Treasures of the Gupta Empire : A Numismatic History of the Golden Age of India

Coins have existed for over 2,000 years in India, but none have matched the sheer beauty and complexity of the coins issued by the kings of the Gupta dynasty from the fourth through the sixth centuries AD. Starting from the first of the Gupta kings, Chandragupta I in AD 319, to the last king Vishnugupta in AD 543, their coins are a historical record detailing the evolution of the Gupta style and its impact on religious art from India’s Golden Age. The clues hidden in the coin designs, Brahmi legends, dates, and metrology have been deciphered here to help reconstruct the history of the Gupta dynasty. This work greatly expands upon A. S. Altekar’s 1957 effort to fully document the coinage and to understand its impact on the history of India. It includes the rarest of the coins from the collections of major international museums as well as private collections, otherwise inaccessible to most researchers, and provides full-color, high-definition images of type specimens for each variety of coin issued by the Gupta kings. Fully revised and expanded for this 2nd edition, Treasures of the Gupta Empire will help researchers, collectors, and history buffs fully understand the Gupta dynasty’s complex history and beautiful coinage, and will serve as the most comprehensive numismatic and historical reference of the Gupta dynasty for years to come.