Photo: SpeakingArch · CC BY-SA 4.0Copper coins of the Yaudheya republic of the Haryana plains, dedicated to Kartikeya and struck in the name of the gana, not of a king.
The best-known inscription reads “yaudheya-ganasya jayah”, victory to the Yaudheya republic. Many show Kartikeya, sometimes six-headed, holding his spear, with his peacock; others show a bull and an elephant. Rudradaman’s Junagadh inscription boasts of crushing the Yaudheyas, “proud of their title of heroes among all Kshatriyas”.
They show a self-governing republic of warriors that put its gana and its war-god on its coins for some five centuries.
CoinThe first coins of Bharat: small pieces of silver of a set weight, stamped one symbol at a time with separate punches.
CoinSilver coins of a Greek king of Bactria that carry the oldest known images of Balarama and Vasudeva-Krishna.
CoinGold coins of the Kushana emperors showing Shiva with his trident and Nandi, named in the Bactrian inscription as OESHO.
CoinLead and potin coins of the Satavahana king Yajna Sri Satakarni showing a two-masted ship.
CoinA gold coin showing Chandragupta I with his Licchavi queen Kumaradevi, both named, with the word “Licchavayah” on the back.
CoinA gold dinar struck to mark Samudragupta’s horse sacrifice: the consecrated horse stands before the sacrificial post.
CoinThe gold coins of the Gupta emperors, which their own inscriptions call dinaras: portraits of kings as archers, horsemen and lion-slayers, with Lakshmi on the back.
CoinSilver coins of the Shahi kings of Kabul and Udabhandapura, with Nandi on one side and a horseman on the other.
