The Gupta period, computing it roughly as lasting from A.D. 320 to
480, synchronises with a great revival of Hinduism, and along with
it of literature, the arts and sciences. The Gupta monarchs, as is
evident from their coins, although orthodox devotees of Vishṇu, were
liberal patrons. Kālidāsa and other writers raised literary Sanskrit
to a point of perfection never equalled before or since; the cave
frescoes of Ajanta bear witness to the genius of the Gupta painters;
the architecture and sculpture of the period show an equally high level
of attainment; all the greatest Hindu mathematicians and astronomers
flourished in the fifth and sixth centuries. It is, in fact, evident
that when the Hindu of to-day harks back to the Golden Age of Hinduism,
the picture he draws in his mind is coloured by traditions, which have
come to him from books or hearsay, of the age of the Guptas, rather
than by the fainter glimmerings of more heroic times from the Vedas
or the great Epics. So, too, the splendid gold coinage of the Guptas,
with its many types and infinite varieties and its inscriptions in
classical Sanskrit, now appearing on Indian coins for the first time,
are the finest examples of purely Indian art of this kind we possess.
The origin of the Gupta family is obscure. This much seems certain,
that the family was not of high caste, perhaps of the lowest. The
territory which the Guptas are first found ruling lay near Pāṭaliputra,
the modern Patna; it was much enlarged by one Gupta, on the decline
of the Kushāṇa power in its eastern territories; he was succeeded
by a son, Ghaṭotkacha, who assumed the title of Mahārāja, which
brings us out into the light of history; for with the year of his
son Chandragupta I’s accession, A.D. 320, the Gupta era starts. It
may appear strange that this monarch should have issued no coins of
his own, but there seems little reason now to doubt that, to his son
and successor, Samudragupta, the real founder of the Gupta Empire,
should be assigned those coins (Pl. V, 4) which bear the portraits of
Chandragupta and his wife Kumāradevī,[29] a member of the illustrious
Lichchavi family reigning at Vaiśālī[30] as early as the seventh
century B.C. Samudragupta’s conquests, as we learn from his Allahabad
pillar inscription, carved out for him an empire which extended north
to the base of the Himalayas, east to the Brahmaputra river, south to
the banks of the Narbadā, and west to the Jumna and the Chambal, with
a number of protected states on his frontier between those rivers and
the Chināb. On the completion of his conquests he revived an ancient
Hindu rite in celebrating the Aśvamedha, or Horse-sacrifice. Now the
states under Samudragupta’s protection in the Panjāb were the districts
of the old Kushāṇa Empire in which the gold coinage current at this
time was, as we saw in the last chapter, a degraded form of the Kushāṇa
“standing king” and “seated goddess,” Ardokhsho-Lakshmī type: it was
from these coins (Pl. IV, 10) that the earliest and commonest form
of Samudragupta’s issues, the Standard type (Pl. V, 2) was imitated.
The earliest specimens, though much superior in workmanship, follow
their model very closely: the “standing king” still wears Kushāṇa
dress; a Kushāṇa symbol still appears on the reverse; only, on the
obverse, in place of Śiva’s trident, appears a Garuḍa-headed standard
(_Garuḍadhvaja_), emblem of the cult of Vishṇu. This coinage appears
to have been introduced about the middle of the reign: such legends as
“_The invincible one, the lord of the earth_” suggest, as indeed is
obvious, that only rich plunder made such a varied and plentiful gold
currency possible. Samudragupta struck only gold. In such abundance
did the Kushāṇa kings mint copper money that it may be said without
exaggeration to have remained in circulation in the Panjāb down to the
nineteenth century; in the time of the Guptas the bazars must have
been full of it. But for gold there is always an insatiable demand
in India, and seven other distinct varieties appeared during this
reign. Of these the Archer type, the commonest and most characteristic
Gupta coin (Pl. V, 6), struck by at least eight succeeding kings, is
a natural development of the Standard type, of which also further
modifications are to be found in the Battle-axe and Kācha types. On
the obverse of the former a second attendant figure is introduced, and
a battle-axe instead of a standard is in the king’s left hand. In the
Kācha coins the change takes place on the reverse, where a standing
figure of Lakshmī facing left takes the place of the seated goddess:
the reverses of the Tiger-slayer and Aśvamedha coins present variations
of this motif. The Tiger-slayer type, of which four specimens only
are at present known, is the prototype of the Lion-slayer issues of
later kings, and represents the king, dressed for the first time in
an Indian waistcoat and turban, trampling on a tiger as he shoots it.
