The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c10.4

c10.4

The attribution of the coins of Kācha is still uncertain. The name of this ruler does not occur anywhere in the official Gupta genealogies. It is, however, generally agreed that he has to be assigned to the early Gupta period, for his coins are found only in the hoards of Gupta coins and are usually associated with those of Chandragupta I, Samudragupta and Chandragupta II. Thus the Tanda hoard consisted of the coins of Chandragupta I, Samudragupta and Kācha. In the small hoard found at Ballia, only the coins of Samudragupta and Kācha were present. The big Bayana hoard of 1821 coins contained not a single coin of a non-Gupta ruler, and still it had 16 coins of Kācha. It therefore appears probable that Kācha was a Gupta ruler, though we cannot exclude the possibility of his being an upstart, who usurped power either at the death of Chandragupta I or during the temporary absence of Samudragupta in the south.