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Drachma - Harshadeva First Lohar Dynasty
| Issuer | Kashmir, Post-Hunnic dynasties of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1089-1101 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Drachm |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Schematised equestrian effigy of the king advancing to the right, depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear upright in his right hand. The figure and horse are rendered in the highly stylised, linear idiom characteristic of late Kashmir silver coinage, with the design elements distributed across the field in a bold, almost abstract manner. A Brahmi legend naming the issuer appears in the field surrounding the central device. The flan is irregular and the die-work exhibits the robust, deeply-cut relief typical of hammered issues of the First Lohar Dynasty. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Brahmi |
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| Additional information |
Harshadeva ruled Kashmir at a moment of genuine cultural florescence — his court attracted poets, scholars, and the historian Kalhana, whose Rajatarangini remains the earliest surviving systematic historical chronicle produced in the Indian subcontinent. The irony is that Kalhana wrote his chronicle partly as an indictment of Harsha's later reign, documenting the king's descent into temple-looting and financial desperation as his treasury collapsed under the weight of military campaigns and court excess.
That fiscal crisis is precisely why these coins exist in the form they do — silver coinage from Harsha's reign frequently shows debasement progressing across the issue sequence, a material record of a kingdom consuming itself.