The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c11.s1.35

c11.s1.35

It is not quite certain whether we are justified in attributing the coins of the next variety O (Pl. V. 12, 17), to Chandragupta II. It is represented by three coins in the Indian Museum, Nos. 30-32. Of these coins Nos. 31 and 32 are no doubt attributed to Chandragupta II by Smith, but they have no clear legend either on the obverse or on the reverse justifying their attribution to that emperor (Pl. V. 12). On coin No. 30, however, the legend under the king's arm clearly reads *Chandra* (Pl. V. 17), though that on the reverse has not been clearly preserved. The attribution of these coins is a difficult problem. If we assume that Chandragupta II had issued them, one wonders why the *suvarṇa* standard, to which the coins were intended to conform, was not continued for any of his types by Kumāragupta I. All these three coins are in base gold; No. 31 is almost like a copper piece. Gupta treasury was overflowing in the reign of Chandragupta II, and he is not likely to have issued such heavily adulterated gold coins. On the other hand, if we do not attribute these coins to Chandragupta II, we shall have to assign them to a hitherto unknown ruler Chandragupta III, who may have ruled sometime towards the end of the 5th century. Some of the coins (Pl. V. 17) have a peculiar symbol between Garuḍa and the king's head, which occurs on some of the coins of Viṣṇugupta, a late Gupta king.¹ We never get a symbol at this place on the coins of any of the great Gupta emperors. This circumstance may perhaps suggest that the issuer was a person different from Chandragupta II. Until more definite evidence becomes available, we may, however, tentatively assign these coins to Chandragupta II. A solitary coin of his Horseman type in the Bodleian collection also weighs 140·5 grains.² It would appear that he did issue some coins of the *suvarṇa* standard, but later gave up the experiment. Smith had thought that the coins of this variety may have been posthumous issues of Chandragupta II;³ hardly any arguments can be adduced in support of this view. Variety P (Pl. V. 13) is represented by a unique piece in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. It is the same as variety A, but is in the denomination of a half a *dīnāra*, weighing only 57 grains.