An Extraordinary Example

CNG 93, Lot: 713. Estimate $15000. Sold for $15000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Huvishka. Circa AD 152-192. AV Dinar (19mm, 8.01 g, 12h). Mint II (B). 1st emission. ÞAONANOÞAO OOhÞKI KOÞA(retrograde h)O, nimbate, diademed, and crowned half-length bust facing on clouds, head left, holding mace-scepter in right hand, left hand on hilt of sword / MAACh(retrograde h)O, Maaseno, nimbate and crowned, standing facing, holding bird-tipped and filleted scepter in right hand, left hand on hilt of sword; tamgha to left. MK 298 (O31/R3); Donum Burns 271; CNG 69, lot 848; Triton VIII, lot 683; Künker 89, lot 2982. FDC, lustrous. Possibly the finest known.

Maaseno was the Kushan incarnation of the Hindu god Karttikeya, or Skanda, whose epithet was Mahasena. A particularly important deity to Yaudheyas, with his cult center at the Yaudheya capital of Rohitaka, it is highly probable that he entered the Kushan pantheon as a result of Kushan expansion into the territory of the Yaudheyas.