Wikipedia

Rupee

This article is about the currency used in various countries in Asia. For other uses, seeRupee (disambiguation).

Rupeeis the common name for thecurrenciesof India,Mauritius,Nepal,Pakistan,Seychelles,andSri Lanka,and of former currencies ofAfghanistan,Bahrain,Kuwait,Oman,theUnited Arab Emirates(as theGulf rupee),British East Africa,Burma,German East Africa(asRupie/Rupien), andTibet.InIndonesiaand theMaldives,the unit of currency is known asrupiahandrufiyaarespectively,cognatesof the word rupee.

Purple:Countries using a rupee as an official currency
India,Indonesia,Maldives,Mauritius,Nepal,Pakistan,Seychelles,Sri Lanka
Orange:Countries where a foreign country's rupee islegal tender
Indian rupee:Bhutan
Indonesian rupiah:East Timor

TheIndian rupees(₹) andPakistani rupees(Rs.) are subdivided into one hundredpaise(singularpaisa) or pice. TheNepalese rupee(रू) subdivides into one hundredpaisa(singular and plural) or foursukaas.TheMauritian,Seychellois,andSri Lankan rupeessubdivide into 100 cents.

Etymology

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TheHindustaniwordrupayā(रुपया) is derived from theSanskritwordrūpya(रूप्य), which means "wrought silver, a coin of silver",[1]in origin an adjective meaning "shapely", with a more specific meaning of "stamped, impressed", whence "coin". It is derived from the nounrūpa(रूप) "shape, likeness, image".

History

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Further information:History of the rupee
Rūpyarūpaissued by theMaurya Empire,with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd century BC.
Silver coin ofSkandaguptaofGupta Empireknown asRūpaka(रूपक) in Sanskrit, in the style of theWestern Satraps,withpeacockon reverse, 455-467 CE
Rupiyaissued by theSher Shah Suri,1540–1545 CE.
TheFrench East India Companyissued silver Rupee in the name ofMuhammad Shah(1719–1748) for Northern India trade, minted inPondicherry.
Silver Rupee underZaman Shah Durraniin the 1790s, minted inPeshawar
Government of India— 5 Rupee note, 1858
Government of India— 1 Rupee banknote, 1917

The history of the rupee traces back toAncient Indiacirca 3rd century BC. Ancient India was one of the earliest issuers of coins in the world,[2]along with the Lydianstaters,several other Middle Eastern coinages and theChinese wen. The term is fromrūpya,a Sanskrit term forsilver coin,[3]from Sanskritrūpa,beautiful form.[4]

Arthashastra,written byChanakya,chief adviser to the firstMaurya emperorChandragupta Maurya(c. 340–290 BCE), mentions silver coins asrūpyarūpa,other types including gold coins (rūpya-suvarṇa), copper coins (tāmrarūpa) and lead coins (sīsarūpa) are mentioned.Rūpameans form or shape, example,rūpyarūpa,rūpya– wrought silver,rūpa– form.[5][6][7]This coinage system continued more or less across the Indian subcontinent well till 20th century.

In the intermediate times there was no fixed monetary system as reported by theDa Tang Xi Yu Ji.[8]

During his reign from 1538/1540 to 1545,Sher Shah Suriof theSur Empireset up a new civic and military administration and issued a coin of silver, weighing 178grains,which was also termed theRupiya.[9][10]Suri also introduced copper coins calleddamandgold coinscalledmohurthat weighed 169 grains (10.95 g).[11]The use of the rupee coin continued under theMughal Empirewith the same standard and weight, though some rulers afterMughal Emperor Akbaroccasionally issued heavier rupees.[12][13]

Silver rupee coins from theBengal Presidency,struck in the name ofShah Alam II,minted in Calcutta.

