The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c8.24

c8.24

The originality of the reverse is also only apparent. Goddess seated on lion was not unknown to Kushāṇa coinage. On one coin of Huvishka we see Nana riding a lion (Pl. I. 6). This type, however, is rather too early to be regarded as the prototype. There is a coin type of the late Kushāṇa king Kaneshko, probably Kanishka III, issued in the 3rd century, which shows the goddess on the reverse seated on a lion crouching to left (Pl. I. 7). The style in which the goddess is seated on the lion and the way in which she is wearing the upper garment over her shoulders are both closely similar to what we see on the coins of Chandragupta I (Pl. I. 8, 10). The goddess on this type of Kaneshko is, however, holding a sceptre in her left hand and not a cornucopiæ. It appears that the reverse of the coin type of Chandragupta I is modelled partly on the Shāka coin type (Pl. I. 3, 5) and partly on the type of Kaneshko (Pl. I. 7). Cornucopiæ in the hand of the goddess is adopted from the former and her mount lion and the manner of wearing the upper garment from the latter.