The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c11.3

c11.3

Till recently the coin types in gold of Chandragupta II were also six like that of his father. Recently their number has been increased to eight by the discovery of the Chakravikrama and the Standard types. Chandragupta, however, did not merely continue the types of his father and add two new to them. He did not perform Aśvamedha sacrifice, not because he was not a great conqueror, but probably because of his Vaishnavite convictions. So the Aśvamedha type was not issued by him. *Kritāntaparaśu* had become an exclusive epithet of his father; so he did not issue coins in that type. He continued his father's most popular type, the Standard type, only for a short time; for only one specimen of it has so far come to light. The Archer type, which was issued very sparingly by Samudragupta, was issued in mass quantity by Chandragupta with a surprising number of varieties in it. The Tiger-slayer type of the father was transformed in to the Lion-slayer type by the son and it became fairly popular. The Lyrist type of the father was replaced by the Couch type of the son; but the coins in this type are rare. The King-and-Queen-on-the-Couch type, which may be regarded as a further modification of the couch type, is still rare; only two specimens have so far been noticed. Still rarer is the Chakravikrama type, which is represented so far by a single specimen. The Horseman and the Chhatra types are two other numismatic innovations of the new reign; they are fairly common.