III Coins of the Kushāṇa Kings
Note.—The monograms in Fig. 3b occur on coins of the following: (1) Eukratides, (2) Apollodotos, (3) Apollodotos, Maues, (4) Azes I, (5) Sotēr Megas, (6) Gondopharnes and Aspavarma.
The Yueh-chi, who drove the Śakas out of Bactria about the year 126 B.C., were destined to create “one of the greatest empires of ancient India.” At some date after A.D. 25, one of the five tribes of which they were composed, the Kushāṇas, became supreme, and under the leadership of the head of that tribe, Kujūla Kadphises, they passed south of the Hindu Kush, and overwhelmed the Pahlavas, then ruling in the Kābul valley. The deposition of Pacores, successor of Gondopharnes to the Pahlava kingdom of Taxila, must have taken place between the years A.D. 45 and A.D. 64, and was effected by Vima Kadphises, the second Kushāṇa king. Henceforward there is less confusion of dynasties. We know the names and the chronological order of these powerful Kushāṇa princes—Kujūla Kadphises, Vima Kadphises, Kanishka, Huvishka, Vāsudeva; the names of the three last are even recorded in several inscriptions. It seems to be now generally accepted that Kanishka was the founder of the so-called Śaka era, and that consequently his reign started in A.D. 78.24 The chief remaining difficulty is the attribution of certain copper coins bearing the title Kujūla Kadaphes (Kharoshṭhī—Kuyula Kaphasa); this must remain for the present unsettled.
The commoner type of these Kadaphes coins deserves special attention (Pl. IV, 2); for the head on the obverse is directly copied from the coins of one of the earlier Roman Emperors, probably Augustus, and bears evidence to that Roman influence which is so marked in the gold coinage of the Kushāṇas, and which is partly traceable to the intercourse between the Yueh-chi and the Roman Empire before their invasion of India, an intercourse which resulted in Kushāṇa ambassadors being actually sent to the court of Augustus. But the plentiful issues in gold of Vima Kadphises and his two successors, all struck on the same standard as the Roman aureus, are due also to other causes. Exports from India to different provinces of the Roman Empire, carried by sea from the south, and by the overland routes in the north, were paid for in Roman gold; and the aureus had, like the English sovereign in more recent times, at this period acquired that status as a current coin in India, which it already possessed in those parts of Asia more directly under the influence of the imperial power. It was only natural that these Kushāṇa invaders should seek to win acceptance for their new gold currency by placing it on an equality with the popular Roman gold. There was, moreover, at this time a world shortage of silver: not only do we find the Pahlava kings striking didrachms in debased silver, but the silver denarius itself was, during the early empire, being reduced in weight and fineness. This accounts for the disappearance of silver and the important place of gold in the Kushāṇa coinage, and is probably also partly the reason why the Western Satraps struck only small hemidrachms, and these often in inferior silver.
The coins of Kujūla Kadphises are all of copper. Those which he struck in the style of Hermaios have the head of the Greek king on the obverse (Pl. IV, 1), and he used the same type after the name of Hermaios had disappeared from the inscriptions; both these types were current in the Kābul province. Another type, akin to the Śaka coins, has a bull on the obverse and a Bactrian camel on the reverse. In one of his inscriptions, for which like his successor he uses both Greek and Kharoshṭhī, he is styled “The Great King, King of Kings, the Son of Heaven.”
The gold of Vima Kadphises (c. A.D. 45-78) was struck in three denominations, the double stater (Pl. IV, 3), the stater or dināra,25 as the Kushāṇas called it (= the Roman aureus of 124 grains weight), and the quarter stater. On the obverse of these appears either the king’s head or bust, or the king seated cross-legged on a couch, or, as on a rare stater in the British Museum, sitting in a two-horsed chariot. On the copper coins, which are of three sizes, the king is almost invariably standing, with his right hand placing an offering upon a small altar at his side. The portrait of the king is most realistic, though hardly flattering—a corpulent figure with a long heavy face and a large nose, he appears wearing the long Kushāṇa cloak and tall “Gilgit” boots, on his head a conical hat with streamers. Vima Kadphises must have been a zealous convert to the worship of the Hindu god Śiva, for the god or his emblem, the trident battle-axe, is the invariable device on the reverse of all his coins. The title “Sotēr Megas” on this king’s copper coins indicates a relationship between him and the so-called “nameless king” mentioned in the previous chapter, whose coins bear the same legend.