There remain the Chandragupta I, Aśvamedha (Pl. V, 5) and Lyrist types,
all three obviously in the nature of commemorative medals, and perhaps
intended as pious gifts (_dakshiṇa_) to Brahmans. The Lyrist coins (Pl.
V, 3), the rarest of the three, merit special attention. Evidently
intended as a graceful tribute to the king’s accomplishments, he is
portrayed in Indian dress, sitting cross-legged on a high-backed rather
ornate couch, playing on a _vīṇā_, or Indian lute. On the reverse
appears the goddess Lakshmī seated to left on a _mora_ (wicker stool).
The excellent modelling of the king’s figure, the skilful delineation
of the features, the careful attention to details, and the general
ornateness of design in the best specimens constitute this type as the
highest expression of Gupta numismatic art.
[29] Cf. _B.M.C._, “Coins of the Gupta Dynasties,” Introduction, pp.
lxiv-lxviii.
[30] Situated in Tirhut, Bengal.
Chandragupta II Vikramāditya (= Sun of Power), who succeeded to the
throne in A.D. 375, extended still further the boundaries of the
empire, and at some time during his long reign, which lasted till A.D.
413, removed the capital from Pāṭaliputra to Ayodhyā. His gold coinage
is even more abundant than his father’s, two of whose types, the Archer
and Lion-slayer (Tiger-slayer), he continued; but on his later Archer
coins (Pl. V, 6) the goddess Lakshmī sits upon a lotus instead of a
throne; and in the second type, besides the substitution of a lion
for a tiger, there is a change on the reverse, Lakshmī being seated
on a lion in various attitudes. The figure of the Lion-slayer on the
obverse is sometimes turned to the right and sometimes to the left; and
a unique coin in the Lucknow Museum shows him attacking the lion with
a sword. The very rare Couch design of Chandragupta is a derivative
of Samudragupta’s Lyrist type. In the new Chattra type coins (Pl. V,
7) we have yet a further variant of the Standard type: on the obverse
of these, behind the “standing king,” appears a boy or dwarf, holding
an umbrella (_chattra_) over his head; the reverse shows the goddess
Lakshmī standing on a lotus. An entirely new design is furnished by
this king’s Horseman coins (Pl. V, 8). A king on horseback was, as
we have seen, employed by the Indo-Greeks, and was characteristic of
the issues of the Śakas. The Gupta rendering of the motif is new and
spirited. The horse is fully caparisoned, facing in some coins to
the right, on others to the left, and the king, either fully clad or
sometimes only in a waistcoat, carries either a sword or a bow; the
reverse resembles that of the Lyrist type.
Kumāragupta I (413-455) struck a few very rare Aśvamedha coins, closely
resembling those of Samudragupta, except that they are far inferior in
execution, and the sacrificial horse on the obverse is standing to the
right instead of to the left.
He also continued to issue the Archer, Horseman and Lion-slayer (Pl. V,
9) types of his predecessors. Kumāragupta’s Tiger-slayer coins closely
resemble their prototype struck by Samudragupta, except that on the
reverse the goddess Lakshmī is depicted feeding a peacock. Four new
designs appear on the gold of this reign. The Swordsman coins present
still another modification of the Standard type, their distinguishing
mark being that the king’s left hand rests on his sword-hilt instead
of grasping a standard; on the reverse is the usual goddess seated
on a lotus. Kumāragupta held the god Kārttikeya, one of whose names
was Kumāra, in special veneration. The Peacock type (Pl. V, 10) bears
evidence to this, for on the reverse the god himself appears riding on
his peacock, Paravāṇi, and on the obverse the king is shown standing
and feeding a peacock from a bunch of grapes. The rare Elephant-rider
type shows the king on the obverse riding on an elephant trampling on a
tiger; and the obverse of the still rarer Pratāpa type, so-called from
the legend on the reverse, is evidently an adaption from some foreign,
probably Roman, model.
