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Gadhaiya Paisa - Chalukyas of Gujarat, north-western India
| Issuer | Chalukyas of Gujarat |
|---|---|
| Year | 1120-1210 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 4.4 g |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylized and degenerate derivative of a Sasanian royal bust, rendered in low relief on an irregular flan. The central device retains vestigial elements of the original facing or three-quarter bust, reduced to a series of vertical strokes with bulbous terminals arranged symmetrically in the field, flanked by pellet-and-arc border elements. Pellets are disposed around the inner periphery, echoing the dotted border of the Indo-Sasanian prototype. The design reflects the progressive schematization characteristic of late Gadhaiya Paisa coinage produced in the Chalukya territories of Gujarat during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Highly abstracted representation derived from the Sasanian fire altar motif, the original design now reduced to a series of stylized linear and pellet elements typical of the late Gadhaiya Paisa series. The field shows schematic vertical strokes with globular terminals arranged in a symmetrical pattern, with pellets bordering the periphery, continuing the Indo-Sasanian iconographic tradition as perpetuated by the Chalukyas of Gujarat. The progressive degeneration of the prototype is characteristic of issues attributed to the period circa 1120-1210 AD. |
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| Additional information |
The Gadhaiya Paisa tradition began as a crude imitation of Sasanian silver drachms introduced into northwestern India centuries earlier, degrading through generations of copying until the original imagery became barely recognizable. By the Chalukyan period, the type had been struck so continuously and by so many local authorities that individual attribution is often impossible — the coins were effectively a regional currency standard rather than a sovereign issue. Billon content varies considerably across the series, with some dies producing coins closer to base copper than silver.