The European powers started minting coinage as early as mid-17th century, under patronage of Mughal Empire. The British gold coins were termed Carolina, the silver coins Anglina, the copper coins Cupperoon and tin coins Tinny. The coins of Bengal were developed in theMughalstyle and those ofMadrasmostly in a South Indian style. The English coins of Western India developed along Mughal as well as English patterns. It was only in AD 1717 that the British obtained permission from the EmperorFarrukh Siyarto coin Mughal money at theBombaymint. By early 1830, the British had become the dominant power in India and started minting coinage independently. The Coinage Act of 1835 provided for uniform coinage throughout India. The new coins had the effigy ofWilliam IVon the obverse and the value on the reverse in English andPersian.The coins issued after 1840 bore the portrait ofQueen Victoria.The first coinage under the crown was issued in 1862 and in 1877 Queen Victoria assumed the title the Empress of India. Thegold silver ratioexpanded during 1870–1910. Unlike India, Britain was on the gold standard.

The 1911 accession to the throne of the King-EmperorGeorge Vled to the famous "pig rupee". On the coin, the King appeared wearing a robe with the imprint of an elephant. Through poor engraving, the elephant looked like a pig. The population was enraged and the image had to be quickly redesigned. Acute shortage of silver during theFirst World War,led to the introduction of paper currency of One Rupee and Two and a half Rupees. The silver coins of smaller denominations were issued in cupro-nickel. The compulsion of theSecond World Warled to experiments in coinage where the standard rupee was replaced by the "Quaternary Silver Alloy". The Quaternary Silver coins were issued from 1940. In 1947 these were replaced by pure Nickel coins. The Monetary System remained unchanged at One Rupee consisting of 64 pice, or 192 pies.

In India, the "Anna Series" was introduced on 15 August 1950. This was the first coinage of theRepublic of India.The King's Portrait was replaced by the Ashoka's Lion Capital. A corn sheaf replaced the Tiger on the one Rupee coin. The monetary system was retained with one Rupee consisting of 16 Annas. The 1955 Indian Coinage (Amendment) Act, that came into force with effect from 1 April 1957, introduced a "Decimal series". The rupee was now divided into 100 'Paisa' instead of 16 Annas or 64 Pice. The "Naye Paise" coins were minted in the denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 Naye Paise. Both the Anna series and the Naye Paise coins were valid for some time. From 1968 onwards, the new coins were called just Paise instead of Naye Paise because they were no longer naye(new).

With high inflation in the sixties, small denomination coins which were made of bronze, nickel-brass, cupro-nickel, andaluminium-bronzewere gradually minted in aluminium only. This change commenced with the introduction of the new hexagonal 3 paise coin. A twenty paise coin was introduced in 1968 but did not gain much popularity. Over a period, cost-benefit considerations led to the gradual discontinuance of 1, 2 and 3 paise coins in the 1970s. Stainless steel coinage of 10, 25 and 50 paise, was introduced in 1988 and of one rupee in 1992. The very considerable costs of managing note issues of Rs 1, Rs 2, and Rs 5 led to the gradual coinisation of these denominations in the 1990s.

East Africa, Arabia, and Mesopotamia

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In East Africa,Arabia,andMesopotamia,the rupee and its subsidiary coinage was current at various times. The usage of the rupee in East Africa extended fromSomalilandin the north to as far south asNatal.In Mozambique, the British India rupees were overstamped, and in Kenya, theBritish East Africa Companyminted the rupee and its fractions, as well as pice.

The rise in the price of silver immediately after theFirst World Warcaused the rupee to rise in value to two shillingssterling.In 1920 inBritish East Africa,the opportunity was then taken to introduce a newflorincoin, hence bringing the currency into line with sterling. Shortly after that, the florin was split into twoEast African shillings.This assimilation tosterlingdid not, however, happen inBritish Indiaitself. In Somalia, the Italian colonial authority minted 'rupia' to exactly the same standard and called thepice'besa'.