Kanishka, the real founder of the great Kushāṇa empire, which stretched from Kābul26 to the banks of the Ganges, may have belonged to another branch of the Yueh-chi—he was not, at any rate, nearly related to Vima Kadphises, whose coins are distinct in many respects from those of Kanishka and his successors. One marked distinction is the use of Greek legends only by these later kings. The Greek is often very debased, and the reason suggested for its employment is that Khotanese, the native tongue of the Kushāṇas, was first reduced to writing in the Greek character. Kanishka also introduced the Iranian title, Shāonānoshāo—“King of Kings”—in place of the Greek form Basileōs Basileōn. On the reverse side of the extensive gold (full and quarter staters only) and copper coinage of Kanishka and Huvishka is portrayed a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses; among them are the Greek gods, Helios, Herakles (Pl. IV, 8), Selene; the Hindu god, Śiva (Oesho on the coins); the Iranian deities, Athro, “Fire,” Oado, the wind god, Ardokhsho and Nāna, and even the great Buddha himself (Pl. IV, 4), who had previously appeared on a copper coin of Kadaphes. The representation of this “mixed multitude” was probably intended to conciliate the religious scruples of the numerous peoples included within the vast territory of the Kushāṇa Empire. A standing figure of the king appears on the obverse of Kanishka’s gold staters, on the small quarter staters is a half (Pl. IV, 5) or quarter length portrait. On Huvishka’s gold the standing figure never appears; the portrait is either half-length or merely the king’s head; on one coin the king is seated cross-legged; on another (exceedingly rare) he is riding an elephant (Pl. VI, 7). Vāsudeva closely imitates Kanishka’s standing figure type on his gold.
Kanishka’s copper coinage is of two types: one has the usual “standing king” obverse (Pl. IV, 6); and on the rarer second type the king is sitting on a throne. Huvishka’s copper is more varied; on the reverse, as on Kanishka’s copper, there is always one of the numerous deities; on the obverse the king is portrayed (1) riding on an elephant, or (2) reclining on a couch, or (3) seated cross-legged, or (4) seated with arms raised.
Kanishka had been a great patron of Buddhism. Vāsudeva was evidently a convert to Hinduism and an ardent devotee of Śiva. On the reverses of his coins the deity is almost invariably Śiva accompanied by his bull (Pl. IV, 9), but there is a rare copper piece on which the word “Vāsu” in Brāhmī occupies the obverse, and the special symbol of Vāsudeva the reverse. About half-a-dozen other symbols, which take the place of the monograms of the Indo-Greeks, appear on the coins of the Kushāṇas.
After the death of Vāsudeva, in A.D. 220, the Kushāṇa power declined, though the descendants of Kanishka held the Kābul valley till A.D. 425. The coins of these kings, principally of two classes, are degenerate copies of the gold coins of Kanishka and Vāsudeva. One continues the standing king type with the Śiva and bull reverse; the second has the standing king obverse, with the deity Ardokhsho, who was by this time identified with the Indian Lakshmī, represented as sitting on a throne and holding a cornucopia on the reverse (Pl. IV, 10). Certain Brāhmī letters, now unintelligible, seem to have distinguished the coins of successive rulers. It was this latter type, current throughout the Panjāb, that the Gupta kings took as the model for their earliest coinage. In A.D. 425 a tribe of the Little Yueh-chi, under a chief named Kidāra, replaced the great Kushāṇa dynasty at Kābul; but they were driven out fifty years later by an inroad of the Ephthalites, or White Huns, and settled in the Chitrāl district and in Kashmīr. There they struck coins in much alloyed gold and also in copper of this same standing king and seated goddess type, and there it survived in a hardly recognizable form in the later coins, until the Muhammadans put an end to the Hindu kingdom in the fourteenth century. Certain kingdoms in the Panjāb also copied the large copper coins of the Kushāṇas: the most striking of these minor coinages is that of the Yaudheyas, whose territory included the modern state of Bahāwalpūr. One type of their coins shows a female standing figure on the obverse, and a soldier with a Brāhmī inscription on the reverse (Pl. IV, 11). The earliest coins of Nepāl current from the fifth to the seventh century also show traces of Kushāṇa influence. These large copper pieces give the names of at least four kings, Mānāṅka, Gunāṅka,27 Aṅśuvarman and Jishṇugupta. Various devices are used, among them the goddess seated cross-legged. The coins of Aṅśuvarman, of the seventh century, have a cow standing to the left on the obverse and a winged horse with the king’s name on the reverse (Pl. V, 1).
Key to Plate V
1. Nepāl: Aṁśuvarman. Æ.
Obv., cow to left, Kāmadehī,
“The cow that yields every wish.”
Rev., winged lion to left, Śryaṁśuvarma.
