NCERT Solutions for Class 7th Social Science Chapter 15 The coins of Toramāṇa and Skandagupta (Fig. 3.26) — LET’S EXPLORE
Book page 90 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
What details do you observe in these coins (Fig. 3.26)? Why do the coins of Toramāṇa and Skandagupta appear so similar? What conclusions can you draw?
What Fig. 3.26 shows. Four photographs of silver coins in a row on a pale blue ground.
First (left pair, obverse). A worn coin carrying the head and shoulders of a ruler in profile, facing right, inside a border of raised dots. A few small symbols and traces of a legend sit in the field in front of the face.
Second (left pair, reverse). The same coin’s other side: a large wheel-like disc with radiating spokes, ringed by a circle of dots, and below it, under a straight dividing line, two big Brahmi letters.
Third (right pair, obverse). A sharper, better-preserved coin — again the head and shoulders of a ruler in profile facing right, with elaborate curled hair gathered behind the head, a crescent-shaped headdress, a large round earring, a beaded necklace and a collar of small triangles.
Fourth (right pair, reverse). A bird with its tail fanned out, standing facing the viewer and filling the whole flan, with a circular legend running round the rim.
The book’s own caption reads: “(Left) A coin of the Hūṇa Toramāṇa, with his name ‘Tora’ in Brahmi script. (Right) A coin of the Gupta emperor Skandagupta.”
Fig. 3.26, page 90 — described here; see the textbook for the photographs of the coins themselves.
Answer
They look alike because Toramāṇa, the Hūṇa ruler, deliberately copied the Gupta coin design. Look at the four faces in Fig. 3.26 — two sides of Toramāṇa’s coin on the left, two sides of Skandagupta’s on the right.
What you can see
Toramāṇa (left pair)
Skandagupta (right pair)
Metal and size
A small silver coin
A small silver coin of the same kind
Front (obverse)
The king’s head in profile, facing right, wearing a headdress, with a ring of raised dots along the edge
The king’s head in profile, facing right, more finely modelled, with an ornamented collar and a border round the rim
Back (reverse)
A round emblem like a spoked wheel or sun inside a circle of dots, and below it large Brahmi letters — his name, ‘Tora’
A peacock with its tail fanned out, ringed by a circular legend in Brahmi
Layout
Identical idea: ruler’s portrait on one side, a religious or dynastic emblem plus a Brahmi legend on the other
Why they are so similar. The chapter gives the reason directly: the Hūṇas “adopted Sanskrit and Prakrit for their inscriptions and used Gupta-style royal titles, coin designs, and religious symbols. Some of their coins, for instance, displayed the goddess Lakṣhmī and attributes of Viṣhṇu or Śhiva.” Toramāṇa was not inventing a Hūṇa coinage; he was continuing the Gupta one.
What we can conclude
The invaders were absorbed, not the other way round. Within a generation or two the Hūṇas were writing in Indian scripts and languages and using Indian symbols. By the 7th century they had “assimilated into the very fabric of Indian society”.
A copied coin is a claim to legitimacy. A new ruler who issues money that looks exactly like the old ruler’s money is telling merchants and farmers: nothing has changed, this coin is as good as the last one, and I am the rightful successor. It is the cheapest way to be accepted.
Trade needed continuity. Traders will not accept a coin they do not recognise. Keeping the familiar weight, metal, portrait and script kept the markets working.
Coins are evidence. Two small pieces of silver tell us about religion, script, language, art and politics — which is why historians study them alongside inscriptions and travelogues.
Did you know? The peacock on Skandagupta’s coin is not decoration. The peacock is the vāhana of Kārttikeya, also called Skanda — the emperor’s own name. Compare it with Fig. 3.4 on page 64: Harṣha’s coin also carries “a peacock fanning its tail” on the reverse. The visual language of Indian coinage carried straight on across dynasties.