The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c9.s2.5

c9.s2.5

The coins of this type are usually divided into two classes. In Class I, the emperor is holding an arrow in the right hand; in class II he is offering oblations by that hand. No coins of Class II, however, have been illustrated, and they can no longer be traced. Three specimens of it are stated to have been found in the Bharsar hoard.¹ It is indeed strange that all the three coins of the Archer type of this hoard should have shown the king as offering oblations, and that it should have had no specimen of the usual type showing the king as holding an arrow. It may be pointed out that, if carelessly observed, a coin like Pl. II. 12. produces a fleeting impression that the king is offering oblations, the transverse fingers touching both arrow and the staff of the Garuḍa standard appearing like an altar. Whether the so-called altar on the Bharsar specimens was of this type, we do not know, as no photographs of theirs have been published and the coins are now untraceable. Since, however, the reverse legend is definitely stated to be *Parākramaḥ* and not *Apratirathaḥ*, we may perhaps presume that class II of the Archer type does exist. It represents a transition from the Standard type to the Archer type Class I. For, while the king is shown as holding a bow in the left hand, he is shown as offering oblations by the right, as on the Standard type.