The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c9.s1.12

c9.s1.12

To Samudragupta belongs the distinction of being the first Indian king to introduce a metrical legend on coins.¹ The Allahabad inscription describes how he had acquired the title of kavirāja (poet-laureate) on account of his excellent poems. Whether this was actually the case we do not know; for no poems of his have been handed down to us.² There can be, however, no doubt that the interesting decision to give the obverse legend in a metrical line must have been due to the poetic vein in the warrior king; we may presume that he himself was the author of at least some of the metrical hemistiches occurring on his coins.