The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c18.2

c18.2

The Gupta coinage exercised considerable influence on the coinage of the later Hindu period. Some of the silver and copper types of the Hūṇas are close copies of some of the Gupta types. The coinage of the Maukharis and the Vardhanas is in close imitation of the silver coinage of the Guptas; even the legends are practically the same, only the name of the king changes. The Gadhaia coins and the Pratihāra coins are too rude to show any Gupta influence, but the latter partially reasserted itself with the rise of the Western Chedis, the reverse of whose gold coinage shows the well-known motif of seated Lakshmi of the Gupta coinage. The coinage in the precious metals issued by the Eastern Chedis, the Chandellas, the Tomaras and the Gāhadavālas usually shows the motif of the seated Lakshmi of the Gupta age on the reverse. Nay, she appears on a few gold coins of some Muslim conquerors like Mahmud bin Sam and Allauddin Khilji.