Catalog
Debased Dinar - Vigrahatunga
| Issuer | Kidarite Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 600-800 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Highly abstracted representation of the goddess Ardoksho, the Kushano-Sasanian deity of prosperity, rendered in a schematised Kidarite style that reduces the figure to near-geometric forms. The deity is surrounded by decorative devices and symbolic ornaments in the field, consistent with late Kidarite artistic conventions. A Brahmi legend in the Kidara style encircles the central design, reading Sri Vigraha Tunga, identifying the issuing ruler. The overall composition reflects the progressive stylisation and debasement characteristic of post-Kidarite emissions of the 7th to 9th centuries. |
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| Reverse lettering | (Translation: sri vigraha / tunga) |
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| Additional information |
The Kidarites entered the historical record as successors to the Kushano-Sasanian kings in Bactria, and their coinage tells the story of a dynasty under sustained fiscal pressure. This piece, struck sometime within a two-century window, sits at the extreme end of a long debasement sequence: what began as near-pure Kushan gold dinars had by this point collapsed to a tri-metallic alloy barely qualifying as gold coinage by any ancient standard. The debasement was not sudden — it tracks the political fragmentation and repeated Hephthalite incursions that eroded Kidarite territorial and economic control across the region.