The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s2: 2. Metrology
The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s2
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2. Metrology
c17.s2.1
We have already made several general and detailed observations about the metrology of the different types and varieties of the coins issued by the Gupta emperors, while discussing and describing them in the preceeding pages. It is, however, necessary to treat the subject in a connected manner in order to understand it properly.
c17.s2.2
The reader of this book must have been surprised to learn of the wide variations in weight in the specimens of the same type or variety, that we have met with. The weight of the Aśvamedha coins of Samudragupta, which are well preserved, varies between 112 to 121 grains. In the Archer type of Chandragupta II, some coins weigh 127, some 124 and some 121 grains. The weights of the coins tend to increase with each successive reign. In modern times, we are not accustomed to such phenomena. The weight of the Indian rupee has not changed between 1856 and 1956, though there were five different kings or authorities who issued them. Further, all the coins that are issued by a state meticulously follow the standard prescribed for the currency. No two dollars or pounds or rupees would be found to be varying from each other in their weight. Modern mint-authorities are very particular in seeing to it that all coins issued from the mint do conform to the precise prescribed standard. If any piece is found to be deficient or excessive in weight, it is condemned and melted down. It appears that the mint authorities of ancient times, whether of India or Rome or Greece, were not very meticulous about the weights of the pieces they sent into circulation. Well preserved gold coins of the Kuṣāṇas and the Guptas often vary in weight between 118 and 122 grains. The gold aurei of Julius Cāeser vary in weight between 121 to 125 grains. The theoretical weight of the Greek silver drachm was 67.2 grains, but the silver issues of Demetrius in this denomination vary from 55 to 61 grains and those of Eucratides from 52 to 67 grains.
c17.s2.3
It seems that in the absence of the modern scientific means of weighing, it was not easy to issue from mints pieces, which would be all accurately uniform in weight. The difference of a grain or two was probably overlooked. Gold coins were offered in exchange only on rare occasions; it is not unlikely that each one of them might have been weighed by the recipient on such occasions in order to satisfy himself about its precise weight. It may be added that till the middle of the last century, a goldsmith used to assist the village *patwari* in assessing the values of different type of rupees and other coins that were offered by the ryots in payment of the land revenue.
c17.s2.4
We have shown already how Gupta gold coinage was considerably influenced by the Kushāṇa prototype, and its metrology was no exception. The traditional weight of the ancient Indian gold coin (*suvarṇa*) was 80 *rattis* or about 144 grains. Chandragupta I, who started the Gupta coinage, did not care to revive this ancient standrad, but contented himself by following the Kushāṇa standard of 120 or 121 grains, which in its turn was based upon the weight of the Roman gold coin *aureus*, normally weighing 121 grains. All well-preserved coins of Chandragupta I weigh between 120 and 121 grains. The vast majority of the coins of Samudragupta follow the same standard.
c17.s2.5
The reader of this work must have noticed that we have often referred to the standards of 121, 124 and 127 grains being followed in the reigns of Chandragupta II and Kumāragupta I. It may well be asked whether these were three different weight standards or only accidental variations in weight due to the admitted carelessness of the mint-masters in fixing the weights. We think that the former alternative is likely to be the more correct one in view of the circumstanace that some varieties are seen to be rigidly conforming to one of these standards. Thus in the Archer type of Chandragupta II, all the coins of class I, where the goddess is seated on a throne, weigh in the vicinity of 121 grains; there are none which weigh 123 or 124 or 126 or 127 grains. All the coins of this type, where the king holds a sword by his side, are seen to weigh about 126 or 127 grains. All the coins of Kumāragupta I of the Archer type, class I, var. A, where the king holds the bow at the top, weigh about 124 grains; there are none which weigh in the vicinity of either 121 or 127 grains. It is therefore reasonable to assume that there were three different weight standards in the reigns of Chandragupta II and Kumāragupta I; why this should have been the case, we are not in a position to explain.
c17.s2.6
Chandragupta II issued coins to three weight standards of 121, 124 and 127 grains. Of these 121 grains standard was most popular; about 80% coins were issued to it. In the reign of Kumāragupta I the standard of 121 grains became scarce. About 10% of his coins were issued to the standard of 121 grains, about 15% to the standard of 124 grains and about 75% to the standard of 127 grains. In the reign of Skandagupta, all these standards were given up; his King-and-Lakshmī type and one variety of the Archer type were issued to the standard of 130 or 132 grains, while his second variety of the Archer type was issued to the standard of about 144 grains, which is identical with the ancient Indian suvarṇa standard of 80 rattis.
