204 V. A. Smith —Oold Goins of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty. [N'o. 2, 
Gupta, the only kings of the imperial Gupta line who issued coins with 
Horseman obverses. The inferior workmanship of these coins, though 
presumptive, is not conclusive evidence of late date, because the un¬ 
doubted Gupta coins exhibit many degrees of excellence in design and 
execution. The title on the reverse has been read by Kittoe as ‘ S'ri 
Prakasa,’ and by Wilson as ‘ Sri Prakrama ’ or ‘ Prakirrti b Gen. Cun¬ 
ningham informs me that he reads the name as ‘ Prakasaditya.’ Ho 
name resembling any of these forms is a known title of any of the Gupta 
kings, but the coins might, nevertheless, belong to one of them, for there 
is no reason to suppose that we have yet discovered all the titles used by 
those princes. ‘ S'ri Mahendra ’ was for a long time regarded as a 
separate individual, but there is now no doubt that he is the same as 
Kumara Gupta ; and it is almost equally certain that the name Bakra 
Gupta, which appears on certain silver coins, is intended for Chandra 
Gupta Yikramaditya, or Vikrama. The direction in which the horseman 
is proceeding gives no clue, for left and right horsemen occur both in 
Kumara’s and Chandra Gupta’s coins. The word ‘ vijaya ’ which seems 
to form part of the obverse legend of the coins in question is found on 
the Midnapur specimen of Kumara’s Horseman to Left type, but does 
not occur on any coin of Chandra Gupta II. The average weight, 145*6, 
affords the strongest argument for a comparatively late date, inasmuch as 
it agrees closely with the weight of the coins of Kara Gupta Baladitya, 
and the other imitators of the imperial Gupta coinage. On the whole, 
I am disposed to think that these Lion and Horseman coins were struck 
during the fourth century A. D. by some prince who ruled in the eastern 
dominions of the Guptas not long after the death of Skanda Gupta, but 
the question of their proper attribution must remain open pending 
fm-ther discoveries and investigation. It is not improbable that Prakasa¬ 
ditya was one of the dynasty mentioned in the Aphsar inscription, the 
princes of which seem to have been descendants of the imperial Gupta 
family. 
