsher Rana. Mahendra had 4 sons, Ravindra - from "Geeta Gurung", Gyanendra and three daughters Shanti and Shobha. Crown Princess Indra died in 1950. In 1952, Mahendra married Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Devi; this marriage produced no children. Meanwhile, popular discontent and the British withdrawal from India in 1947 had made Rana rule untenable. In 1950 the political situation had deteriorated so far that the personal safety of the royals was in doubt. Tribhuvan and most of his family escaped to India. Open revolt ensued and by the end of the year the Ranas agreed to a coalition government under Tribhuvan in which they shared power with the Nepali Congress Party. By the end of the year the Ranas were manoeuvred out and Nepal's first experiment with democratic government under constitutional monarchy was underway.
Tribhuvan's health was poor and he died in 1955. Mahendra succeeded Tribhuvan as King of Nepal, he was crowned on 2 May 1956. On 15 December 1960, the King Mahendra suspended the constitution, dissolved the elected parliament, dismissed the cabinet, imposed direct rule and imprisoned the prime minister Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala and his closest government colleagues. Mahendra instituted a Panchayat hierarchical system of village and national councils, a variant of guided democracy, he pursued a foreign policy of neutrality between India. In 1960, King Mahendra used his emergency powers and took charge of the State once again claiming that the Congress government had fostered corruption, promoted party above national interest, failed to maintain law and order and ‘encouraged anti-national elements’. Political parties were outlawed and all prominent political figures, including the Prime Minister were put behind bars. Civil liberties were curtailed and press freedom muzzled. King Mahendra through an ‘exercise of the sovereign power and prerogatives inherent in us’ promulgated a new constitution on December, 1962 introducing a party-less Panchayat system.
The political system was a party-less "guided" democracy in which the people could elect their representatives, while real power remained in the hands of the monarch. Dissenters were called anti-national elements; the Panchayat System was formulated by King Mahendra after overthrowing the first democratically elected government and dissolving the parliament in 1960. On 26 December 1961, King Mahendra appointed a council of 5 ministers to help run the administration. Several weeks political parties were declared illegal. At first, the Nepali Congress leadership propounded a non-violent struggle against the new order and formed alliances with several political parties, including the Gorkha Parishad and the United Democratic Party. Early in 1961, the king had set up a committee of 4 officials from the Central Secretariat to recommend changes in the constitution that would abolish political parties and substitute a "National Guidance" system based on local panchayat led directly by the king. Mahendra implemented a land reform policy.
The Mahendra Highway that runs along the entire Terai belt in southern Nepal was constructed during his reign. He launched the Back to the Village National Campaign in 1967, one of his largest rural development efforts, he played a key role in making Nepal a member of the United Nations in 1955. King Mahendra was appointed as a British Field Marshal in 1960. King Mahendra and the Queen Ratna were greeted by the President of USA, Lyndon B Johnson and Mrs. Johnson in Washington DC in 1967; the royal couple of Nepal was greeted with the'guard of honor'. Mahendra suffered a heart attack while hunting in Chitwan with Tiger Tops Hotel proprietor John Coapman associated with the CIA at the time, who reported in 1977 that Mahendra died in his arms after eating dinner "on shikar" and died 31 January 1972 in Bharatpur, his son Birendra assumed the throne on 24 February 1975 but perished in the Nepalese royal massacre on 1 June 2001. NationalSovereign of the Order of Nepal Pratap Bhaskara Sovereign of the Order of Ojaswi Rajanya Sovereign of the Order of Nepal Taradisha Sovereign of the Order of Tri Shakti Patta Sovereign of the Order of Gorkha Dakshina Bahu Most Glorious Mahendra Chain Commemorative Silver Jubilee Medal of King Tribhuvan Foreign Iran: Grand Collar of the Order of Pahlavi, 3 July 1960 Iran: Commemorative Medal of the 2500th Anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire, 14 October 1971.
Japan: Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, 19 April 1960 Portugal: Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword, 13 July 1960 France: Grand Cross of the Order of Legion of Honour, 24 February 1956 Finland: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose, 1958 Belgium: Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II, 1964 Germany: Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1964 Kingdom of Laos: Collar of the Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol, 1970 Pakistan: Nishan-e-Pakistan, 1970 Netherlands Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, 25 April 1967. United Kingdom: Royal Victorian Chain, 26 February 1961 Philippines: Collar of the Order of Sikatuna, Rank of Raja, 1971. ^1 Possibly no heir for the time period of 1911 through 1920. Previous C
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Kingdom of Nepal (1932 – 2008)
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