Tucked into the Himalayan foothills between Bhutan and Nepal, the small kingdom of Cooch Behar punched well above its size. In the mid-17th century, its ruler, Maharaja Pran Narayan, watched the Mughal Empire convulse in a succession war between Aurangzeb and his brothers — and seized the moment. In 1658, his forces took Ghoraghat, a center of Mughal power in Bengal. Three years later, in 1661, they captured Dhaka itself, the Mughal capital of the region. For one remarkable stretch, a small Himalayan kingdom held a great city of the Mughal Empire.

It didn’t last. Once Aurangzeb secured his throne, he sent his general Mir Jumla to retake the territory. Cooch Behar fell, and the town was renamed Alamgirnagar after the emperor’s title. But Pran Narayan regained his throne, and by 1664 had reached a settlement with the Mughal commander Shaista Khan that restored his kingdom.

Away from the battlefield, Pran Narayan was remembered as a scholar-king — fluent in Sanskrit literature, poetry, and music, with a memory celebrated by his court. He gathered four other learned men around him to form the Pancha Ratna Sava, the “Society of Five Gems.”

This silver half tanka was struck during his reign, part of the Koch dynasty’s “Narayani” currency — named for the royal house and circulated not just within Cooch Behar but across much of North Bengal, reaching into Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Assam. Its design follows the distinctive Koch format: a compact grid of script-filled compartments rather than a central portrait, naming the king and his title across the obverse and reverse. The word “tanka” itself is the direct ancestor of the modern Bangladeshi taka — a thread connecting this 17th-century coin to currency still in circulation today.

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WHAT THE COIN CARRIES — OBVERSE & REVERSE:

Obverse: Script arranged in the distinctive Koch grid format, naming Pran Narayan’s royal title.
Reverse: Continuing grid-pattern script naming the king — following Koch dynastic convention of invoking Shiva, the family’s patron deity, on coinage of this era.

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COIN DETAILS:

• Kingdom: Cooch Behar (Koch Bihar), Himalayan princely state, northeastern India
• Ruler: Maharaja Pran Narayan
• Reign: 1633–1665
• Denomination: Silver Half Tanka (“Narayani” currency)
• Weight: 5 grams
• Diameter: 20 mm
• Obverse: Grid-pattern script naming the king’s title
• Reverse: Grid-pattern script naming the king
• Condition: Near EF (About Extremely Fine)
• Authenticity: Guaranteed — Certificate of Authenticity included
• Item Reference: R#9665

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WHY THIS COIN BELONGS IN YOUR COLLECTION

1. A kingdom that briefly held a Mughal capital — Pran Narayan’s forces captured Dhaka in 1661, an extraordinary moment for a small Himalayan state.
2. Genuinely scarce on the market — Koch Bihar “Narayani” coinage rarely surfaces outside specialist Indian numismatic circles.
3. A direct link to a scholar-king — Pran Narayan founded the Pancha Ratna Sava, a court society of five learned men, in the tradition of great regional intellectual courts.
4. A linguistic thread to the present — “tanka,” this coin’s denomination, is the direct ancestor of the modern Bangladeshi taka.
5. Fully documented and guaranteed — backed by OCN’s Certificate of Authenticity and three decades of numismatic expertise.

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AS A GIFT:

It arrives with a full Certificate of Authenticity from OCN Antiques. For the collector drawn to the lesser-known corners of South Asian history, this half tanka offers something genuinely different from the better-known Mughal and Greek series: a coin from a small Himalayan kingdom that, for one remarkable year, held a Mughal capital of its own.

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OCN Antiques — New York’s Ancient Coin Specialists

• Certificate of Authenticity (COA) — included with every single piece
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A SMALL HIMALAYAN KINGDOM. A CAPTURED MUGHAL CAPITAL. A SCHOLAR-KING’S SILVER.

Pran Narayan. Cooch Behar Kingdom. 1633–1665. Near EF condition.

→ Add to Cart now. A genuinely rare piece of Himalayan history.