1884.] V. A. Smith —Gold Corns of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty. 149 
Prinsep treated this topic with greater explicitness, but, as will be 
shown presently, with less accuracy. “ Kananj,” he says, “ has been 
fixed on as the locale of the present class of gold coins, for the obvious 
reason that they are most frequently found in its ruins, not that any his¬ 
tory ascribes them to this town.”* * * § In another passage he appeals again 
to the “ frequency of his coins discovered at Kananj ” as a reason for 
fixing Samndra Gupta’s capital at that place.f In a subsequent essay 
Prinsep to some extent corrects his former attribution of the majority of 
the coins to Kananj, and observes, “ Since my former paper on the 
Gupta coins of Kananj appeared, very important acquisitions have been 
made to onr knowledge of this before unknown dynasty, through the 
medium of coins and inscriptions ; for both of which we are almost 
entirely beholden to the researches of Lieut. Cunningham and Mr. 
Tregear in th6 neighbourhood of Benares.” 
After discussing the passage in the Vishnu Parana, which defines 
the territory of the Guptas of Magadha as extending “ along the Ganges 
to Prayaga ” (Allahabad), he remarks that “the sites, whence these 
coins have been most frequently obtained, certainly agree with this de¬ 
scription.”]; 
A few pages later Prinsep states that the Gupta gold coins are “ dis¬ 
covered in greatest quantity at Kananj, Jannpnr, Gaya, and even occa¬ 
sionally in Bengal.”§ 
Abstaining for the moment from any comment on the statements 
above quoted, I shall proceed to state all the facts which I have been able 
to ascertain respecting the find-spots of the Gupta gold coins; first 
enumerating the hoards known to me, and then giving statistics of indi¬ 
vidual coins, including some which formed parts of certain of the hoards 
mentioned. 
172 so-called “ gold darics ” were found near Benares in the time 
of Warren Hastings, who sent them home to the Court of Directors, 
considering himself “ as making the most munificent present to his 
masters that he might ever have it in his power to send them.... The 
story is that they were sent to the melting pot. At all events they had 
disappeared when Hastings returned to England.”|| It is almost in¬ 
credible that these 172 pieces should have been Persian darics. The 
* Essays I, 284. 
f ibid, 239. 
X ibid pp. 365-6, Mr. Tregear collected at Jannpur 40 miles from Benares ; Lt. 
(now Genl.) Cnnningliam was then at Benares. 
§ ibid p. 375. 
II Genl. Cunningham on the Oxus Treasure Trove in J, A. S. B. for 1881, p. 184 j 
• and ‘ India, What can it Teach us,’ by Max Muller, p. 8. 
