The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c16.s5.1

c16.s5.1

There is no doubt that the Gupta empire regained much of its lost prestige during the reign of Budhagupta (*c.* 475-495 A.D.).¹ Though this emperor had a fairly long reign, his coinage, both in gold and silver, is very scarce. For a long time only a few silver pieces of this ruler were known, and it was thought that he had issued no gold coinage at all. The present writer had once suggested that the coins of Prakāśāditya may be ascribed to Budhagupta, as it was very unlikely that a powerful king, who had issued silver coinage, would have refrained from minting gold pieces. Mr. S. K. Saraswati had suggested that the coin in *B.M.C., G.D.*, Pl. XXI. 23 should be attributed to Budhagupta, as the legend under the left arm reads *Budha* rather than *Pura*.² This coin, being somewhat blurred at the legend, no definite opinion could be expressed about the reading of the disputed word. If the upper horizontal line is taken as a part of the letter, it can be taken as *bu*; if it is taken as an extended serif, it appears like *pu*. The lower letter could be taken as a blurred *ra*, if the flan was assumed to have moved a little while striking; otherwise it appeared like a misshapen *dha*.