2017-10-06 Fri

Last time we had seen how horses have occupied a dominant element in coin designs. Today, we will further study how this domestic animal became the symbol of King’s strength and royalty.

These coins embellish King riding or mounting a horse as its dominant design. The coinage of Indo-Scythian Kings like Vonoes & Spalahorse depicts a horseman on the obverse side of their coin. The Kushan king Kujula Kadhises also depicts a king mounted on a horse but on the reverse side.

The above-shown billon coin belongs to Indo-Parthian King, Adbagases. The obverse of this coin depicts King on horseback facing right with dynastic Parthian monogram in the right. The Bactarian-Greek continuous legend ‘BASILEOUNTOS BASILEON ABDAGASOUY’ is encircled around it.

The reverse side of this coin depicts Greek god, Zeus in a standing position and facing left with a monogram on the left side. A Kharosthi countermark is inscribed on the right side of the field with Kharosthi continuous legends ‘Gudupharabhrata Putrasa Maharajasa Tratarasa Avadagashasa’ encircled around it.

The Silaharas of Konkan also issued horseman type of coins which circulated between 1000-1200 CE. King Azes II, an Indo-Scythian King also issued a coin representing horseman. The Hindu Shahi coins of King Samanta Deva from Kabul also depicted equestrian images. The king of Hindu Shahi like Prithviraj Chauhan III, Khudarayaka, Bhima Deva, Angapala, Chijapala, Sri Spalapati, etc also depicted a king mounted on a horse which is galloping towards right on their coinage.

To know more about horses on Indian coins click here