Extremely Rare Vaikuntha type

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 276. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Gupta Empire. First Dynasty. Chandragupta II Vikramaditya. Circa AD 380-413. AV Dinar (7.68 g, 12h). Vaikuntha type. “Prarathamatha...kshitamabhipata dava?” in Brahmi, Chandragupta, nimbate, diademed, and wearing Kushan-style regalia, standing left, wearing half-sleeved jewelled coat, trousers, conical long cap, earrings, necklace, and armlets, dropping purodasas (offerings) onto altar with right hand and holding rajadanda (standard) in left; filleted Garuda behind altar; “Chandra” in Brahmi in inner right field / “Sri Vikrama” in Brahmi, Lakshmi seated right and Narayana Vishnu seated vis-à-vis on couch; standard behind. BKB, p. 29 and catalog number 60 (rev. only of coin illustrated on cover); A.F.R. Hoernle, Philological Secretary, “Reports on Coins” in Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1888 , pp. 129-130 = Altekar, pp. 138-140 and pl. IX, 6; BMC Guptas -; Bayana, p. lxxvi. VF, struck with worn dies. Extremely rare, BKB cites only three other specimens.

This identification of the figures on the reverse of this coin have been the object of some scholarly debate. Hoernele thought that it represented an intimate scene in the life of Chandragupta, possibly a drinking party between himself and one of his consorts. While Altekar also identified the figures as a seated Chandragupta and consort, he argued against it being an intimate scene on the basis of Hindu prohibitions depicting such intimate activity on royal coinage, but made no attempt to elucidate what the two figures were actually doing. More recent scholarship, however, has suggested that the figures are divinities. C.D. Chatterjee (JNSI XXXVII [1975], pp. 91-99) argued that, as Chandragupta assumed the epithet Paramabhagavata (supremely devout), the figures must represent Lakshmi and Narayana Vishnu, and the scene is a representation of Vaikuntha, their supreme abode.