History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s4.1

c14.s4.1

26. Classified under a tentative name [De]va we have a coin of the Kauśāmbī mint which is reproduced by Vincent Smith in the Catalogue of Indian Museum, page 206, plates XXIII, 15 and 16. The coin is ‘common in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh’. The first letter of it has not been read with any confidence uptill now. I have compared this letter with the letters occurring in the scripts from the first century A.D. to the third and I read it as ‘Na’. The *n* is of the early Kushan type.² The coin is ‘Navasa’ and above ‘Navasa’ there is a figure of a nāga (serpent) with raised hood. It stands for the dynastic name Nāga which is expressly given on other coins of the dynastic series (§ 26B). I read it as the coin of N a v a N ā g a. The palm symbol occurring here occurs on the coins of the series and on Bhāraśiva monuments (§ 46A).