The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c11.s5.3

c11.s5.3

This type is obviously adapted from the Lyrist type of Samudragupta. On both, the king is sitting facing and bare-bodied upon a couch. Samudragupta is, however, represented as playing on a lyre. Chandragupta probably was not a musician like his father and did not therefore allow himself to be shown as playing on lute during his leisure hours. In one variety (Pl. IX. 5), the goddess on the reverse is seated on a wicker-stool partially resembleing its prototype, but on others (Pl. IX. 1-4) she is seated on a throne in a posture strikingly similar to that of the Throne reverse class of the Archer type of the present ruler (Pl. IV. 6-12). On the strength of the circumstance that the form of *ha* as seen on early specimens was of the eastern variety, it had been argued that this type may have been issued at Pāṭaliputra;¹ and because its reverse imitates the reverse of the Throne-reverse class of the Archer type, it was suggested that the type may have been issued early in the reign and was probably connected with the coronation. On other specimens, since discovered, western forms of *ma* and *ha* are used, and even if we suppose that these forms had a geographical significance, we cannot now conclude that these coins were issued at Pāṭaliputra only.