The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c11.s2.4

c11.s2.4

To classify the coins of the Lion-slayer type is not easy. Smith had divided them into three classes, class I, Lion-combatant type, where the king and the Lion are pitted against each other, class II, Lion-trampler type, where the king is trampling upon the lion and class III, Lion-retreating type, where the beast is shown as retreating away from the king. We think this classification fairly satisfactory and have followed it in this work. In *B.M.C., G.D.*, coins have been classified according to legends. But the vast majority of the coins have one and the same legend—*Narendrachandraḥ prathitaraṇo raṇe jayatyajeyo bhuvi siṃhavikramaḥ*. Most of them fall in one and the same class. This classification is therefore not quite satisfactory. There can be no doubt that the king is deliberately shown on some coins as trampling upon the ferocious beast in order to emphasise his reckless courage; it is but meet that these coins should be constituted into a different class. Similarly the motif, the Retreating Lion, is so striking that we would be perfectly justified in constituting the coins of this category into a separate class. The remaining coins, where the king and the lion face each other, naturally form a different class, usually called Lion-combatant.