1885 .] 
the gold coins of the Guptas. 
91 
Supposing this interpretation of the 4 footstool ’ so called is accepted, 
then the dotted area whereon the feet of the goddess rest; will represent 
the solid earth bounded or encircled by a fold of the mystic snake or 
Naga, whose presence is equally appropriate and in union with Hindu 
feeling, whether the symbol be regarded as introduced in honour of Sfiva 
or Vishnu, or to please the votaries of both. 
There is. an objection which might be raised, with reference to PI. 
ii, eg. 3 to the identification of the 4 footstool ’ so called with the termi¬ 
nal portion of the snake’s body, of which the cornu-copise represents the 
expanded hood, and that is that on the coin alluded to, the extremity of 
the tail of the snake is seen recurved over the left knee of the goddess, 
though the 4 footstool ’ is also seen at her feet. 
As previously remarked, however, a coin in my possession whilst 
displaying very clearly the tail of the snake as indicated in the Plate, 
offers a somewhat different treatment to that usually seen on both gold 
and copper coins, of the so-called ‘footstool,’ and this slight alteration 
in design, is no doubt caused by the very fact in question of the tail of 
the snake represented by the cornu-copke, being in this instance visible 
to its termination. Usually the tail is so arranged as to allow of the 
i footstool ’ being considered as a terminal fold of the snake’s body ; in 
the case under consideration that is not so, and a slight but important 
modification is introduced wdiich though present in the figured coin is 
still more clearly displayed on the finer coin in my possession. Usually 
the Ardochro footstool is represented by an oval line, bounded in part 
by the drapery of the figure, and which would very well represent a 
footstool if only some indication of legs were added. In my more per¬ 
fect coin, the oval is incomplete, a clear space intervening between the 
ends and the drapery; in other words, it is no footstool which lies at the 
feet of the goddess but a curved snake. The coin is too well executed 
and in such preservation, that there is no room to doubt that such was 
the intention of the artist, and nothing but a foregone conclusion could 
allow of any doubt but that the cornu-copbe on this coin represents one 
snake and the 4 footstool ’ another. 
On some less artistic examples, the line representing this snake is 
double, and it is not clear whether we are to regard this duplication, as 
representing a second snake, or as merely the result of inferior execu¬ 
tion, my own impression strongly inclining to the latter conclusion. 
A coin in my possession, procured in the Panjab, with the name 
4 Sita’ On it, and of precisely the same class of coins as that figured by 
Mr. Smith, PI. IV, fig. 6, proves that a similar interpretation of the 
4 cornu-copiee ’ symbol can be applied in their case also. This is not 
clearly seen on the figured coin, as what is really the snake’s body, there 
