Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 1091. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDIA, Kushan Empire. Vasudeva I. Circa AD 192-225. AV Dinar (7.94 g, 11h). Mint I (A). Vasudeva, nimbate and helmeted, standing facing, head left, sacrificing over altar to left and holding filleted standard; to left, filleted trident behind / Ithyphallic Siva with three heads standing facing, holding lotus in extended lower right hand, filleted investiture garland in raised upper right hand, trident in raised upper left hand and resting lowered left hand on bull Nandi standing to right, behind; tamgha above to right, three pellets to left of Siva's right leg. MK 506/6 (same dies). Good VF.

In the traditional henotheistic view of Hinduism, Siva is one part of the Trimurti, the three aspects which make up the supreme godhead (the other two being Brahma, the Creator, and Visnu, the preserver). On Kushan coins depicting Siva, the god is sometimes portrayed as a figure with a tripartite head and in association with Nandi, the bull of happiness and strength. The worship of Siva also employed a much more ancient and abstract form of the god: that of a conical or ithyphallic-shaped stone, or siva lingam, set within a yoni, a round base with a single projecting channel. Together, the siva lingam and yoni represented the respective male and female parts; their mystical union emphasize the mystical powers of generation.