The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c10.45

c10.45

The above view, which once appeared to be very probable, is now rendered somewhat doubtful by the recent discovery and publication of the copper coins of Rāmagupta in Malwa.² We had assumed above that the original name of the elder brother of Chandragupta II was Kācha, and that it became Rāma through later clerical carelessness. But now it appears from the new copper coins that the form of the name current in the fourth century also was Rāma and not Kācha. So the theory of later clerical mistake is ruled out of order. It is possible to argue that the elder brother of Chandragupta had like him two names, Rāmagupta and Kāchagupta, and that he selected the former for his copper coinage and the latter for his gold one. This appears rather improbable, when we remember how Chandragupta II allowed only one of his two names to appear on his coinage. It is possible to hold that Rāmagupta of the copper coinage was a local ruler in Mālwā different from Kācha of gold coins, and so we need not assume that one and the same king issued copper coins in one name and gold coins in another. There is, however, no conclusive evidence to prove this proposition. It is also possible that Rāmagupta of the copper coins is the elder brother of Chandragupta II, whose gold coins have yet to be discovered and that Kācha of gold coins is an interloper, who had temporarily eclipsed the Gupta power and issued his coins during his ascendancy. As already pointed out above, this theory also is not free from difficulties.