The Indian rupee was the official currency ofDubaiandQataruntil 1959, when India created a newGulf rupee(also known as the "external rupee" ) to hinder the smuggling of gold.[14]The Gulf rupee was legal tender until 1966, when India significantly devalued the Indian rupee and a newQatar-Dubai riyalwas established to provide economic stability.[14]

Straits Settlements

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TheStraits Settlementswere originally an outlier of theBritish East India Company.TheSpanish dollarhad already taken hold in the Straits Settlements by the time the British arrived in the 19th century. The East India Company tried to introduce the rupee in its place. These attempts were resisted by the locals, and by 1867 when the British government took over direct control of the Straits Settlements from the East India Company, attempts to introduce the rupee were finally abandoned.

Tibet

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Until the middle of the 20th century,Tibet's official currency was also known as the Tibetan rupee.[15]

Denominations

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The original silver rupee,.917 finesilver, 11.66 grams (179.9 grains; 0.375 troy ounces),[citation needed]was divided into 16annas,64paise,or 192pies.Each circulating coin ofBritish India,until the rupee was decimalised, had a different name in practice. Apaisawas equal to twodhelas,threepies,or sixdamaris.Other coins for half anna (adhanni,or two paisas), two annas (duanni), four annas (achawanni,or a quarter of a rupee), and eight annas (anathanni,or half a rupee) were widely in use until decimalization in 1961. (Thenumbersadha,do,chār,āthamean respectively half, two, four, eight in Hindi and Urdu.[16]) Twopaisawas also called ataka,see below.

Decimalisationoccurred in India in 1957 and in Pakistan in 1961. Since 1957 an Indian rupee is divided into 100 paise. The decimalised paisa was originally officially namednaya paisameaning the "new paisa" to distinguish it from the erstwhile paisa which had a higher value of1⁄64rupee. The wordnayawas dropped in 1964 and since then it is simply known aspaisa(pluralpaise).

The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is "₨". India adopted a new symbol (₹) for the Indian rupee on 15 July 2010. In most parts of India, the rupee is known as rupaya, rupaye, or one of several other terms derived from the Sanskritrūpya,meaning silver.

Ṭaṅkais an ancient Sanskrit word for money. While the two-paise coin was called atakainWest Pakistan,the wordtakawas commonly used inEast Pakistan(nowBangladesh), alternatively for rupee. In the Bengali and Assamese languages, spoken in Assam,Tripura,and West Bengal, the rupee is known as ataka,and is written as such on Indian banknotes. InOdishait is known astanka.After its independence, Bangladesh started to officially call its currency "taka"(BDT) in 1971.

The issuance of the Indian currency is controlled by theReserve Bank of India,and issuance of Pakistani currency is controlled byState Bank of Pakistan.

Currently in India (from 2010 onwards), the 50 paise coin (half a rupee) is the lowest valued legal tender coin. Coins of 1, 2, 5, and 10 rupees and banknotes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 2000 rupees are commonly in use for cash transaction.

Large denominations of rupees are traditionally counted inlakhs,crores,arabs,kharabs,nils,padmas,shankhs,udpadhas, and anks. Terms beyondcroreare not generally used in the context of money; for example, an amount would be called ₨ 1 lakh crore (equivalent to 1 trillion) instead of ₨ 10 kharab.

Symbol

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Main articles:Rupee signandCurrency sign

The symbol₹is theIndian rupee sign.Theprecomposed character₨is acurrency signused to represent themonetary unitof account inPakistan,Sri Lanka,Nepal,Mauritius,Seychelles,and formerly inIndia.It resembles, and is often written as, theLatin charactersequence "Rs" or "Rs.". The symbolरूrepresents theNepalese rupee.Currency signs exist for other countries that use the rupee but not this sign: their usage is also described at themain article.

In Unicode

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Thecodepointsfor these symbols are:

U+3353㍓SQUARE RUPIIis a square version ofルピーrupī,the Japanese word for "rupee". It is intended forCJK Compatibilitywith earlier character sets. No other rupee symbols or abbreviations have dedicated code points. Most are written asligaturesusing thecombining diacritictechnique: For example, the Nepalese rupeeरूis written usingU+0930रDEVANAGARI LETTER RAwithU+0942ूDEVANAGARI VOWEL SIGN UU.

