CNG 109, Lot: 405. Estimate $5000. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Post-Kushan (Gandhara). Kidara Shahis. Meghama[...]. Circa 7th century AD. Base AV Dinar (22mm, 7.47 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.); CNG 103, lot 486. Good VF, toned, minor obverse die break. Extremely rare.

This coin type was completely unknown until a small group of similar examples was dicsovered in Kashmir. It shares a reverse type with the previous lots, but this coin’s obverse, with the figure of Siva Pashupati (Lord of the Beasts), appears quite stylistically similar to earlier Gupta dinars. The obverse Brahmi legend, meghama, 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 legend on all known examples is incomplete, however, making such a definitive conclusion uncertain. Only more research will help to understand this fascinating coinage.