| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Object ID | OB00050 |
| Title | Bhitari Metal Seal of Kumaragupta III |
| Subtitle | |
| Inscription(s) | IN00055 |
| Child Object | |
| Parent Object | |
| Related Objects | OB00048 OB00049 |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | |
| Metadata recorded by | Dániel Balogh |
| Authority for metadata | |
| Metadata improved by | Dániel Balogh |
| Authoriy for improved | |
| Description | |
| Material | Metal / billon |
| Object Type | Seal |
| Dimensions: | |
| Width | 11.7 |
| Height | 14.6 |
| Depth | |
| Weight | 695 |
| Details | An oval seal, pointed at the top and bottom. It is surrounded by a raised rim about 2 cm wide on average and 0.9 cm high. The back has two knobs about 1 cm in diameter, probably serving to attach the seal to another object such as a copper plate. It is an alloy consisting of copper, silver and gold, about 63, 36 and 0.4 percent respectively. (Billon is a generic term for a silver or gold alloy containing a majority of base metal, usually copper.) The upper section (slightly less than half of the whole and separated from the inscription by a double line) bears an image of Garuḍa in fairly high relief on a countersunk surface. He faces front, with outspread wings. He has a human face with thick lips and a Vaiṣṇava mark on his forehead. A hooded snake is coiled around his neck. A circle and a crescent - perhaps cakra and śaṅkha; or Sun and Moon according to Sastri 1942: 66 and Bhandarkar - appear in the field to his proper right and left respectively. See Bhandarkar 1981: 359 for some more details. |
| History | |
| Created: | |
| Date | |
| Place | Bhitari |
| Other ancient history | |
| Found: | |
| Date | |
| Place | |
| Other modern history | |
| Latest: | |
| Date | 1980 |
| Place | Government Museum, Lakhnau |
| Authority | Bhandarkar, D. R. (1981). Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Volume III: Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings (Revised Edition). Edited by Bahadur Chand Chhabra and Govind Swamirao Gai. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India. |
| Details | Discovered before 1886 in Bhitarī (Sayyidpur Tahsil, Gazipur District, UP) while digging foundations for a building. |
| Notes | OB00048 and OB00049 bear an identical legend. |