The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c16.s4.1

c16.s4.1

Narasimhagupta was succeeded by his son Kumāragupta II. Inscriptions at Sarnath show that he was on the throne in 473 A.D., but that he was succeeded by his uncle Budhagupta sometime in or before 476 A.D.¹ If we assume that he did not continue to rule along with Budhagupta in a part of the Gupta empire, his reign will be a short one. His coins are, however, fairly numerous, and they also show some variations on the obverse; the letter between the king's feet is *jo* in some cases and *gā* or *go* in others. Numismatic evidence thus suggests that he should have ruled longer than four years. It is therefore best to assume that he continued to rule over a small part of the Gupta dominion as a feudatory of Budhagupta even after 476 A. D. and was succeeded in his principality by his son Vishṇugupta. Both the father and the son were probably ruling somewhere in Bengal, as most of their coins hail from the Kālighāṭ hoard. Coins of class I, which have lesser alloy,² may have been issued when Kumāragupta II was ruling over the whole Gupta empire; coins of class II, which have greater alloy,³ may belong to the later stage of his career, when he had become a mere feudatory.