Gold
circa 335-375 CE
India
CSMVS
Details
Culture/Civilisation
Ancient India
Theme
Empire: Projecting Power
Subtheme
Seeing the Ruler / Royal Portraiture
Case Title
Indian kings on a coin
Display Location
Coomaraswamy Hall
Findspot
Northern India
Measurements
Diameter. 21mm Weight. 7.62gm
Accession Number
7660
Description
Coins are the pictorial mass-media of the ancient world. Widely circulated, the king becomes part of your everyday shopping.
Following Greek models, Indian kings around 200 BCE began putting their portraits on coins. These were usually images of power rather than actual likenesses, showing the king as warrior or hunter, with his queen or playing a musical instrument. The other side shows a protective deity.
Curators Comments
Obv: King (Chandragupta I) standing at right and his queen standing at left, facing each other; king holding a crescent-topped standard in his raised left hand, and offering an object (ring ?) with right hand to the queen; Brahmi inscription on left, sri kumaradevi; on right, vertically chandra / gupta (divided by the standard)
Rev: Goddess seated facing on couchant lion to right, holding noose in outstretched right hand and cornucopia in left hand; tamagha on left; Brahmi inscription on right, lichchhavayah
This gold dinar issued by the Gupta ruler Samudragupta (?) depicts his mother, the Lichhavi princess Kumaradevi on the left and his father King Chandragupta I on the right. Samudragupta is believed to have issued this king & queen type of coin in the honour of his parents. The Brahmi legends next to their figures help identify them.
The reverse depicts Goddess Durga seated on a lion.
