 "Sivagupta coin")
This is part of the repertoire of Lance Dane who gathered 34,000 coins, in various shapes, dimensions, and degrees of rareness, all belonging to ancient India. The former officer of the British Army is said to have built possibly the largest personal collection of coins from the region, ranging from 600 BC to 600 AD.
In numismatic circles, Dane was well-known, and students often approached him when studying particular series of old coins. Scholars including Terry Hardaker and Shailesh Bhandare, attached to the Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum, have touted his effort as "unrivalled".
Picture by Kamlesh Pednekar
As he had no legal heirs, Dane had planned to hand over his coins to someone who could promote research based on it. So in 2011, after Paul Abraham, COO of Hinduja-owned IndusInd Bank, who happened to be a numismatist and friend, suggested it, Dane decided to bequeath his collection to the Hinduja group's philanthropic arm. He also joined the Hinduja Foundation as a founding member of its antiquities committee.
After Dane died in 2012, the Hinduja Foundation began adding archaeology and numismatic experts to its committee. Work took off in earnest only in 2015 when it invested more than Rs 1 crore towards curating and cataloguing what it calls the "Lance Dane bequest". It roped in specialists from the Indian Institute of Research in Numismatic Studies (IIRNS), Nashik, to examine photographs of the coins to create a detailed databank.
For the institute's director, Amiteshwar Jha, this project also has nostalgic value. He had met Dane and consulted the collection while writing a book on currency of the Western Kshatrapas in 1994.
Dane came across as a man who loved his coins and went after specimens that were not always favoured by commercial collectors, resulting in a vast selection of coins in base metals rather than gold.
Coin scholar and auctioneer Dilip Rajgor says, "Even if someone were to come to India with crores of rupees today, it would be impossible to recreate a collection of this size and variety."
Coins offer clues into the zeitgeist of periods when there was no practice of writing history. That was never their express purpose, of course. "They were out-and-out economic in nature," says IIRNS' Jha. "But for ancient times when historiography is absent, any available information is of vital importance."
The ancient Indian coins give insights into rulers, their religious beliefs, the language, and popular symbols of the time.
Picture by Kamlesh Pednekar
There were no photographs or official portraits of rulers back then, but some coins include profiles even if they are not true to life. In some cases, it was possible to ascertain chronology and political scenarios too.
Dane's collection is heavy on coins from the Satavahana dynasty. While lore had it that Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni had defeated Western Kshatrapas' Nahapana, there was no evidence for this until 1908. That year, a hoard was found near Nashik with coins issued by Nahapana that had been overstruck by Gautamiputra, confirming the legend.
In a room where all bags have to be left outside, Manish Verma, archaeologist and assistant manager of the Hinduja Foundation, shows me a specimen of this and other coins.
For security reasons, each coin has been given a tracking number that holds information about where it is stored or being exhibited, and who last accessed it. Apart from the Satavahanas, there are many coins from the post-Maurya, Western Kshatrapas, and Kushan empires.
The coin collector
Picture by Kamlesh Pednekar |
According to reports, he was born in Nottinghamshire, England, and travelled to Burma and India while serving in the British Army. After World War II, he chose to live in India.
He later worked in pharmaceuticals, advertising, and even dabbled in acting. His interest in ancient coins began through photography, another hobby of his.
Averse to using the camera flash, he photographed exclusively in natural light, often in his apartment. In his prime, he is said to have shot many Indian monuments, some of which no longer exist.
His photos are available at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi. He contributed pictures for the earliest issues of Marg, edited by writer Mulk Raj Anand.
Indian erotica claimed his attention too, leading him to study and co-author three illustrated books on the subject.
Those who interacted with him remember Dane as a pleasant and generous man, who allowed ardent students to take and examine coins for months at a time. He even taught Rajgor how to take photos, and gifted him his first camera.
The collector kept largely to himself otherwise. Mumbai became his home, he travelled in auto-rickshaws, and the kurta -pyjama was his chosen attire.
Some say C Rajagopalachari, who was a friend of Dane’s father, gifted him his first coin, setting off a 65-year-long passion project. Over the years, he would take a fancy to a particular coin in a particular series, and pester traders to part with them.
