The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c11.s7.24

c11.s7.24

It is most unfortunate that this coin should not have been illustrated. It appears to have been similar to a coin of Samudragupta, which we have discussed before at p. 52, (Pl. II. 11). The coin was obtained by Rodgers at Haripura in the Punjab, and bears a striking resemblance to the Shāka and Shilada, coins described earlier by us at pp. 36-7, (Pl. I. 3, 5). If the description of the coin as noted by Smith is correct, we can explain the coin as an issue of a later Kushāṇa feudatory of the Gupta emperor ruling near Haripura, and issuing coins in the name of his feudal lord Chandragupta. This coin will then tend to show that Chandragupta II had a sufficiently effective control over the Scythian rulers of the Punjab and that some of them continued to issue coins in the name of their feudal lord, as had been done by earlier rulers in the reign of Samudragupta.