NEPAL KATMANDU Pratapa Malla mohar 775 NS (1655 AD)

Description

Pratapa Malla was administering his father’s kingdom when he had him imprisoned for “insanity. He ruled for thirty three years. There was peace during his reign.

Malla means “wrestler” in Sanskrit, and denotes strength. Nobles started calling themselves Malla in the 13th century. Mallas came to dominate in the Katmandu valley. The government was little local leaders. Usually someone was on top at any given time. The rulers of Katmandu, Patan, and Bhatgaon became dominant for several centuries.

Nepal, birth place of the Buddha. It is on the Indian side of the Himalayas but has resisted Indian influence since people started trying to exert influence in India. They were not conquered by the British either. They made a deal. In that monarchy they had until recently the monarchs were identified with the Godhead in the ancient style of monarchy, making it reasonable to describe them as Tantric monarchs, meaning that no matter what they did it was not wrong, because it was God doing it. People think interesting thoughts. India and Nepal continue their noncooperation to this day. Any time India has an opportunity to say no, it does.

By “Modern World Coins” we mean here, generally, the round, flat, shiny metal objects that people have used for money and still do. “Modern,” though, varies by location. There was some other way they were doing their economies, and then they switched over to “modern coins,” then they went toward paper money, now we’re all going toward digital, a future in which kids look at a coin and say “What’s that?” We’ll say: “We used to use those to buy things.” Kids will ask “How?” The main catalog reference is the Standard Catalog of World Coins, to which the KM numbers refer.