Abbreviation

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InLatin script,"rupee" (singular) is abbreviated as 'Re'.[citation needed]and "rupees" (plural) as '₨'. The Indonesianrupiahis abbreviated 'Rp'. In 19th century typography, abbreviations were often superscripted:or.In Brahmic scripts, rupee is often abbreviated with thegraphemefor the first syllable, optionally followed by a circular abbreviation mark or a Latin abbreviation point:रु૰(Devanagariru.),[17][18]રૂ૰(Gujaratiru.),[18]රු(Sinhalaru),రూ(Telugurū).

Rupee abbreviation in other languages
Language Word Transliteration Abbrev. Unicode
Gujarati રૂપિચો, રૂપિયા rūpiyo,rūpiyā રૂ૰ U+0AB0રGUJARATI LETTER RA+U+0AC2ૂGUJARATI VOWEL SIGN UU+U+0AF0૰GUJARATI ABBREVIATION SIGN
Kannada ರೂಪಾಯಿ rūpāyi ರೂ U+0CC4ೄKANNADA VOWEL SIGN VOCALIC RR
Malayalam രൂപ rūpāa രൂ (U+0D30രMALAYALAM LETTER RA) + (U+0D42ൂMALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN UU)
Tamil ரூபாய் rūbāy ரூ (U+0BB0ரTAMIL LETTER RA) + (U+0BC2ூTAMIL VOWEL SIGN UU)
Telugu రూపాయి rūpāyi రూ (U+0C30రTELUGU LETTER RA) + (U+0C42ూTELUGU VOWEL SIGN UU)
Sinhala රුපියල rupiyala රු (U+0DBBරSINHALA LETTER RAYANNA) + (U+0DD4ුSINHALA VOWEL SIGN KETTI PAA-PILLA)

Value

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See also:History of the rupee

The history of the rupees can be traced back toAncient Indiaaround the 6th century BC[citation needed].Ancient India had some of the earliest coins in the world,[2]along with theChinese wenand Lydianstaters. The rupee coin has been used since then, even duringBritish India,when it contained 11.66 g (1tola) of 91.7% silver with an ASW of 0.3437 of atroy ounce[19](that is, silver worth about US$10 at modern prices).[20]Valuation of the rupee based on its silver content had severe consequences in the 19th century, when the strongest economies in the world were on thegold standard.The discovery of vast quantities of silver in the United States and various European colonies resulted in a decline in the value of silver relative to gold.

At the end of the 19th century, the Indian silver rupee went onto agold exchange standardat a fixed rate of one rupee to one shilling and fourpence in British currency, i.e. 15 rupees to 1pound sterling.

Country Currency Symbol ISO 4217
code 		Minor unit Rupees perU.S. dollar
(As of 15 May 2023)[21] 		Established Preceding currency
India Indian rupee ₹ INR Paisa=1⁄100rupee 82.23556 1540 no modern predecessor
Indonesia Indonesian rupiah Rp IDR Sen =1⁄100rupiah 14,803.215 1949 Netherlands Indies gulden
Maldives Maldivian rufiyaa Rf,MRf, MVR,.ރ or /- MVR Laari =1⁄100rufiyaa 15.406232 1945 Ceylonese rupee
Mauritius Mauritian rupee ₨, रु MUR Cent =1⁄100rupee 45.671789 1876 Indian rupee,pound sterling,Mauritian dollar
Nepal Nepalese rupee रू NPR Paisa =1⁄100rupee 131.63432 1932 Nepalese mohar
Pakistan Pakistani rupee ₨ PKR Paisa =1⁄100rupee 295.64616 1947 Indian rupee(prior topartition)
Seychelles Seychellois rupee SR, SRe SCR Cent =1⁄100rupee 13.405025 1976 Mauritian rupee
Sri Lanka Sri Lankan rupee ₨, රු, ௹ LKR Cent =1⁄100rupee 313.09518 1885 Indian rupee,pound sterling,Ceylonese rixdollar

