The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c13.s14: Garuda with Out-Stretched Wings Type (?)
The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c13.s14
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Garuda with Out-Stretched Wings Type (?)
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At Khairtal in Raipur district of M.P., a hoard of 54 gold coins was found in 1948, with the legend *Mahendrāditya* upon them. Earlier, one coin of this type was known to be in the Lucknow Museum, but its provenance was unknown. We shall first describe two coins of this type below. They are struck *repousse* and are blank on reverse.
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(1) Gold; .8"; 20 grains; *J.N.S.I.*, X. Pl. IXB. 1. *Obv:* Within dotted border, in the upper half, Garuḍa with out-stretched wings; *chakra* surmounted by crescent on l. and *śaṅkha* on r. Below in the lower half, legend, *Śrīmahendrāditya* (Pl. XXIV. 64); with a solitary letter *u* below *ndrā* of *Mahendrāditya*. Cluster of dots behind this *u*. *Rev:* Blank. (Pl. XIV. 6)
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(2) Gold; .9"; 20 grains; *J.N.S.I.*, X, Pl. IXB. 5. *Obv:* As above. Coin is cruder and the letter in the second line is *da*. *Rev:* Blank. (Pl. XIV. 7)
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The nature and attribution of these pieces is shrouded in mystery. It is not certain that they are coins. Gold coins, so thin and with one side blank, are not very common. Such pieces were current only in South Kośala. Assuming that they were coins, like the similar coins of the Naḷa dynasty, the question of their attribution is not easy to solve. Mr. V. P. Rode¹ and Prof. V. V. Mirashi² maintain that these coins were issued by Kumāragupta or for Kumāragupta by rulers of a local dynasty ruling in Raipur. Mr. A. Ghosh has doubted the attribution of these coins to Kumāragupta I.³ Conclusive evidence is yet not forthcoming to settle the question, but I am inclined to think than these coins were not issued by the Gupta emperor Kumāragupta I. It may be that Gupta era was occasionally used in South Kośala in some solitary records; but there is no sufficient evidence to show that the province was under Gupta rule. If such was the case, why should this type alone of the Gupta gold coinage be current in the province ? Why should not the Khairtal hoard have contained some gold Gupta coins of the ordinary common types like the Archer and the Horseman ones ? Gupta gold coin types were not confined to particular localities; why should coins of this type not be found in big hoards like the Bayana or the Bharsar one ? It is most probable that the coins of this type were issued by king Mahendrāditya of some local dynasty in South Kośala, who borrowed the type from the coin of Prasannamātra. The discovery of a small hoard of 12 coins in the Chanda district of Madhya Pradesh in 1947, which contained 11 coins of king Prasannamātra along with one coin of Mahendrāditya,¹ would tend to support our view that Mahendrāditya and Prasannamātra belonged to a local dynasty in South Kośala, holding sway there in the 5th or the 6th century A.D.
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¹ *J.N.S.I.*, Vol. X, pp. 137-9.
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² *Ibid*, Vol. XI. 108.
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³ *J.A.S.B.*, Num. Supp. XLVI. No. 332.
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¹ An account of this hoard is given in *J.N.S.I.*, Vol. XVI, pt. II.
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Coins of the Khairtal hoard show some solitary letters like *da*, *u* and *śa*; their significance is not known. Prof. V. V. Mirashi has suggested that the coins with the letter *śa* may have been issued by king Śūra and with the letter *da* by king Dayitavarman, who figure among the ancestors of Bhīmasena II of the Arang plates.² Mr. N. L. Rao³ suggests that the letters may be numerals, denoting the regnal years of the issue of the coins, as they do on the coins of Chālukya Chandra of the Eastern Chālukya family. He thinks that *u* may stand for 8 and *ru* for 5, though he is not quite sure as to what *da* may be standing for. But though there is evidence that the practice of giving the regnal years was prevalent in South India in the twelfth century, there is nothing to indicate that it was followed in the Deccan in the 5th or the 6th century A. D.
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² *J.N.S.I.*, Pl. XI. 108.
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³ In a private letter to Mr. V. P. Rode dated 25-3-1949, a copy of which was kindly sent to me.