The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c16.s8.4

c16.s8.4

The identity of Prakāśāditya is difficult to determine at present. His coins are not found in east India. Their find-spots, Rampur, Shahajahanpur, Hardoi, Kanauj and Bharsar (in Banaras district), suggest that he was not a later emperor, whose power was confined to parts of Bengal. In the Bharasar hoard, Skandagupta and Prakāśāditya were the latest Gupta emperors; this would show that he came soon after Skandagupta, if he was not his immediate successor. The striking originality of his coin type, the place of the Garuḍa standard, the peculiar symbol on the reverse and the relative purity of the metal, all point out that Prakāśāditya has to be placed earlier than the time of Narasimhagupta, Kumāragupta II, Budhagupta and Viṣṇugupta, when the imperial Gupta coinage had come to be confined to the stereotyped Archer type and had become heavily adulterated. The central theme of the obverse device of Prakāśāditya reminds us of the Rhinoceros-slayer type of Kumāragupta I and it is very likely that the two rulers may have been close to each other in time. The feet of the goddess on the reverse of the coins of Prakāśāditya have been folded one behind the other in such a way as to present a single, horizontal pillow-like object. This peculiarity is to be seen on some coins of Skandagupta (Pl. XIV. 11) and on most of the coins of Narasimhagupta (Pl. XV. 2). Prakāśāditya therefore could not be far removed from them in time.