The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.82

c4.82

Samudragupta was a great king, perhaps the greatest of his dynasty. He succeeded to a small kingdom but left a large empire to his successor. He reorganised the system of government and administration. He reformed the official system by rejecting the Scythian terms. Henceforth the ranks of officials, their gradations, powers and titles are altogether different. This system continued to be used with slight changes till the final conquest of Northern India by the Musalmans. The bureaucracy was totally unlike that of the Mauryas. He reformed the currency by issuing pure gold coins instead of the base gold of the later Great Kushans and a series of fine copper coins. He struck a new line in numismatics by issuing, if Allan is correct, memorial medals of his father and another relation named Kāca as well as the new type of coins for distributions to Brāhmaṇas, who attended his Aśvamedha ceremony. Like the Imperial and the later Great Kuṣāṇas, Samudragupta did not issue any silver coins.