SAMUDRAGUPTA II or King PARAKRAMADITYA
The coin below is an enigma - it is a heavy weight coin pointing to a King from a late reign in the Gupta Dynasty and yet the biruda used is Parakramah...
The biruda (imperial title) used on the reverse of the coin below is Parakramah. This title was exclusively ONLY used by Samudragupta (I).
All later Gupta Kings used other birudas. Nowhere in the recorded history (so far) discovered, have any of the later Gupta King Inscriptions been found with either an imperial title of Parakramah or a name of Samudragupta (other than the original & first King Samudragupta).
Now this heavy weight coin has been found in mint condition, but with a biruda that was not known for any of the later Gupta Kings.
Samudragupta (the first) used this title extensively on his coins:
Standard Type Parakramah
Asvamedha Type Asvamedha Prakramah
Tiger Slayer Type Vyaghra Parakramah
However now this coin below has come to light with Parakramah as a Biruda... was this coin in fact struck for another King - a so far unknown Gupta King - A new King of the Gupta lineage ... King Parakramaditya ?
The presence of the Garuda Emblem on the Obverse of this coin, clearly establishes the coin as an issue of the Gupta Empire.
E J Rapson as well as Cunningham rightly assign the title of Parakaramaditya to Samudragupta I. Of course, this coin is not an issue of Samudragupta I based on it's design characteristics as well as the weight.
It is assumed that Skandagupta assumed the title of Skandagupta Prakramaditya or Kramaditya. However, it is important to point out that all of the known coins attributed to Skandagupta only use the biruda of Kramaditya. None of the coins with Skanda on the reverse have a biruda of Parakramaditya. The design and weight characteristics of this coin clearly exclude this coin from being an issue of Skandagupta.
Dr. Bhattacharaya argued against the use of the biruda of Parakaramaditya being assigned to Skandagupta while PL Gupta continued to argue for it. A quick Web Search of this Imperial title on the Google books will show a range of books and papers published for the past 125 years arguing for and against this attribution.
This coin however is a later issue than the period of Skandagupta's reign based on both the weight and design characteristics. So, one has to now look towards reviewing and initiating a re-reading of the multitude of partial inscriptions to see if any of these can be reconstructed to point to a new King in the Gupta Lineage with the name of Sri Prakramaditya Gupta.
The design elements of this coin are close to the design elements found on coins of King Narasimhagupta.
Most probably this new King can be dated to around 480-500AD.
