1855.] On the Coins of the Gupta Dynasty. 493 



distinction in regard to the titles that the full Vikramdditya seems 

 to belong to the third monarch of the family, while the Sri Vikrama 

 remains special with the fifth of the race. 



Class 33.— J. A. S. V. XXXVI. 15, A. A. XVIII. 3, Marsden, 

 No. MLVIII. 



Obverse. Device. King leaning on his spear, facing him is a 

 female figure. 



Legend. Indeterminate, under the arm \ 3 



Reverse. Parvati, with cornucopia, seated on a lion. 



Legend. xf^^^J " The five excellencies."* 



I assign these coins to Chandra Gupta the 1st, but with some 

 hesitation, my chief ground for the attribution being the title on the 

 reverse ; there are, however, some minor typical indications that give 

 strength to the attribution, especially the appearance on Mr. Masson's 

 coin of the standard of the full-moon otherwise peculiar to Ghatot 

 Kacha, or even supposing the staff, upon which the King's left hand 

 rests, to be an ordinary spear or javelin, it is to be remembered 

 that these weapons have definitively been superseded in this posi- 

 tion, on the coins of Chandra Gupta the second of the name, by the 

 bow, which he adopts from his predecessor Samudra Gupta. In 

 Marsden's coin the family name of Gupta is inscribed in a line with 

 the Chandra on the opposite side of the standard shaft, a practice 

 which seems to have been discontinued after the introduction of the 

 bow into the coinage devices by Samudra Gupta. 



Samudra Gupta. 



Class C— J. A. S. B. IV. PI. XXXVIII. figs. 16 and 17, Vol. V. 

 PL XXXVI. fig. 14, A. A. XVIII. 6 and 9. 



Obverse. The usual standing figure of the King ; to the left of 

 the field is seen the small altar of the Scythian prototype, associated 



* Prinsep adds " to wit of a King. There is a fault in the orthography how- 

 ever * * The words should be written q^ ^^J. Whether the word chhavaya 

 " light" may have any allusion to the five luminaries of the Mithraic worship : 

 the sun, the moon, fire, Jupiter and Venus, it is impossible to say : but that a 

 King should possess five virtues, we learn from various Hindu authorities. 



3 T 2 



