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1 Drachm - Vijayasena
| Issuer | Western Satraps |
|---|---|
| Year | 239-251 |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Obverse description | Draped bust of Vijayasena facing right, rendered in the stylized Hellenistic-derived tradition typical of Western Satrap coinage, with striated hair swept back and a diadem visible above the brow. A fish symbol appears to the upper right of the effigy, a characteristic emblem on Western Satrap drachms. The regnal date in Brahmi numerals is positioned in the left field behind the head. The portrait, though schematic, retains individualized facial features consistent with the ruler's dynastic type. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central device depicting a chaitya (three-arched hill or Ujjain symbol) flanked by a river or wavy line below, with a crescent moon to the upper left and a sun symbol to the upper right, following the canonical reverse type of Western Satrap drachms. A Brahmi legend encircles the design, commencing between the 1 and 3 o'clock positions and reading around the periphery of the flan. The composition is compact and well-centred within the irregular hammered flan, displaying the characteristic die-engraving style of the Western Satrap series. |
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| Additional information |
Vijayasena ruled as one of the later Western Satraps of the Kshatrapa dynasty, a line of Indo-Scythian governors who maintained control over Malwa and Gujarat for nearly four centuries despite sustained pressure from the Satavahana dynasty to the south and, eventually, the expanding Gupta empire. The dynasty's silver drachms were struck in an unbroken administrative tradition stretching back to Nahapana in the first century, with regnal years recorded in Brahmi script — one of the most consistent dating conventions in ancient Indian numismatics.
The AMF reference places this piece within Maheshwari's systematic cataloguing of Kshatrapa coinage, which remains the authoritative typological framework for the series.