Reliving the fascinating journey of the rupee

An exhibition in Mumbai delves into the 500-year history and multiple facets of the rupee, from conquest to trade

- SHAIL DESAI

he humble rupee has a lot to complain about these days—it is a denomination often taken for granted, an exchange rarely accounted for and loose change that is never returned.

But a walk through Mumbaibased Sarmaya Arts Foundation’s latest exhibition, Odyssey of the Rupee: From India to the World, relives the heyday of the rupee, a time when its aura and strength made it a universal symbol of power across centuries.

Most coins on display come from the private collection of Sarmaya’s founder, Paul Abraham, 65. It all started for him when asa young boy, his father handed him a bottle of coins from the kingdom of Travancore. Growing up in Delhi, Abraham spent his early days hanging out at coin fairs and exhibitions, soaking in India’s numismatic tradition that extends to over 2,500 years, while judiciously spending his modest pocket money. It has today grown into a diverse collection.

The exhibition, which runs until 31 January, was envisioned after a routine conversation between Abraham and his mate, Shailendra Bhandare, an equally passionate numismatist, curator at the Ashmolean Museum and faculty at Oxford University in England. It took Bhandare, Abraham and the teamat Sarmaya about five months to weave anarrative around the rupee, even acquiring a few specific coinsalong the way that were missing from the collection.

The exhibition features everything from punch-marked coins to rupee coins minted in India and around the world; and (right) the first rupee coin issued by Sher Shah Suri in 1538.

“Thisisthe 75th year of the firstrupee of independent India that was minted on 15 August 1950, The history of the rupee goes back 500 years, so we thought of looking at multiple facets of this coin through the exhibition,” Abraham says.