The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.98

c4.98

From the accession of Candragupta II the Gupta kingdom becomes a vast empire extending from the Kathiawad peninsula to the confines of Eastern Bengal and from the Himalayas to the Narmadā. It is known to have included Bengal, Bihar, United Provinces, Eastern half of the Panjab, portions of the Central Provinces and practically the whole of Central India including the famous and fertile province of Mālava, Northern Gujarat and Kathiawad, including the famous ports of Cambay, Ghogha, Verawal, Porbandar and Dvārakā. The effect of this extension of the Western Frontier was immense on the trade and commerce as well as the culture of Northern India. The European and African trade received immense impulse with the Gupta conquest of the Kathiawad ports. Once more the road from Pāṭaliputra and the great manufacturing cities of Northern and Central India was open right up to the sea. The fine cotton cloths of Eastern Bengal, the silks of Western Bengal, Indigo from Bihar, the golden embroideries and *kinkhwabs* of Benares and Aṇahilapāṭaka or Anhilwāḍā-Pāṭan, the scents and unguents of the hill states of the Himalayas, camphor, sandal and spices from the South were brought to these ports without much interference or the payment of vexatious imposts from each petty chief through whose jurisdiction it passed before the foundation of the Gupta empire. The Western traders poured Roman gold into the country in return for Indian products and the effect of this great wealth on the country is still noticeable in the great variety and number of the coins of Candragupta II. More gold and silver coins of Candragupta II have been discovered than those of his father Samudragupta or his son Kumāragupta I. The most important innovations introduced by Candragupta II were in the currency of the country. He issued gold coins of three different weights. The first of them corresponds to the Kuṣāṇa standard of 121 grains, the second is of 126 grains and the third of 132 grains. The Kushan standard of 121 grains was an imitation of the standard of the Roman Aureus and Candragupta II appears to have been approaching the ancient Indian Standard of the *Suvarṇa* of 146 grains. To meet the demand of the newly conquered provinces of Gujarat and Kathiawad, Candragupta II issued a new silver coinage. Evidently the gold and copper coinage of Northern India was not acceptable to the local people of Western India, where the silver coinage of the Greek kings Menander and Apollodotos were in circulation even in the first and second century A.D. and where the early and late Western Kṣatrapas issued silver coins only for nearly four hundred years. The silver coinage of Candragupta II was a close copy of that of the Western Kṣatrapas having the king's head and a date in numerals on the obverse with traces of the degenerate Greek legend. The reverse was entirely changed and in the place of the Scythian *Caitya* or *Meru* was placed the celebrated Garuḍa with outspread wings, the family crest or *Lāñchana* of the Imperial Guptas.