The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c11.s9.6

c11.s9.6

On the reverse the wavy line at the bottom and the crescent and the cluster of dots at the top are allowed to continue, but the three-arched hill in the centre is replaced by Garuḍa, which was the imperial insignia of the Guptas. The view of the earlier writers like Thomas and Smith² that the bird is a peacock is clearly untenable, as will be shown by a comparison of this bird with the undoubted Garuḍa figuring on the Garuḍadhvaja of gold coins and the Garuḍa on the copper coins of Chandragupta II (cf. Pl. XVI. 8-10).