c17.s2.7
We are not yet able to explain why the weight standard of the gold currency should be gradually increasing from reign to reign in the above fashion. It is possible to agrue that gold was becoming cheaper in terms of silver, and hence the state felt compelled to give a progressively bigger gold coin to its subjects. There is, however, no evidence to show that gold was thus actually getting cheaper; it may be also doubted whether the gold currency was so accurately adjusted to the prices of silver in ancient times.
c17.s2.8
The other possible explanation is that the government wanted to replace the foreign standard of 121 grains by the indigenous standard of 144 grains. This is quite a plausible view, but one wonders why the government found it necessary to take about 75 years to achieve this desideratum. It could have introduced the national standard all at once, without going through the intermediate stages of 124, 127, 132 grains. It may be pointed out that the jump from 132 grains to 144, taken by Skandagupta, was quite a big one. Why was not a leap of a double the magnitude taken at an earlier stage?
c17.s2.9
There is no doubt that the heavy weight standard of the later Guptas was intended to conform to the *suvarṇa* standard. But what was given by one hand was cleverly taken away by the other. The coins of the early Guptas contained an alloy of 10%, as has been observed by Cunnigham. A coin of 125 grains would thus contain about 113 grains of pure gold. The coins of Skandagupta, Budhgupta, Prakāśāditya, Narasimhagupta and Kumāragupta II (of the purer varieties) contain an alloy of about 25%. So their coins weighing about 150 grains also contained only 113 grains of pure gold.
c17.s2.10
It is usually assumed that the strained condition of the imperial treasury was responsible for the adulteration of the Gupta gold currency. This does not seem to have been the case. It is forgotten that every gold coin in ancient India was accepted at its real value and not at its face value. The state in ancient India was not bound to issue coins; many governments did not issue them at all. I believe that the heavier alloy of 25% in the coins of the later Gupta emperors was due to the desire to have a coin of the traditional weight of *suvarṇa*, but giving only 112 grains of gold as before.
c17.s2.11
It is only in the case of class II of Narasimhagupta and Kumāragupta II that the coinage can be said to have been heavily adulterated. They contain only 54% gold; i. e. instead of giving 112 grains of gold, their coins give only about 75 or 80 grains. The currency of Viṣṇugupta is still baser; it contains only 43% gold, i. e. only about 62 grains of gold. Why these rulers issued so heavily adulterated currency, we do not know. Possibly they ruled over very small kingdoms or were going through critical times.
c17.s2.12
Before we proceed to make our remarks about metrology of the coins of individual rulers, we have to consider the case of some Gupta coins of abnormally low weight, with which we come across almost in every reign. These coins weigh between 95 and 110 grains and many of them are quite in good condition, showing no trace of any use and wear. They could hardly have lost a couple of grains due to the letter cause. The Bayana hoard contained about 12 such coins, e.g. Nos. 48, 55, 89, 108, 138, 150, 184, 186, 196, 579, etc. The British Museum has also got a few specimens of this light variety, e. g. Nos. 5, 34, etc. It is not easy to explain the abnormally low weight of these coins. The weight of some of them would be 4/5 of the normal gold coin. But we have usually a half or a quarter denomination, but never a four-fifth denomination.
c17.s2.13
We have seen already how the weight of a coin was not rigidly fixed, and how it could vary to the extent of a quarter or half a grain. Let us suppose that gold sufficient for the minting 50 coins to the standard of 121 grains was handed to the mint authorities and about 30 of these coins were issued half a grain heavier in weight. The last coin which we may for the sake of convenience call the ‘remainder’ coin, would have a flan of 105 grains only. It would appear that most of the low weight coins weighing between 95 and 112 grains were ‘remainder’ coins of this nature.
c17.s2.14
Conversely if a dozen coins in a minting operation issuing coins of 127 grains standard were under-weight by half a grain each, the ‘remainder’ coin will be a heavy piece of 133 grains. The rare coins of Chandragupta II, weighing about 133 or 134 grains, are probably to be explained by this assumption.
c17.s2.15
We shall now make brief observations about the metrology of the different types and varieties of the Gupta coinage.
c17.s2.16
The coins of Chandragupta I follow the standard of 121 grains. The same seems to be the case with more than 80% of the coins of Samudragupta. Most of his coins of the Battle-axe type, the Archer type, the Lyrist type, smaller variety, and the Tiger-slayer type conform to the 121 grains standard, The same is the case with the vast majority of the coins of the Standard type. But quite a pretty number of the coins of the Standard and the Aśvamedha types are seen to weigh in the vicinity of 115 and 118 grains. It appears that there were issued some coins to these two lighter weight standards as well. Why he should have done so, we do not know.
