The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c8.11

c8.11

The identity of the goddess on the reverse is not easy to determine. It will be shown how this motif is borrowed partly from a coin type of Kanishka III, where she is seated on a lion but where her name is illegible (Pl. I. 7), and partly from the still later coins, where she is seated on a throne and is expressly described as Ardoksho (Pl. I. 3). The deliberate discarding of the throne in favour of the lion may suggest that the idea was to represent her as Durgā, whose mount is lion. It is not unlikely that Durgā may have been the tutelary deity of the Lichchhavis, whose name alone appears upon the reverse. Mr. Allan describes the feet of the goddess as resting on a lotus. The object, however, is altogether different in appearance from a lotus, used as a foot-stool on Gupta coins (Pl. III. 1-2). It appears to be a circular carpet with some dotted design upon it.