The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c9.s1.22

c9.s1.22

On the Standard type of Samudragupta, the king is always seen facing left. In *Asiatic Researches*, Vol. XVII, Pl. I. fig. 5 a coin is, however, published, where the king is standing to *right* and offering oblations by his left hand. Gupta mint-masters could have issued no such coin, for Hindu tradition never permits the offering of sacred oblations by the *left* hand. We have reproduced this coin on Pl. II. 4 and a glance at it will make it clear that the drawing in the *Asiatic Researches* is from the negative side of the normal coin.¹ There is no reason to hold that the king was ever represented as standing to right on any coin of the Standard type.