Coin of Chandragupta II (c. 400 CE): Art, History and Details

Coin of Chandragupta II (c. 400 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The rulers of the Gupta dynasty unified northern India under native rule for the first time since the Maurya empire (323-185 bc). The Guptas named themselves after Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya dynasty. This coin of Chandragupta II, who ruled from around ad 380 to 415, depicts a divine archer holding a bow and arrow. On the reverse is the Indian goddess of good fortune, Shri, seated on a lotus.

Object facts

• Title: Coin of Chandragupta II
• Date: c. 400 CE
• Culture: India, Chandragupta II, Gupta Period, late 4th-early 5th century
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 1.9 cm (3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1977.62

Collection credit

Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1977.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 65, no. 1, 1978, pp. 2–43.
• "Annual Report for 1977." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 6 (1978): 177-215.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.