1894.] V. A. Smith — History and Coinage of the Gupta Period. 187 
including the Pahjah, Ka^mlr, Malwa, and a considerable portion of 
the North-Western Provinces. 
He was succeeded about the year A.D. 515, by bis son Mihirakula 
(Mihirgul), 1 who is mentioned under that name by Hiuen-Tsiang and 
the author of the Raja Taraijgini. He must be identified with Gollas 
the king of the Indian White Huns mentioned by Kosmas Indiko- 
pleustes (A.D. 522-530), and with the unnamed Ephthalite king of 
Gandhara visited by the Chinese envoy Sung-yun in A.D. 520, Ho 
seems also to be the person called Hunimanta, king of Persia, and ruler 
over Lahor and Multan, by Taranath, the historian of Buddhism. 
The Maudasor inscription of Ya 9 odharman, already referred to, 
asserts that Mihirakula did homage to Yagodharman, and an inscription 
at Gwalior is dated in the fifteenth year of Mihirakula, the son of 
Toramana (Gupta Inscr., pp. 148, 150, 161.) 
The reign of Mihirakula ended about A.D. 544-550. I will not at 
present stop to examine critically the conflicting, and in great part 
mythical, accounts of the alleged events of his reign. It seems to be the 
fact that about A.D. 544 he was defeated by a coalition of Indian 
princes, driven out of India proper, and compelled to retire to Ka^mir 
and the neighbouring regions. 
The above sketch will suffice for its purpose on this occasion, which 
is merely to indicate approximately the dates and historical position of 
the coinage of Toramana and Mihirakula. 
The coins of both these princes require much further examination 
and elucidation before they can be arranged satisfactorily. The lead¬ 
ing and most recent authority on the subject is Cunningham’s already 
cited paper in the Transactions of the Congress of 1892. Unfortunately, 
it has been published without the plates which were intended to accom¬ 
pany and illustrate the text. 2 The notices of the coins in Cunningham’s 
dissertation are mixed up with much extraneous matter. I shall 
endeavour to make the subject somewhat clearer and more intelligible 
by disentangling the numismatic facts, and adding what I can from 
other sources. But my readers will please clearly understand that the 
present attempt to describe the Indian coinage of Toramana and Miliira- 
kula is merely preliminary and tentative. 
The coins of both kings occur in both silver and copper, and are not 
1 This date is certainly approximately correct. (Fleet, Ind. Antiq., Vol. XV., 
p. 252). 
2 I understand that it is likely that the plates will appear in the Numismatic 
Chronicle. (During the passage of this paper through the press, the plates have 
appeared in the Num. Chron. for 1894). Many of the White Hun coins are figured 
in Plates xxxiii. and xxxiv. of Thomas’ edition of Prinsep’s Essays. 
