504 On the Coins of the Gupta "Dynasty. [No. 6. 



dominions of the Sah kings of Surashtra. I had formerly, while 

 reasoning upon the numismatic materials then at command, been 

 led to conclude that a considerable interval might have elapsed 

 between the fabrication of the Sah exemplars and the deteriorated 

 Gupta imitation of that style of coinage, but I am now fully pre- 

 pared to amend this inference, and to approximate the later Sah 

 monarchs very closely to some of the early members of the Gupta 

 race ; to carry this out satisfactorily I am aware that I must either 

 modernise the Sahs from my first assignment of date or elevate ten 

 Guptas to a higher degree of antiquity than I have previously 

 claimed for them.* 



It is not my intention, neither have I time at command while 

 this paper is being put to press, to enter into the general re-consi- 

 deration of the true Sah epoch, it is sufficient for the present to 

 indicate freely the new bearing assumed of the entire question 

 under the evidence, contributed by the type of this unique coin. 



Ktjmara Gupta. 



Class I; J. A. S. B. VII. PL XII. 16, 17; J. E. A. S. XII. 

 PI. II. 39, 40, 41, 42 ; A. A. XV. 17, 18. 



Obverse. — Head of the king in profile : the outline and design are 

 nearly identical with the Surashtran prototype, the mintage of the 

 Sah kings — at the back of the head is ordinarily to be seen a muti- 

 lated portion of the Scythian title PAO NANO. This important 

 legend affords another link in the direct association of the Guptas 

 with the Indo-Scythians, which is here the more marked, in that, 

 while the device itself is servilely copied from the Sahs, their obverse 

 Greek legends are superseded by this new title. 



Reverse. — It is difficult to determine satisfactorily what the 

 emblem occupying the Reverse field may be intended to typify, 

 but the most plausible supposition seems to be that it displays an 

 advance upon the conventional representation of the peacock under 



* T have had so much to object to in Major Cunningham's arguments and 

 inferences, that I may here complimentarily mention that, he has already con- 

 tended for a direct and immediate succession of the Sabs by the Guptas, Bhil. Topes, 

 p. 148. 



