² Śaśāṅka, king of Gauḍa (7th century A.D.) had his capital at Karṇasuvarṇa, adjacent to the famous Raktamṛttikā-Vihāra which is identified with RājbāḌidāṅgā (24°2′27″ N and 88°12′18″ E), at Jadupur Village (Murshidabad District, West Bengal). See Das, S. R., Rājbāḍidāṅgā: 1962, Calcutta, 1968, 43.Google Scholar

³ For gold coins of Śaśāṅka, see Smith, V. A., Catalogue of the coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, I, Oxford, 1906Google Scholar (repr. as Coins of ancient India, Delhi-Varanasi, 1972Google Scholar), 98 and 121–2; Allan, J., Catalogue of the Indian coins in the British Museum: Catalogue of the coins of the Gupta dynasties, London 1914, cv and 147–8Google Scholar; Altekar, A. S., The coinage of the Gupta empire, Benaras, 1957, 128 ff.Google Scholar; for recent discoveries see Journal of the Dacca Museum, I, 1975, 43–4.Google Scholar

⁴ These coins were discovered by a fisherman in the bank of the river Curzoncreek in ‘G’-plot (24-Parganas, West Bengal). They are now preserved in a small museum attached to the High School mentioned in n. 1 (above). This place is near to the find-spot of the famous Rakshaskhali copper plate of Śrīma(d) Domannapāladeva (IHQ, X, 1934, 321 ff.). A communication on their discovery was presented by me at the 66th session of the All India Numismatic Conference held at the University of Burdwan (West Bengal) on 19 December 1978.Google Scholar

⁵ These are also preserved at the School museum mentioned in n. 1, above.

⁶ In the opinion of Smith, (op. cit., 121) the figure represented on the bull was the king (not Śiva).Google Scholar

⁷ Śaśāṅka may or may not have been a persecutor of Buddhism (see Watters, Thomas, On Yuan Chwang's travels in India, 629–645 A.D., London, 1904–1905, 11, 43, 93, 115Google Scholar; Majumdar, R. C. (ed.), History of Bengal, I, Dacca, 1943, 66 ff.). In any event his unflinching devotion to Saivism is known from the representation of Śiva on his coins.Google Scholar

⁸ It may be mentioned here that Bāṇa makes an allusion to the gradual rise into eminence of king Śaśāṅka's maṇḍala (i.e. circle of political jurisdiction) in the following words:

Prakaṭa-kalaṅkam udayamānam…akāśatākāśe Śaśāṅka-maṇḍalam

(Harṣacaritam, ch. VI)

⁹ The depiction of the seated Gaja-Lakṣmī on the coins of Śaśāṅka is interesting, as it marks a departure from the practice of the Guptas. It also disproves the view that Gaja-Lakṣmī does not occur on coins after the first century A.D. See Sircar, D. C. (ed.), Foreigners in ancient India and Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī in art and literature, Calcutta, 1970, 112 ff.; 126 ff.Google Scholar; and Religious Life in Ancient India, Calcutta, 1970, 91 ff.Google Scholar

¹⁰ The values for the specific gravity of gold and silver are as follows: Gold, 19.3; Silver, 10.50; cf. Dean, John A. (ed.), Lange's handbook of chemistry, eleventh edition, 1973, 4–50, 4–116.Google Scholar

¹¹ Devahuti, D., Harsha, a political study, Oxford, 1970, 88.Google Scholar

¹² The following documents help us in understanding the gradual extension of Śaśāṅka's power in Orissa and adjoining regions. The two Soro plates of Somadatta (Epigraphia Indica, XXIII, 1935–1936, 19 ff.Google Scholar); the two Soro plates of Bhānudatta (IHQ, XI, 1935, 611–26Google Scholar and EI, XXIII, 1935–1936, 203–4Google Scholar); the two copper plates from Midnapore (Majumdar, R. C., “Two copper-plates of Śaśāṅka from Midnapore” JRAS Bengal, third series, XI, Pt. I, 1945, [pub.] 1948, 1–9Google Scholar); the Olasingh plate of Bhānudatta (EI, XXVIII, 1949–1950, 331 ff.Google Scholar); and the Ganjam plates (EI, VI, 1900–1901, 143 ff.).Google Scholar

¹³ Altekar, A. S., op. cit., 328.Google Scholar

¹⁴ A few coins of Śaśāṅka are in copper, plated in gold (e.g. Allan, , op. cit., 147–8, Nos. 610–11.)Google Scholar