1/2 Rupee - Devendra Naryan

Cooch Behar in the 1760s was caught between the expanding Bhutanese power to the north and the encroaching British East India Company to the south. Devendra Narayan's reign was brief and troubled; he came to power as a minor and the kingdom functioned largely under regency. This coin was struck during a period when Cooch Behar's political autonomy was already compromised — within a decade, the kingdom would formally request British military assistance against Bhutan, setting in motion a relationship of dependency that would last nearly two centuries.