2. Samudragupta. Standard type. AV. Wt. 116 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, holding standard in left hand, sacrificing at altar to his right; behind altar Garuḍa-headed standard; beneath king’s arm, Samudra; around,
Samaraśatavitatavijayo jitaripur ajito divaṁ jayati,
“The unconquered one, whose victories extend over a century of battles, having conquered his enemies, wins heaven.”
Rev., goddess Lakshmī on a throne, her feet on a lotus; to left symbol, to right Parākramaḥ,
“The [king] of supreme might.”
3. Id: Lyrist type. AV. Wt. 119·5 grs.
Obv., king seated cross-legged on high-backed couch, playing on a lyre; beneath couch a foot-stool inscribed Si.
Legend, Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Samudraguptaḥ.
Rev., Lakshmī seated on wicker stool, holding fillet in right hand, cornucopiae on left arm; to right Samudraguptaḥ.
4. Id: Chandragupta I type. AV. Wt. 118 grs.
Obv., Chandragupta on right, holding crescent-topped standard, offering ring to Kumāradevī on left; on right
Chandragupta; on left Śrī Kumāradevī.
5. Id: Aśvamedha type. AV. Wt. 118·6 grs.
Obv., horse stands to left before a sacrificial post; beneath horse Si; around, parts of Rājādhirājaḥ
pṛithivīvijitva divaṁ jayatyā hṛtavājimedhaḥ,
“The king of kings, having conquered the earth, wins heaven, being the restorer of the Aśvamedha.”
6. Chandragupta II. Archer type. AV. Wt. 124·3 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, drawing arrow from a quiver; Garuḍa standard on left; under left arm, Chandra; around,
Deva-Śrī-Mahārājādhirāja-Śrī-Chandraguptaḥ.
Rev., goddess seated facing, on lotus; lotus in left, fillet in right hand; symbol to left; to right, Śrī Vikrama.
7. Id: Chattra type. AV. Wt. 119 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, casting incense on altar; behind him dwarf attendant holds a “chattra” over his head. Around,
Kṣitim avajitya sucaritair divaṁ jayati Vikramādityaḥ,
“Vikramāditya, having conquered the earth, wins heaven by good deeds.”
Rev., goddess Lakshmī standing facing, holding fillet and lotus; symbol to left; to right, Vikramādityaḥ.
8. Id: Horseman type. AV. Wt. 120·7 grs.
Obv., king riding on fully caparisoned horse to left, holding a bow.
Around, Paramabhāgavata Mahārājādhirāja Śrī Chandraguptaḥ,
“Supreme among Bhāgavatas, king of kings,” etc.
Rev., as No. 3. To right, Ajitavikramaḥ,
“He whose prowess is unsurpassed.”
9. Kumāragupta I. Lion-slayer type. AV. Wt. 125·6 grs.
Obv., king standing to right shoots a lion, which falls backward.
Around, Kumāragupto yudhi siṅhavikkramaḥ,
“Kumāragupta, who has the valour of a lion in battle.”
Rev., goddess Ambikā-Lakshmī seated facing, on a lion, holding fillet and lotus. To right, Siṅhamahendraḥ, “The lion Mahendra.”
10. Id: Peacock type. AV. Wt. 128·5 grs.
Obv., king standing to left, feeding peacock with a bunch of grapes.
Legend uncertain.
Rev., Kārttikeya, riding on his peacock, Parvāṇi, spear in left hand, sprinkling incense on altar. To right,
Mahendrakumāraḥ.
11. Prakāśāditya. Horseman type. AV. Wt. 145·1 grs.
Obv., king slaying a lion from horseback;
Garuḍa standard on right. Legend incomplete.
Rev., goddess seated as on No. 6.
To right, Śrī Prakāśāditya.
12. Śaśāṅka, king of Gauḍa. AV. Wt. 145 grs.
Obv., Śiva nimbate, reclining on bull (Nandi); moon above on left. On right, Śrī Śa; below, jaya.
Rev., Lakshmī seated on lotus, elephants above on either side sprinkling water on her. On right, Śrī Śaśāṅka.
13. Chandragupta II. Chattra type. Æ.
Obv., as on No. 7.
Rev., Garuḍa standing facing, with outspread wings and human arms.
Below, portions of Mahārāja Śrī Chandraguptaḥ.
Key to Plate VI
1. Kumāragupta I. W. Provinces type. AR. Wt. 33·5 grs.
Obv., bust of king to right; corrupt Greek letters.
Rev., Garuḍa standing facing, with outstretched wings.
Around,Paramabhāgavata Mahārājādhirāja Śrī
Kumāragupta Mahendrādityaḥ.
2. Skandagupta. Central Provinces Type. AR. Wt. 32·1 grs.
Obv., bust of king to right; to right, date in Brāhmī numerals.
