The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c13.s1.10

c13.s1.10

In variety B (Pl. XI. 6-8), the king always faces to left and carries a bow in the right hand, and a sword hangs by his left side. The legend is ‘*Guptakulāmalachandro mahendrakarmājito jayati*’ (Pl. XXII. 28), ‘The spotless moon (in the firmament) of the Gupta family, the invincible hero, who is as valorous as Mahendra, is victorious.’ The metre is Upagīti. The reverse has the same motif as in variety A, but twigs are more prominent than grapes in the bunch, which the goddess offers to the peacock. The idea may be to show that the feeding is coming to an end. There is a symbol of rather unusual shape on the left in this variety, which is rather unusual in this type. Majority of the coins of this variety were issued to the standard of 127 grains, but about 20% pieces are seen to follow the lighter standard of 124 grains.