1884.] V. A. Smitli —Gold Coins of the Im])erial Gupta Dynasty. 133 
the resemblance is not accidental; but the closest parallel to the Gupta 
device is met with in an unexpected place. The goddess on the Gupta 
coins is almost an exact copy of Demeter as represented on a rare coin of 
the island of Paros, now in the British Museum, and the resemblance is 
so close that it is scarcely possible to doubt that in some unknown way 
both devices must be derived from a common source. 
The cornucopia in the hand of the goddess of Samudra Gupta’s 
coins shows that she was intended to have attributes similar to those of 
Demeter, and she may therefore be regarded as a novel representation of 
the Hindu Lakshmi, the counterpart of the Greek goddess. 
The same reverse device, but with some modifications, and asso¬ 
ciated with other obverse devices, was adopted by Chandra Gupta II, 
and Kuniara Gupta. The goddess, as she appears on the Lancer and 
Horseman to Left coins of Chandra Gupta II, and in varieties a and (d of 
the Horseman to Bight type of his son, would seem to be intended to 
symbolize nearly the same ideas as the efiigy on the Lyrist pieces of 
Samudra. In variety y of Kumara’s Horseman to Bight type, and in 
all the Horseman to Left coins of the same king, the goddess is repre¬ 
sented in the act of feeding a peacock, and may, therefore, be identified 
as Kumari Devi, to whom that bird is sacred. 
In the gold coinage the peacock (except, perhaps, as part of the 
so-called ‘ peacock standard ’) appears to be peculiar to the mintages of 
Kumara Gupta Maheiidra. The goddess on the reverse of his Combatant 
Lion type stands while she feeds the sacred bird. In his Peacock type 
the bird is still more prominent, for on the obverse the king is feeding 
one peacock, and on the reverse, the goddess, presumably Kumari Devi, 
rides on another. There can be little doubt that in this type at all events 
the king is presented in the double character of the human king and the 
divine Kumara Deva. The peacock devices of the Gupta coinage ap¬ 
pear to be Hinduized adaptations of the designs of the Boman coins 
which bear representations of the peacock associated with Juno, or with 
u deified lady of the imperial house. An exact prototype of the peacock 
with expanded tail, which is found on the silver Gupta coins, and on 
var. /I of Kumara Gupta’s gold Peacock type, may be seen on the reverse 
of a coin of Julia Augusta, who was a daughter of Titus and died be¬ 
tween A. D. 81 and 90.* 
A coin of Paulina (A. D. 217-238), whose life probably extended 
into the early years of the reign of Chandra Gupta II, exhibits the pea¬ 
cock in a manner strikingly similar to the device on some of the silver 
* Tresor de Numismatique, Iconograpliie des Empereurs Eomains ; PI. XXII, 
11. 
