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CHRONOLOGY OF GUJARAT
figure of Eros, the God of Love, who as an oarsman is plying with an oar, pointing to the aspect of the Aphrodite taking the role of his mother, the protectress of the Roman and Greek navigators coming to distant India. It is an important material evidence of the Roman trade in Gujarat which once passed through Bharukaccha to Ujjain and Mathura by way of Karvan and Baroda. According to the Periplus, the imports from Barygaza included wine, porcelain, perfumes, vessels of copper and brass.-(M. D. Desai, Baroda Museum Bulletin, Vol. VII, Pts. I-II, 1949-50 )--( Plate XXI c). Such handles and similar Roman bronze vessels were found from Brahmapuri excavations near Kolhapur, with a typical Hellenistic art-tradition.
The beautiful Roman Stone Cameo of some patrician woman was discovered from Karvan, the place of Lakulisa fame.-(R. N. Mehta, M. S. Univ. Journal, 1954)-( Plate XXI d, enlarged)
Coins*: The coins of the Ksaharāta, Āndhra and Kārdamaka i.e. the Western Kşatrapas are obtained from various places in Saurāştra and Gujarat, mostly from Junagadh and Bharukaccha. In the absence of more details regarding the mode of government, the coins of the Western Kşatrapas form an excellent series; because each coin gives the name of the king, from the legends on which, a connected account and a complete geneology of the dynasty is supplied. These coins are of silver, copper and occasionally of lead; because the coins of Castana's successors bear dates, and each coin gives the name of the king and his father.-( Plates XXII, XXIII)
Bodhi Dynasty: The coins of Bodhi dynasty are of lead, hardly half an inch in diameter. They are known so far exclusively from the collection of Bhagvanlal Indraji, which is now in British Museum. Provanance is unknown; but most likely they were found in some region of Western India connected with the Western Ksatrapas, i.e. Saurāştra and Gujarat.
Of the four rulers known of this dynasty, the coins of three Sribodhi, Sivabodhi and Candrabodhi are of one and the same type. They are blank on one side and on the other they bear a three-arched hill and the legend bearing simply their names viz., Siribodhisa, Sivabodhisa and Siri Candabodhisa.
The coins of the fourth ruler fall distinctly in three varieties: (i) tree in railing, man standing to its right on obverse, and on reverse three-arched hill surmounted by crescent ; on either side waved line represented vertically and the legend Virabodhisa on the reverse ; (ii) obverse is uncertain, reverse same as (i), but the legend Virabodhidatasa; (iii) Tree in railing on obverse, three-arched hill surmounted by crescent and legend Virabodhisa on the reverse.
Kșaharāta Dynasty : The coins of Bhūmaka are known exclusively in copper and they have on one side' arrow pointing upward, thunderbolt to its right and in between a
* This detailed Note on Ksatrapa Coins is subscribed by Sri Paramesvari Lal Gupta, Keeper of the Coins Gallery, Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay at the request of the General Editor.
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