For the Mughals, a coin was more than just currency. It was a stamp of legitimacy and a canvas for art and poetry. In this talk, Dr Shailendra Bhandare provides an overview of the rupee’s meteoric rise as a global currency during the era of the Badshahs. Dr Bhandare curated Sarmaya’s 2025-26 exhibition Odyssey of the Rupee, and this talk was held on 17 Jan 2026 as part of the programming for the show.
Shailendra Bhandare is Senior Curator, Asian Coins and Paper Money, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, a Fellow of St Cross College and a member of Faculty of Oriental Studies. He started his career as a Numismatist with a visiting fellowship at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. He was then appointed as a post-doctoral fellow of the Society for South Asian Studies, and worked as a curator in the British Museum on the coins of Later Mughals and the Indian Princely States. He was appointed as curator of coins in the Ashmolean Museum in 2002.