Skandagupta, the last of the great Gupta kings, who succeeded his
father in A.D. 455, was occupied during the earlier part of his reign
in defending his empire against the inroads of the Huns, over whom
he appears to have gained a decisive victory. This probably accounts
for the comparative scarcity of his gold, of which only two types are
known. He continued the favourite device of the Archer with the “seated
goddess” reverse, and introduced a new type, on the obverse of which
the king appears standing on the left, facing the goddess Lakshmī on
the right, with the Garuḍa standard between them. But in this reign the
gold coinage underwent an important change of a different character.
Hitherto all the Gupta gold pieces had been _dināras_ and followed
the weight standard adopted by the Kushāṇa kings from the Romans. All
Skandagupta’s coins are, on an average, heavier than those of his
predecessors; and certain of his Archer coins evidently represent
a new standard of about 142 grains, based, perhaps, on the ancient
Hindu _suvarṇa_; but along with the increase in weight there is a
corresponding depreciation in the purity of the gold.
The successors of Skandagupta—Puragupta, Narasiṅhagupta, Kumāragupta
II, Chandragupta III and Vishṇugupta, whose relationship and dates are
somewhat doubtful, struck gold coins only of the Archer type, showing
a gradual deterioration in design and execution. On a few coins of the
same type are found portions of names, such as _Ghaṭo_ and _Jaya_, even
more difficult to identify. A certain Prakāśāditya, perhaps identical
with Puragupta, struck coins on which the king appears on horseback
slaying a lion, a combination of the Horseman and Lion-slayer types
(Pl. V, 11).
The inscriptions on Gupta coins are scarcely inferior to the designs
in interest: they vary with each successive type and frequently bear
a close relation to them. Thus on Samudragupta’s Battle-axe issue
the king is described as “_Wielding the axe of Kṛitānta_” (= Yama,
the god of Death), while on his Tiger-slayer coins he is given the
title _Vyāghraparākramaḥ_, “He who has the prowess of a tiger.”
Sometimes varieties of the same type are marked by a difference in
the inscription: no less than seven different legends are found on
Kumāragupta I’s Archer coins alone. The obverse legend, which encircles
the design, usually takes the form of a verse in _Upagīti_ or some
other Sanskrit metre, celebrating in highly ornate language the king’s
glory on the earth and his future bliss in heaven, attained through
his merit acquired by sacrifice. On the gold of Samudragupta six such
metrical legends appear; Chandragupta II has only three; while at
least twelve are employed by Kumāragupta I. As an example the obverse
inscription on one class of Chandragupta II’s Chattra coins (Fig. 4)
may be taken: “_Vikramāditya, having conquered the earth, wins heaven
by good works_”; or the more ornate legend on a variety of Kumāragupta
I’s Horseman type: “_The unconquered Mahendra, invincible, the moon in
the sky of the Gupta line, is victorious_.” When a verse appears on
the obverse, the reverse legend is distinct, consisting of a title,
sometimes the repetition of one which appears already in the metrical
obverse inscription, such as _Apratirathaḥ_, “The invincible one,” on
the Archer coins of Samudragupta. Sometimes the king’s name and titles
only appear, and then the legend on both obverse and reverse is often,
though not always, continuous, but here again the reverse inscription,
which appears to the right of the device, consists of a single title.
Thus on Chandragupta II’s Archer type appears the following: obverse,
_Deva-Śrī-Mahārājādhirāja-Śrī-Chandraguptaḥ_; reverse, _Śrī Vikramaḥ_.
Entirely distinct in point of their inscriptions from all other Gupta
coins are those struck by Samudragupta in memory of his father and
mother, known as the Chandragupta I type; on the obverse appear the two
names _Chandragupta_ and _Kumāradevī_, and on the reverse his mother’s
family name, _Lichchavayaḥ_. This relationship was evidently a matter
of pride to the striker. Finally, on the obverse of all coins of the
Archer and most of the allied types appears vertically, under or near
the king’s left arm, part of the king’s name, as _Samudra_, _Chandra_
or _Kumāra_. This vertical method of inscription can be traced back
through the later Kushāṇa coins to a Chinese source.[31]
[31] Coins have been found in Khotān with a Chinese legend on the
obverse and a Kharoshṭhī inscription on the reverse. Cf. _P.M.C._, Vol.
