CNG 103, Lot: 486. Estimate $7500. Sold for $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Post-Kushan (Gandhara). Kidara Shahis. Meghama[...]. Circa 7th century AD. Base AV Dinar (22mm, 7.45 g, 12h). Siva Pashupati (Lord of the Beasts), nimbate and standing left, making mudra gesture with right hand and holding filleted trident in left; behind, lioness or tiger standing left with head right; trace of meghana in Brahmi in upper left / Goddess seated facing on lotus, holding lotus in left and right hand; [Kidara monogram to left], jaya in Brahmi to right. Cf. Cunningham, Coins of Medieval India 3-4 (for rev.); otherwise unpublished. Near EF.

Prior to the discovery of a small group of similar examples in Kashmir, this coin type was completely unknown. Sharing a reverse type with the previous lot, this coin's obverse, with the figure of Siva Pashupati (Lord of the Beasts), appears quite stylistically similar to earlier Gupta dinars. To date, the obverse Brahmi legend has been visible, and can be read as meghama. This reading has led some scholars to associate this issue with Meghavana, a Gonaddha ruler of Kashmir, mentioned in the twelfth-century Kashmiri history, The Rajatarangini of Kalhana. The incompleteness of the legend, however, makes such a conclusion uncertain. .Only more research will help to unlock the hidden secrets of this fascinating coinage.