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Etymology of rupee".etymonline.com. 20 September 2008.Retrieved20 September2008.
  2. ^abSubodh Kapoor (January 2002).The Indian encyclopaedia: biographical, historical, religious..., Volume 6.Cosmo Publications. p. 1599.ISBN81-7755-257-0.
  3. ^Turner, Sir Ralph Lilley(1985) [London: Oxford University Press, 1962–1966.]."A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages".Includes three supplements, published 1969–1985.Digital South Asia Library, a project of the Center for Research Libraries and the University of Chicago.Retrieved26 August2010.rū'pya 10805 rū'pya 'beautiful, bearing a stamp'; 'silver'
  4. ^Turner, Sir Ralph Lilley(1985) [London: Oxford University Press, 1962–1966.]."A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages".Includes three supplements, published 1969–1985.Digital South Asia Library, a project of the Center for Research Libraries and the University of Chicago.Retrieved26 August2010.rūpa 10803 'form, beauty'
  5. ^D. R. Bhandarkar (1990).Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics.Asian Educational Services. p. 129.ISBN9788120605497.
  6. ^D.C. Sircar (10 September 2021).Studies in Indian Coins.Motilal Banarsidass. p. 277.ISBN9788120829732.
  7. ^Rajaram Narayan Saletore.Early Indian Economic History.N.M Tripathi. p. 614.
  8. ^Trübner’s Oriental Series DA TANG XIYU JI Great Tang Dynasty Records of the Western World, translated by Samuel Beal TWO VOLUMES Kegan, Paul, Trench, Teubner & Co. London • 1906 [First Edition ‐ London • 1884]
  9. ^etymonline.com (20 September 2008)."Etymology of rupee".Retrieved20 September2008.
  10. ^"Mughal Coinage".Archived fromthe originalon 5 October 2002.Sher Shah issued a coin of silver which was termed the Rupiya. This weighed 178 grains and was the precursor of the modern rupee. It remained largely unchanged till the early 20th Century
  11. ^Mughal CoinageArchived16 May 2008 at theWayback MachineatRBI Monetary Museum.Retrieved 4 May 2008.
  12. ^Mohammad Idris (2004).Foreign Trade Under Mughals.Shree Publishers & Distributors. p. 55.
  13. ^Mughal Coinageat Reserve Bank of India Monetary Museum. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  14. ^abRichard F. Nyrop (2008).Area Handbook for the Persian Gulf States.Wildside Press.ISBN978-1-4344-6210-7.... The Indian rupee was the principal currency until 1959, when it was replaced by a special gulf rupee to halt gold smuggling into India...
  15. ^Theodore Roosevelt; Kermit Roosevelt (1929)."Trailing the giant panda".Nature.124(3138). Scribner: 944.Bibcode:1929Natur.124R.944..doi:10.1038/124944b0.S2CID4086078.... The currency in general use was what was known at the Tibetan rupee...
  16. ^See, for examplehttps://www.hindi.co/ginatee/numbers_saNkhyaaENn.html,https://omniglot.com/language/numbers/urdu.htm
  17. ^Deka, Rabin (25 January 2010)."Additions to Deva-Nagariscript and Bengali script"(PDF).This proposal contains two attestations with a solid dot instead of a circle. Deka also points out thatरु.is printed with a shorter head bar when used as the abbreviation for rupee.
  18. ^abPandey, Anshuman (7 October 2009)."L2/09-331 Proposal to Deprecate Gujarati Rupee Sign"(PDF).Retrieved25 October2019.
  19. ^Krause, Chester L.; Clifford Mishler (2004).Standard Catalog of World Coins:1801–1900.Colin R. Bruce II (senior editor) (4th ed.). Krause Publications.ISBN0873497988.
  20. ^"Equivalent of 0.343762855 troy ounce of silver in U.S. dollar".xe.com. 2 October 2006.Retrieved2 October2006.
  21. ^"Xe: Currency Exchange Rates and International Money Transfer".www.xe.com.Retrieved15 May2023.
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