Kumaragupta II came to power in approximately 472 or 473 AD and was succeeded by his uncle Budhagupta in 475 or 476 AD.
His coins are fairly numerous and confined to the Archer Type. Some of his coins show the letters ji, ta, etc between the kings feet and this is used to distinguish between the Classes of this coin type.
Class I - with no letters between kings feet. Under Kings left arm Ku, bowstring turned inwards, Hunter (whip) at waist. Arrow in right hand.
Class II - with letters between kings feet. Var. A - go Var. B - jo, ja.
A circular legend can be seen on the obverse - Maharajadhiraja- sri- kumaraguptah. Reverse legend is Kramajita . See coin below - Class III.
Goddess lakshmi seated on lotus holding lotus flower in left hand.
Class I
Obverse: King facing left, no symbol between Kings legs, Legend mostly off the flan, Ku under Kings left arm, holding bow - bowstring facing in. Crescent over Ku. Hunter (whip) hanging off kings waist. 9.3gms.
Reverse: Lakshmi seated on Lotus, holding lotus flower in left hand. Legend: Kramajita
Kumaragupta II Archer type coin
kumaragupta II Archer Coins
9.0 gms
Class II
Coins of this type show a letter such as ji or ta between feet. Weight of coins is always in the 9.0gms + range.
KUMARAGUPTA II ARCHER TYPE COIN
Kumaragupta II Archer Type, Class II - Symbol between legs of King on Obverse. The symbol on this coin is ji .
'Ku' under kings arm, holding bow and arrow. 9.63gms.
KUMARAGUPTA II KALIGHAT HOARD ARCHER TYPE GOLD COIN INDIA
Original Coin from the famous Kalighat Hoard found in 1783 at Kalighat near Calcutta.
'Ku' under kings arm, holding bow and arrow. 9.47gms. Symbol between Kings feet is 'ta' .
Biruda on reverse: Kramajita
The Kalighat hoard found in 1783 at Kalighat on the eastern bank of the Hugli River near Calcutta is the earliest recorded hoard of Gupta coins. Nab Kishen, who is said to have discovered this hoard, presented approximately 200 coins to Warren Hastings, who was at that time the then Governor General of India. These coins were later sent to the Directors of the East India Company London, who presented 24 of them to the British Museum, nearly an equal number to the Museum of Mr. Hunter (currently called the Hunterian Museum), and some coins to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and to the Public Library at Cambridge.
The remaining pieces were eventually unfortunately melted down by the Directors of the East India Company. A study of all of the available specimen shows that ALL of the coins from this hoard were of the later Gupta Kings and also that ALL of these coins exhibited an unusual discoloring - a patina that coated the coins as part of a chemical reaction resulting from the storage of these coins in a metal pot for over 1500+ years as per the paper presented by Ms. Susmita Majumdar from the University of Calcutta in Nov 2010 at the Punjab University conference on the Gupta Dynasty and it's coins.
This coin is from the Spink Auction, December 1, 2010 - "Property of an Indian Prince" Lot 478.
This coin published in Oriental Numismatic Society - October 2010 issue: New Discoveries and Varieties in Gupta Coinage.
This is a Key coin in solving the mystery of the biruda on the reverse of the heavy weight Kumaragupta II coins. First coin to be used to deciper the biruda for the later King Kumaragupta - Kramajita
KUMARAGUPTA II ARCHER COIN
This is one of those coin specimen's which are referred to as an 'enigmatic' coin!
From the looks of this coin, it's a beautiful design of Mint A2 characteristic's (Ellen Raven's Mint style Classification) and a good execution of the Archer Type.
(Mint A2 was one of the two Royal Mints, as proposed by Ms. Ellen Raven, both of which were responsible for producing the highest quality designs in the Gupta coins. Coins from Mint B were all on a smaller flan, while coins of mint A2 were struck on larger wider flans.)
However, the weight is 9.23gms - 143grains !!
Initially when this coin came to light, the legend under the Kings arm on the Obverse was read as "Chandra".
Later, Ms. Raven, correctly pointed out that the reading should actually be read as "Ku" - the sash tied around the Kings waist creates a loop and that was being mistakenly read as a 'Cha" leading to "Chandra" .
If you look closely at the bottom of the coin, you will notice that the die shifted, causing the bowstring and the bow to be misaligned... consequently also moving the top part of the "K" from "Ku".
Now it has indeed be clarified that this coin is a coin of a later King also named Kumaragupta (based on the heavier weight).
The reverse Biruda is very clearly shown on this coin. This is quite a treat as the biruda on the coins of these heavier weight Kumaragupta coins were very difficult to read (see coins above)... this biruda is clearly showing a reading of KramaJita !! This is truly an exciting discovery as for the first time this new title for a later Gupta King has been identified.
It is possible that the letters ' Ji ' found on the Obverse of some Kumaragupta Archer coins were in fact an affirmation of the Kings Biruda.
