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The Indian Rupee came into existence as early as the 1600s in the form of the silver rupee and is one of the oldest currencies in the world.
In the 1540s, Sher Shah Suri introduced a standard silver coin weighing around 11.5 grams called Rupiya, which was later anglicised to Rupee by the British.
After independence, India retained the Rupee as its currency. At that time, 1 Rupee was equal to 16 Annas, and 1 Anna was equal to 4 Pice.
In 1957, India switched to the decimal system under which 1 Rupee became equal to 100 ‘Naye Paise’. Later in 1964, Naye was dropped, only leaving Paise.
The rupee symbol ₹ was adopted only in 2010. This is when iPhone 4 was already out, and people were already using emojis.
Even with India’s rich and ancient monetary system, the rupee had no unique visual identity. Until 2010, abbreviations like Rs and INR were used to represent the rupee.
In 2009, the government launched a nationwide competition to design a symbol for the rupee. Over 3,000 entries came in from artists, designers and everyday citizens.
The winning design came from Udaya Kumar, an Indian academic. His creation blended the Devanagari ‘र’ and the Latin ‘R’ without the stem, forming a simple yet powerful symbol.
The two parallel lines in the ₹ symbol represent the Indian tricolour, and also stand for economic equality, giving a visual message of progress and fairness.
Today, the symbol ₹ is recognised globally and represents India’s economic strength, cultural pride and modernisation in one powerful logo.
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