c17.s2.17
In the reign of Chandragupta II, the above two lighter weight standards were give up; coins were issued to three weight standards of 121, 124 and 127 grains.
c17.s2.18
In the Archer type class I, Throne reverse, all the coins follow the standard of 121 grains. In the Archer type, class II, Lotus reverse, 65% coins follow the 121 grains standard, 20% follow the standard of 127 grains, and 15% of 124 grains. In some varieties of this class, only one definite standard is followed. Thus in class II, vars. D, G, I and J the standard of 121 grains is followed and in var. F that of 127 grains. In the Chhatra type 90% coins follow the 121 grains standard and about 10% that of 124 grains. In the Horseman type all the three standards are adopted; about 75% follow 121 grains standard, 15% follow 124 grains standard and 10% 127 grains standard. In Lion-slayer type 85% follow the 121 grains standard, 15% the 124 grains standard and 5% the 127 grains standard. The Couch type follows the standard of 121 grains. The Standard type weighs 118 grains and the King-and-Queen-on-the-Couch type weighs 112 grains. The latter is probably due to its worn out condition; a new specimen in normal condition, recently discovered, weighs 118.2 grains.
c17.s2.19
In the reign of Kumāragupta I, the standard af 121 grains becomes rare and the standard of 127 grains becomes popular. In the Horseman type more than 90% of the coins follow the 127 grains standard, 8%, 124 grains standard and 2%, 121 grains standard. The same is the case with the Lion-slayer, Tiger-slayer and the Kārtikeya types. In the Rhinoceros-slayer, King-and-Queen, Chhatra, Lyrist, Aśvamedha, Elephant-rider and Lion-slayer types, most of the coins follow the 127 grains standard; by way of rare exception, we sometimes get a piece of 124 grains standard.
c17.s2.20
The coins of the class I, var. A of the Archer type (where the bow is held at the top) usually follow the standard of 124 grains. In class I, var. B, where the king holds the bow by the middle, 85% coins follow the 121 grains standard, 10% the 127 grains standard and 5% the 124 grains standard. Variety C of class I, with the legend *Guṇeśo mahītalam*, generally follows the light standard of 121 grains.
c17.s2.21
Skandagupta abandoned all these weight standards and adopted the standard of 132 grains for his King-and-Lakṣmī type and Var. A of the Archer type. In variety B of the latter, he adopted the national *suvarṇa* standard of 144 grains. Most of his successors accepted the *suvarṇa* standard introduced by him and issued coins weighing between 142 to 146 grains. Recently some of the coins of these later rulers were asseyed in the British Museum, and if the coins selected were the representative ones, it appears that the gold contents of the coins of Narasiṃhagupta, class I, Kumāragupta, class I, Budhagupta, Vainyagupta and Prakāśāditya were 71, 79, 77, 73 and 77% respectively. Coins of Narasiṃhagupta, class II, Kumāragupta II and Viṣṇugupta are heavily adulterated; their gold contents are 54, 54 and 43% respectively.
c17.s2.22
The Gupta epigraphs show that the gold coins of the dynasty were usually known as *Dīnāras*; it is likely that the later coins of the heavier weight were known as *Suvarṇas*.
c17.s2.23
Sub-multiples like half or quarter *Dīnāras* were rarely issued from the royal mints. So far we have discovered only one half-*Dīnāra* weighing 57.6 grains. No quarter *Dīnāra* or double-*Dīnāra* has so for been discovered. Quarter-*Dīnāras* were frequently issued by Kanishka and Huvishka and some rare double-*Dīnāras* of Wima Kadphises are known.
c17.s2.24
The metrology of the silver coins of the dynasty calls for only a few remarks. They were issued to fill the vacuum created by the disappearance of the Kshatrapa silver currency and naturally follow its weight standard of 30 grains. Their theoretical weight was probably 33 grains, which was equal to half a Greek drachm. Here also the weights vary between 27 and 34 grains, due partly to the wear and use and partly to the carelessness of the mint-masters.
c17.s2.25
The copper currency apparently follows no definite weight standard. It is not in the least influenced by the Kushāṇa weight standard of the copper currency, nor by the metrology of the Pañchāla or Kauśāmbī or Mathurā coin-types. Some coins weigh 87 grains, some 57, some 49, some 44, some 35, some 25 and some 18 grains. One can hardly detect any denomination scheme in this weight system.