The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c13.s14.9

c13.s14.9

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.