Bhanugupta is the only Later Gupta ruler attested in both numismatic and epigraphic sources — a rock inscription at Eran dated to 510–511 CE records him fighting a "great battle," almost certainly against the Huna invaders pressing into the Gangetic plain. The debased gold of this issue is a direct material consequence of that pressure: the fiscal strain of sustained military campaigns against the Huns eroded the metal purity that earlier Gupta dinars had maintained for well over a century.
Bhanugupta is the only Later Gupta ruler attested in both numismatic and epigraphic sources — a rock inscription at Eran dated to 510–511 CE records him fighting a "great battle," almost certainly against the Huna invaders pressing into the Gangetic plain. The debased gold of this issue is a direct material consequence of that pressure: the fiscal strain of sustained military campaigns against the Huns eroded the metal purity that earlier Gupta dinars had maintained for well over a century.