Rev., peacock standing facing, with wings and tail outspread; border of dots.
Around, Vijitāvanir avanipati jayati divaṁ Skandagupto ’yam,
“This Skandagupta, having conquered the world,
[as] world-lord, wins heaven.”
3. Śilāditya (Harshavardhana) of Thāṇeśar. AR. Wt. about 36 grs.
Obv., bust of king to left; to left, Sa and uncertain date.
Rev., peacock as on No. 2.
Around, Vijitāvanir avanipati. Śrī Śilāditya divaṁ jayati,
“Śrī Śilāditya having conquered the world,
[as] world-lord, wins heaven.”
4. Mihiragula. AR. Wt. 54·2 grs.
Obv., bust of king to right; in front, bull-standard; behind, trident.
Legend, Jayatu Mihirakula.
Rev., debased fire-altar and attendants.
5. Napkī Malik. AR (base). About 52 grs.
Obv., bust of king with winged head-dress; above, buffalo’s head facing. Pahlavī legend, Napkī Malik.
Rev., Fire-altar and attendants, wheel over head of each.
6. Indian imitation of Sassanian coin. AR (base).
Obv. and Rev., as on No. 4, but very barbarous.
7. Toramāṇa. AR. Wt. 32·8 grs.
Obv., as on No. 3.
Rev., as on No. 3, but Śrī Toramāṇa.
8. Gadhiya paisa. AR (base). Wt. 60 grs.
Obv., head of king to right.
Rev., fire-altar. More debased than No. 6.
9. Mahoba: Hallakshaṇavarma. AV. Dramma. Wt. 63 grs.
Obv., four-armed goddess seated facing.
Rev., Śrīmad Hallakshaṇavarma Deva.
10. Ḍahāla: Gāṅgeya-deva. AV. Wt. 62 grs.
Obv., as on No. 9.
Rev., Śrīmad Gāṅgeya-deva.
11. Dehlī and Ajmer: Pṛithvī Rāja. Bil. Wt. 52 grs.
Obv., horseman to right; Śrī Pṛithvī Rāja deva.
Rev., recumbent bull to left; Asāvari Śrī Sāmanta deva.28
12. Shāhis of Ohind: Spalapati-deva. AR. Wt. 50 grs.
Obv., horseman to right. Inscription in undeciphered characters.
Rev., recumbent bull to left. Śrī Spalapati-deva.
13. Narwar: Chāhaḍa-deva. Æ. Wt. 52 grs.
Obv., as No. 11, but legend Śrī Chāhaḍa-deva.
Rev., as No. 11.
14. Kashmīr; Harsha-deva. AV. Wt. 73 grs.
Obv., horseman to right; Harsha-deva.
Rev., seated goddess.
15. Id: Diddā Rānī. Æ. Wt. about 85 grs.
Obv., standing king to right.
Rev., seated goddess. To left, Śrī; to right, Diddā.
16. Id: Yaśovarman. AV (base). Wt. 112 grs.
Obv., standing king; under left arm, Kidā (ra).
Rev., seated goddess, Śrī Yaśovarma.
The reigns of Kanishka and Huvishka coincide with the most flourishing period of the great Gandhāra school of sculpture, which had arisen during the rule of the Śaka princes. Hellenistic influence is very strongly marked in that art, and it may be interesting to consider here briefly what contribution the coins make to the vexed question of the respective parts played by Greek and Indian ideals in moulding its character. A careful inspection of the successive coinages of the Indo-Greeks, the Śakas and the Kushāṇas will show that the strongest influences of pure Greek art had passed away before the reign of Kanishka. With the establishment of Greek rule south of the Hindu Kush, traces of the Indian craftsman’s hand begin to appear. As time goes on these become more apparent, until, in the Kushāṇa period, the whole fabric of the coins, if not entirely Indian, is far more Oriental than Greek. That purely Indian influences were strongly at work is very evident in the cult of Śiva as expressed on the coins of Vima Kadphises and Vāsudeva for instance; in the Buddha coins of Kadaphes and Kanishka, and in the typical Indian cross-legged attitude in which Kadphises II and Huvishka are depicted; and, after all is said, the art was produced in India and must have been largely if not entirely the work of Indian craftsmen. Originality in art does not so much consist in evolving something which has never existed before, but rather in the ability to absorb fresh ideas and transmute them into a new form. And thus it was in the time of Kanishka: Indian mysticism allowed itself to be clad in Greek beauty of form. Eastern feeling ran, as it were, into Western moulds to create this wonderful aftermath of Hellenic art, which left an indelible mark upon every country of the Orient where the cult of the Buddha penetrated.