The Shivlee Collection of coins from the Gupta Dynasty, India.
The Shivlee Collection of coins from the Gupta Empire has been formed over many decades and is presented here online as a resource to further the research and help in the study of Gupta Numismatics and History.
While the Gupta Empire coin mintage was substantial and coins from this era are found in museums, the Shivlee Collection is one of the most extensive and premiere collections of this dynasty outside of a museum setting and possibly the most complete collection outside of the National Museum in Delhi, India.
These coins should be viewed as masterpieces of Art made by highly skilled mint masters during the golden age of India.
In this collection, you will find some of rarest coins of their Type and Variety known to exist and in many cases the only known varieties known to exist.
Enjoy!
Classification:
For purposes of Classification and background information on coins, we have relied heavily on Dr. A. S. Altekar's book from the series - Corpus of Indian Coins Vol. IV - The Coinage of Gupta Empire, A.S. Altekar, Numismatic Society of India, Banaras Hindu University, 1957. This book covers the entire Gupta Dynasty and all of the coin types.
The Gupta dynasty emerged as a powerful force in India around 260 A.D. and was the first dynasty of kings to truly unite the region and create a unified empire in India that stretched from the Arabian sea in the western region to the Bay of Bengal in the east.
Samudragupta was the first major king of the dynasty and strengthened his alliances by marrying into the Licchavi clan to Kumaradevi. He united the kingdoms between the samudra's to the west and east and hence proclaimed himself the title "Samudra-gupta".
One of the major sources of historically accurate data on the Gupta Dynasty comes from the Allahabad Pillar inscriptions, which details out the chronological history of the Gupta Dynasty as well as the details of the conquests of the Gupta Kings and the formation of the Gupta Empire.
THE major source of numismatic study of the Gupta Kings comes from the Bayana Hoard.
On Feburary 17th, 1946, three village boys were searching for spent cartridges in the fields outside of the village of Hullanpura (Bayana Railway Junction) in Bharatpur state. The village is surrounded by hills and His Highness Shri Brajendra Swai Maharajadiraja Sri Barendra Singji, the Maharaja of Bharatpur, had been in the same area about a month before on a shooting expedition.
In the process of searching for the cartridges, the three boys came upon an embankment on the eastern side of a low lying field to the east of Nagla Chella. The embankment was approximately two feet in height. The children pulled out a shrub, hoping to find the cartridge shells and just six inches below the surface, they discovered a copper pot with a long spout. Inside, the pot was filled with almost 2106 pcs of beautiful gold coins from the Gupta Dynasty.
The villagers spent no time in trying to dispose off this treasure and started melting the gold coins to turn them into the ornaments. As word of this find got around, the Bharatpur authorities stepped in and took hold of the treasure, by now consisting of only 1821 coins. It is estimated that almost 285 coins were melted prior to this.
The Maharaja of Bharatpur took possession of this treasure and realizing that this find was of huge historical importance, sought the help of Dr. A.S. Altekar who at that time as the Chairman of the Numismatic Society of India and an expert in Gupta coins. Dr. Altekar worked on catalogueing this collection of gold coins and in 1954 published the Catalogue of THE GUPTA GOLD COINS in the Bayana Hoard. This comprehensive study of the coins from the hoard formed the basis of the Gupta Numismatics.
Along with a huge selection of coins to study from, this hoard also yeilded previously unknown types and varieties. The majority of these coins were in mint state condition and made it easier to read the legends. This group of coins contained coins of Samudragupta and all kings of the Dynasty upto the reign of king Skandagupta. Therefore it is assumed that the copper pot was buried sometime during the begining years of Skandagupta.
As of 1954, when the catalogue of the Bayana Hoard was published, the distribution of the coins from of the treasure was as follows:
Palace Cabinet, Bharatpur - 78 coins Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benaras Hindu University - 78 coins The Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay - 20 coins Patna University coin Cabinet - 18 coins The Patna Museum, Bihar - 59 coins National Museum of India, New Delhi - 209 coins
This equals 463 coins. No doubt additional Museums also received coins from this Hoard.
The Maharaja of Bharatpur also presented some of the coins from this treasure as gifts to relatives.... six of these coins from the original treasure are now in the Shivlee Collection - the largest group of original Bayana Hoard coins in a private collection.
Coins from the Bayana Hoard in the Shivlee Collection:
Samudragupta - Asvamedha type - 1 coin Chandragupta II - Archer type - 1 coin Kumaragupta I - Tiger Slayer type -3 coins Kumaragupta I - Horseman type - 1 coin
Key coins in the Shivlee collection also came from:
- The Skanda collection - J. Pierpont Morgan Collection - G.M. Browne Collection - William Spengler Collection of Gupta Coins
We hope you find the information on this website helpful. We are continually adding to this collection and update the site on a regular basis.
If you have suggestions to improve the website, please do let us know... we would love to hear from you.
Questions or Comments - please free to send an email to admin@shivlee.com