He especially liked studying the symbols, and collected books that told him more about them. Mint condition was a priority for him.
Paintings, sculptures, bronzes, and books formed his other collections, but he was not uniformly selective as with coins. The bronzes, for example, comprise many small ritual objects from regions of Maharashtra such as Nashik, Trimbakeshwar, and Pandharpur.
They are a mixed bag of good, bad, and indifferent art because they had not been gathered with a particular motive, as art historian Sridhar Andhare puts it.
But he knew the art well. “He was good at identifying miniature paintings.” Andhare, who remembers taking him around the miniature art gallery at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay in Mumbai, says.
He dedicated himself to art and culture.
Even just 10 days before his death, Rajgor remembers getting a call from Dane, telling him he was updating records about each coin and saying he would be giving the auctioneer credit for helping acquire some pieces.
At his homes in Mahim and in Warden Road before that, artifacts took up the bulk of the space. “He worried about his work until the very end.”
Picture by Kamlesh Pednekar
Among them is one of the earliest coins, a silver bent-bar one shaped like a slate pencil, decorated with flowers on either end. It is from the Gandhara janapada (now Peshawar) and goes back to 6th century BC.
Another interesting set of coins is from the tribal states, which, after the fall of the Mauryas, issued coins with vivid symbols and inscriptions that are on a par with the traditional royal coins.
Going by expert views, Dane's work is the best among private collections of ancient coins and even surpasses museum or university collections.
Unlike most individual collectors, he bought entire "hoards" or a set of buried coins that had been retrieved. This helps researchers spot the minor differences in the same variety of coins. While museum collections may have larger number of coins, Dane made sure to collect a wider variety, observes Jha.
Picture by Kamlesh Pednekar
While the foundation has remained tight-lipped about the initiative, it is reckoned it made a sizeable investment in the coins. "We have so far invested a few crores on this collection and will invest more in the future," says Ashok Hinduja, chairman of the Hinduja group.
The intentions for the collection are purely geared towards making it available for research, everyone attached to the project stresses. While the foundation had been involved in the promotion of Indian art before, it had not dealt with numismatics until it received the bequest, notes H Chukerbuti, executive vice-president, Hinduja Foundation.
Picture by Kamlesh Pednekar
After Dane's death, a few people tried to lay claims on the collection, says Prakash Shah, honourary trustee at Hinduja Foundation. This is perhaps in reference to Dane's caretaker, Sanjay Gejge, who according to reports had in 2013 delayed the handing over of the artifacts. But the legalities, including a memorandum of understanding, had been clear on the foundation's end.
A permanent exhibition space is the eventual plan. In the interim, there may be rotating shows at the Reserve Bank of India's monetary museum based on themes - say coins depicting elephants, and coins bearing faces of rulers.
There are also plans to exhibit at the historic Rajabai Clock Tower in the University of Mumbai campus.
Climate-controlled, bullet-proof showcases have been readied for the purpose. New equipment has been purchased for high-resolution photographs for the website, "because mobile phone cameras are only good for selfies," Shah laughs.
But the foundation does not outline further details, saying the focus for now is on getting its databank ready.
Picture by Kamlesh Pednekar
Basic information about the ancient Indian coins will be available through a website. Researchers can pay for access to more comprehensive information. Any use of the data will have to be attributed to the Lance Dane bequest, the foundation says.
At Nashik's IIRNS, Excel sheets are being created for batches of 100 coins, including information about their age, source, legacy, design, and value. Some unpublished coins take as long as three to four days to catalogue.
This information can later be linked with existing institutional databases.
When the databank eventually goes online, IIRNS expects it to generate discussions which could bring more clarity on the history of the coins.
The marvel of how these coins have survived for thousands of years, wearing some marks of age, and carrying vital news from the past, does not escape even the novice's attention.
Dane's effort has already inspired several PhDs, adds Rajgor, and has the potential to inspire several more. "That is its academic and national importance."
If all goes according to plan, making Dane's collection accessible could open up a wealth of information.
