Coins of Bharat

A coin carries a king’s name, his gods and his claims, and it is found where it was spent. These are the coins on this site, in order of date, each with its findspot and its present home.

Coins of Bharat: 12 objects

01Coin · c. 6th–2nd century BCE

Punch-marked karshapanas

The first coins of Bharat: small pieces of silver of a set weight, stamped one symbol at a time with separate punches.

Found: In hoards across the subcontinent, from Taxila to the Deccan and the Gangetic plain
Kept at: National Museum, New Delhi; British Museum; most Indian state museums

02Coin · c. 190–180 BCE

Agathocles’ coins of Balarama and Krishna

Silver coins of a Greek king of Bactria that carry the oldest known images of Balarama and Vasudeva-Krishna.

Found: Six square silver drachms found at Ai-Khanoum, northern Afghanistan, in 1970
Kept at: The Ai-Khanoum pieces went to the Kabul Museum; a few other specimens are known

03Coin · c. 1st–3rd century CE

Kushana coins of Shiva (Oesho)

Gold coins of the Kushana emperors showing Shiva with his trident and Nandi, named in the Bactrian inscription as OESHO.

Found: Across the Kushana lands, from Bactria and Gandhara to Mathura
Kept at: British Museum; National Museum, New Delhi; Musée Guimet, Paris; and other collections

04Coin · Late 2nd century CE

Satavahana ship coins

Lead and potin coins of the Satavahana king Yajna Sri Satakarni showing a two-masted ship.

Found: Along the Coromandel coast, between the Krishna and the Kaveri
Kept at: Government Museum, Chennai; British Museum and other collections

05Coin · c. 2nd century BCE–4th century CE

Yaudheya coins of Kartikeya

Copper coins of the Yaudheya republic of the Haryana plains, dedicated to Kartikeya and struck in the name of the gana, not of a king.

Found: Haryana, Punjab and northern Rajasthan; clay coin moulds found by Birbal Sahni at Khokrakot, Rohtak
Kept at: Museums in Haryana and Delhi; the Indian Institute of Research in Numismatic Studies, Nashik; other collections

06Coin · 4th century CE

The Chandragupta–Kumaradevi coin

A gold coin showing Chandragupta I with his Licchavi queen Kumaradevi, both named, with the word “Licchavayah” on the back.

Found: Gupta hoards of north India, including Bayana
Kept at: National Museum, New Delhi; British Museum and other collections

07Coin · c. 350–375 CE

Samudragupta’s Ashvamedha coin

A gold dinar struck to mark Samudragupta’s horse sacrifice: the consecrated horse stands before the sacrificial post.

Found: Gupta hoards, including Bayana (1946)
Kept at: British Museum, National Museum New Delhi and other collections

08Coin · c. 320–550 CE

Gupta gold dinars

The 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.

Found: Hoards across north India; the largest, nearly two thousand coins, at Hullanpura near Bayana, Bharatpur, in 1946
Kept at: Many of the Bayana coins in museums across India; also British Museum, Ashmolean Museum and others

09Coin · c. 9th–10th century CE

Hindu Shahi bull-and-horseman coins

Silver coins of the Shahi kings of Kabul and Udabhandapura, with Nandi on one side and a horseman on the other.

Found: Afghanistan, Gandhara and the Punjab, in large numbers
Kept at: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, British Museum and many other collections

10Coin · c. 10th–12th century CE

Chola coins

Gold, silver and copper coins of the imperial Cholas, bearing the seated tiger of the Cholas beside the fish of the Pandyas and the bow of the Cheras.

Found: Across Tamil Nadu and in great numbers in Sri Lanka
Kept at: Government Museum, Chennai; Colombo National Museum; British Museum and others

11Coin · 14th–17th century CE

Vijayanagara gold varaha

The small, thick gold coin of Vijayanagara, called varaha after the boar on the royal seal, hon in Marathi and Kannada, and “pagoda” by the Europeans.

Found: Across South India and in hoards as far as Sri Lanka
Kept at: Government Museum, Chennai; British Museum and other collections

12Coin · Struck from 1674 CE

Shivaji’s Shivrai hon

The gold coin of the new Hindavi Swarajya, with the king’s name and title in Devanagari and no reference to any Mughal overlord.

Found: Minted for the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Raigad, 6 June 1674
Kept at: Rare; a few specimens survive in museum and private collections

Itihas History: eras, kings, people, battles

Dharma Sacred heritage: temples, texts, bhajans

Darshan Museum: galleries and exhibitions

Shiksha Learn: short paths in order

Pramana Proof: evidence, myths, method