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AUGUST, 1889.]
THE COINS AND HISTORY OF TORAMANA.
225
THE COINS AND HISTORY OF TORAMANA.
BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.I.E. W HEN I wrote my paper on the Legends on the Silver Coins of the Early Guptas and
V others connected with them, ante, Vol. XIV. page 65 ff., I had not had an opportunity of inspecting the coins of Toramana. Later in the same year, I examined the only two certain specimens of his coinage, both of them silver, which, I believe, are known to exist, and which are in the British Museum ; one of them being known as Colonel Bush's coin, and the other as Miss Baring's. And I have included some remarks on them in my Introduction to "the Gupta Inscriptions," Corp. Inscr. Indic. Vol. III. p. 11 f. I take this opportunity of considering them more fully, and of making some further observations.
Of both of these coins very good collotypes have been published in the Archæol. Suro. West. Ind. Vol. II. Plate vii., facing p. 36, Nos. 27 (Colonel Bush's coin) and 28 (Miss Bar. ing's) ; with an account of them, on p. 66, by Mr. Thomas. And they have also been photolithographed, but not so successfully, in the Archæol. Surt. Ind. Vol. IX. Plate v., Nos. 18, 19, with a notice by Gen. Sir A. Cunningham on p. 26 f. But, in the treatment of them by these two scholars, there are two points to which objection has to be taken. One is Mr. Thomas' interpretation of the date, as being “ 82, or rather 182 ; the figure for 100 is obliterated." The other is that both he and Gen. Sir A. Canningham made the legend include and commence with the epithet déva-janita, which, being interpreted as meaning " begotten by the gods," might be held to be justified by, and to be closely connected with, the titles Dévaputra and Daivaputra, “son of the gods, or of the deities ;" the former of which, - unless it is only an imperfect rendering of the latter, - is applied to Huvishka in his inscriptions of the years 39 and 47, and to Vasudeva in his inscription of the year 44 (?); and the latter of which, in connection with the names Shahi and Shabanushahi, occurs in the Allahâbâd pillar inscription of Samadragapta.
In passing, it may be noted that the same epithet déva-janita, rendered by "begotten of Déva (or, of the Devas)," is also given by Mr. V. A. Smith in his proposed restoration of the legend on certain gold coins of Kumâragupta (Jour. R. As. Soc., N. S., Vol. XXI. p. 100). I have not been able to trace his authority for this, or to examine the coins in question. But it may be taken as quite certain that there also the epithet does not really occur ; and that the error is of precisely the same nature as in the case of Tôramâna's coins. And the same mistake has also been made in the case of certain silver coins of Kumaragupta, Skandagupta, Bbimasena, and fśânavarman; on which Gen. Sir A. Cunningham read the same epithet, and rendered it by "His Majesty" (Archæol. Suru. Ind. Vol. IX. pp. 24, 25, 26, 27.)
Of the two examples of Toramaņa's coinage, Colonel Bush's ooin is by far the best specimen, both in execution and in preservation. On the obverse, there is the king's head, facing to the proper right. And in front of the face there is the date 52, in numerical symbols which run right onto the edge of the coin. The symbol for 2 is below the symbol for 50. Above the latter there is ample room for part of the symbol for 100, or for any following century, if it had been included on the die; but there are not any indications of this having been the case; there are no grounds for supposing that the symbol for any century 28 stamped, but has become obliterated, or was engraved on the die, but, in the stamping, fell beyond the edge of the coin ; and I am quite sure that the date never included such & symbol. On the reverse there is the more finished representation of the peacock, very well depicted with outstretched wings and fully-expanded tail, and almost identical with the peacock on the Early Gupta silver coins of Class B., as distinguished by me from the ruder representation on the coins of Class A., ante, Vol. XIV. p. 65. And round this, in characters of the same type with those of Tôramâna's inscription on the boar at Eran, (Corp. Inscr. Indic. Vol. III. No. 36, p. 158, and Plate xxiii. A.), there is the marginal legend
Soe ante, Vol. XIV. p. 66, note 6.- I have not seen Bhimasena's coin. But there is no doubt whatever about the mistake and its origin.