I, p. 167, Nos. 134, 135.
Whether the symbols which occur regularly on all Gupta gold are
anything more than ornaments is doubtful.
The silver coinage of the Guptas starts, as has been already noticed,
with the overthrow of the Western Satraps by Chandragupta II. His
issues follow those of the conquered nation very closely, except that
on the obverse appears a figure of Vishṇu’s sacred bird, Garuḍa, in
place of the _chaitya_, and the dates are computed in the Gupta instead
of in the Śaka era. Obviously these were intended for circulation in
the recently annexed provinces. Kumāragupta, while striking large
quantities of the Garuḍa-type coins in the west (Pl. VI, 1), extended
the silver coinage to the Central Provinces of his Empire. This latter
class of money is entirely distinct in character: the head on the
obverse is drawn in a crude but quite original manner, and is probably
intended as a portrait of the king; on the reverse the king’s devotion
to Kārttikeya is once more displayed in the representation of a peacock
with outstretched wings. A third class of silver-plated coins, with a
rude figure of Garuḍa on the reverse, seems to have been intended for
the tributary state of Valabhī.[32] Skandagupta continued the Garuḍa
and Peacock types (Pl. VI, 2) of his father, and introduced two new
ones. The coins, of very base silver, with Śiva’s sacred bull Nandi
on the reverse, were probably current in Kathiawar; but commoner than
any of the preceding are certain ill-shaped pieces with an altar on
the reverse. None of the direct descendants of Skandagupta appears to
have struck silver, but a few coins of the Peacock type were issued by
Budhagupta, a king of Eastern Mālwā, about A.D. 480. The dates which
appear on these coins to the left of the obverse head in the Western,
and to the right in the Central, issues are frequently defective or
illegible. Inscriptions are confined to the reverse, on the Peacock
type always a metrical legend, on all other types the king’s name
accompanied by high-sounding titles.
[32] In the Kathiawar peninsula, forming part of what was then known as
Surāshṭra.
The copper coinage, which is practically confined to the reign of
Chandragupta II, is far more original in design. Eight out of the nine
types known to have been struck by him have a figure of Garuḍa on the
reverse, usually accompanied by the name of the king, while the obverse
is occupied by the bust or head of the king, or by a three-quarter
length portrait. In one class this is varied by the reproduction of the
gold Chattra type obverse (Pl. V, 13). The tiny coins which constitute
the ninth type have the word _Chandra_ in the obverse and a flower vase
(_kalaśa_) on the reverse. Only four copper pieces are at present known
of Kumāragupta.
After the death of Skandagupta, in A.D. 480,[33] the Gupta Empire
rapidly broke up. The inferiority and comparative scarcity of his own
gold coins, the still more debased issues of his brother Puragupta and
subsequent kings, and the disappearance of silver money, bear ample
evidence to their curtailed territory.
[33] Or according to Mr. Panna Lal, “Dates of Skandagupta and His
Successors,” _Hindustan Review_, January, 1918, in A.D. 467.
The impression produced by the magnificent coinage of the Guptas upon
the peoples of Northern India was undoubtedly as great as that created
by the currency of their Kushāṇa predecessors; but, after the general
devastation caused by the inroads of the Huns, few princes could have
retained sufficient wealth in their treasuries to imitate it. It is
significant then that the most notable imitations were the product of a
mint, secured by its remoteness from the ruthless hand of the invader,
in Central Bengal. These remarkable and not uncommon coins, with Śiva
reclining on his bull Nandi on the obverse, and the goddess Lakshmī
seated on a lotus on the reverse (Pl. V, 12), were struck by Śaśāṅka,
king of Gauḍa (circ. 600-625), notorious as the assassinator of
Harshavardhana’s elder brother, and a great “persecutor of Buddhism.”
In Bengal, too, for many years after the passing of the Gupta Empire,
were current flat gold pieces with crude reproductions of Gupta
designs, and, with the exception of the word _Śrī_ on the obverse,
completely illegible inscriptions. Another rather striking coin
connected with the Gupta series, with a standing bull on the obverse,
bears the name _Śrī Vīrasena_, but who Vīrasena was is at present
unknown. A modification of the seated goddess motif was preserved on
the gold coinage of certain mediæval Rājpūt kingdoms.