Research Paper
Durgā of the Guptas: A Numismatic Re-Examination
Authors: Arindam Chaturvedi
Year: 2025, Volume: 16, Page/Article: 193-215, DOI: https://doi.org/10.47509/AA.2025.v16i.11
Abstract
Coins of the Gupta Dynasty bear witness and testimony to the emergent trends in the interconnected world of Imperial Politics, Religious-Systems, Trade-organizations and Monarchical Propaganda of the times. Their study acquaints us with the prevalent iconographic conventions and ritual imagery of popular deity-figures, in a way inspired by the preceding Kuṣāṇa Numismatics. While the feminine deity-figure on the reverse of these coins is generally identified as Lakṣmī and river-goddess Gangā, a female deity-figure sitting atop a couchant or recumbent lion awaits attributional definitiveness and identification with certitude. Some have proposed to see in her an early form of Durgā with her characteristic feline mount, while others have labeled her as Lakṣmī in a dramatic numismatic communion with the reigning King, who occupies the obverse-device in myriad actions, styles and poses. Using two renowned numismatic cases of her occurrence as the chief reverse-device of gold Gupta Coins, i.e. Chandragupta I-Kumāradevī type and Lion-slayer type, and utilizing the contextual delineation and discourse that forms the numismatic essence of Gupta coinage, this paper shall make an attempt to unravel the mystery of the Goddess Mystique, and put forth arguments to astutely and affirmatively identify her as Goddess Durgā.
Keywords: Durgā, Chandragupta I-Kumāradevī, Licchhavis, Lion-slayer, Siṃhavikrama, Goddess-figure.