History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s4.t1.43

c14.s4.t1.43

Serial No. 10, not reproduced by Dr. Smith, has been studied by me. I have examined casts of the coin. The reading traya nāgasa, about which Dr. Smith was certain, is clear and correct.¹ I reproduce this coin from a cast. In photographing, it has become slightly reduced. Its real size is just the same as of the serial no. 12, plate XXIII, fig. 13 of Dr. Smith. It has the same tree-symbol as the others. Tra begins near the bottom of the railing. There are no letters before it. There might have been a figure-symbol there, but I am not certain about it. What Dr. Smith read as sa in Nāgasa is probably sya. Over the lion, on reverse, sun and moon [not ‘disc’] are in relief. Its great value lies in the fact that it establishes the Nāga coinage of these issues of the United Provinces. About the findspot of the ‘Deva’ [cor. Nava] series, Dr. Vincent Smith has given his opinion that they evidently belong to the Kosam mint, as a coin of that series he received from Kauśāmbī, and the particular tree-symbol is known to be connected with the Kauśāmbī mintage. I now give my reading of the published coins of the series.