The day had finally arrived! I had been looking forward to and planning for this day ever since a date was set for me with Ms. Sumera Samad, the Director of Lahore Museum. Despite all the excitement to finally find out everything that happens “behind the scenes” at a museum, I must confess, I expected a very usual day at the museum. I am glad that I was proven completely wrong.
The first shock of the day was seeing place absolutely packed, upon my arrival. There was a large group of women at the museum’s entrance, waiting to be let in – teachers visiting. That was a pleasant surprise! I didn’t know people cared about museums enough to crowd their entrances so. After failing all attempts to penetrate the crowd, I then instead went to the office falling to the right of the main building, in hopes that I might find the Director there. I didn’t.
Ms. Naushaba Anjum, the friendly neighbourhood coin keeper in her chamber of secrets
I didn't know people cared about museums enough to crowd their entrances
Upon asking for the directions to the said office, I was led to the museum’s rear and in front of a wooden door fixed with reflective glass. I entered, cautiously.
Surprise number 2: I was welcomed by a dimly lit, primly furnished room, booming with loud, energetic voices – all belonging to women. As I turned the corner to face the voices, the three female participants of the conversation quietened down. Before I told Ms. Samad – who was seated behind a desk busily working away at her laptop – that she had scheduled to meet me that day, she looked slightly puzzled at my intrusion – perhaps, like me, expecting to see an older person at the other end. After I gave her a brief introduction of the kind of work I was looking to do, Sumera did not waste time in deciding on the artefact she wanted me to look at the most: the coins.
Ms. Sumera Samad, the Museum's Director. I was definitely expecting an older person - it's a museum, after all!
The feather light coins didn't seem 2,300 years old
Coins? I wasn’t really expecting that – not the first time I was surprised that day; nor the last. Coins… this should be interesting.
Ms. Samad then called someone to her office, someone she called the “Keeper of the Coins”. And it keeps getting more interesting….
Soon afterwards, a well-groomed, very welcoming lady entered the room. Ms. Samad asked her to take me along with her, which she did.
I followed the Keeper of the Coins through another alleyway that took us to a narrow corridor with a high ceiling and two massive, dark wooden doors on each side. “This way” – the Keeper of the Coins led me into her chamber. And what a chamber it was.
The obverse of Sophytes' coins, both showing a man - probably Sophytes himself - wearing a helmet and a laurel wreath over it - photographs provided by Ms. Naushaba Anjum
We are not sure where they were actually minted: the Punjab or the Oxus
The room looked like something out of a 19th century English novel. A thick carpet covered the entire floor, and dark, intricately carved chairs and an expansive desk were placed at one end. Ruby red velvet curtains adorned the tall, narrow windows, as well as the entrance door; the settees placed along the wall at the other end were upholstered with velvet, too. However, the most remarkable aspect of that room were the large, wooden safes that were fixed along much of the room’s breadth – the compartments where the Keeper of the Coins kept her millennia long secrets. Chamber of Secrets in the truest sense?
Ms. Naushaba Anjum invited me to take a seat right in front of her, and I obliged. She then proceeded to take a bunch of keys out of her desk’s drawer, handed them to her assistant and asked him to take the coins out. A minute later, he re-emerged with a rectangular, transparent tray which housed hundreds of ancient coins: all originals. Wow.
Two sides of the same coin
Coins? I wasn't really expecting that
Ms. Anjum then carefully lifted the lid of the tray and took out two small silver coins and held them out in her palm for me to see. “These are the drachms of Sophytes”.
The beautiful shiny pieces were both adorned with a man’s face on one side, and a rooster on the other. I took the two coins in my hands and was instantly spellbound – the feather light coins did not look like they were minted over 2300 years ago. I flipped the coins over in my hands and looked at the reverse which held a Greek inscription, saying ???YTOY – which should read as “Sauytoy” – and… a cock. This is a bit strange… why a rooster?Is it because –
“Alright, I don’t really let people hold them in their hands for that long,” Ms. Anjum was clearly getting possessive about “her preciouses”. I quickly let the valuable pieces out of my hand and placed them on her glass-top table, knowing that her apprehension was justified: ancient relics are extremely sensitive to all kinds of exposure, which is why they are even photographed with extreme caution.
Lahore Museum
“And the roosters are there because they are common in our part of the world”. Oh, that figures…
Once I had looked at the coins and taken a photograph of them, Ms. Naushaba Anjum then replaced them in their tray and had them locked up again. She then began to tell me the story of Sophytes, the king of the Salt Range who was a contemporary of Alexander the Great.
Also known as Saubhuti, Sophytes’ people were Kathaians, a non-Aryan, and most likely foreign tribe – or so believed Sir Alexander Cunningham, the first person to report the existence of Sophytes’ coins. However, Ms. Anjum pointed out, that since Sophytes did not mention his title on his coins, it is possible that he was not a King, at all, but a satrap of the Greeks. She further informed me, that when Alexander was returning from the Battle of Hydaspes, after defeating King Porus, Sophytes was afraid he might overrun his own territory – which the Macedonian later did, but not without a fight. This hints at the autonomous nature of Sophytes’ kingdom, at least before being conquered by Alexander.
In her paper published in Lahore Museum Bulletin’s issue of 1991, Ms. Naushaba Anjum writes that it is disappointing for historians to know, despite having possession of the coins, that we are not sure where they were actually minted: the Punjab or the Oxus. Knowing whom the coins were obtained from – one was actually in the custody of a Lahore-based eggs merchant before it was acquired by Lahore Museum in 1956 – also does not help us identify their origins, at all. Perhaps, this is one area that researchers – historians and archaeologists, alike – need to work on.
Until then, let’s just assume Sophytes and his lovely silver coins are a part of Punjabi heritage, shall we.
