CE (year 148 of the Gupta era), and he probably ruled for a few more years. Skandagupta was most probably succeeded by Purugupta, who appears to have been his half-brother. Purugupta was a son of Kumaragupta I from his chief queen, and therefore, must have been his legitimate successor. It is possible that he was a minor at the time of Kumaragupta I's death, because of which Skandagupta ascended the throne. Skandagupta appears to have died heirless, or his son may have been dethroned by Purugupta's family. Coinage Compared to his predecessors, Skandagupta issued fewer gold coins, and some of these coins feature relatively less quantity of gold. It is possible that the various wars fought by him strained the state treasury, although this cannot be said with certainty. Skandagupta issued five types of gold coins: Archer type, King and queen type, Chhatra type, Lion-slayer type and Horseman type. His silver coins are of four types: Garuda type, Bull type, Altar type and Madhyadesha type. The initial gold coinage was on the old weight standard used by his father Kumaragupta of approximately 8.4 gm. This initial coinage is quite scarce. At some point in his reign, Skandagupta revalued his currency, switching from the old dinar standard to a new suvarna standard that weighed approximately 9.2 gm. These later coins were all only of the Archer type, and this standard and type was followed by all subsequent Gupta rulers. In popular culture Jaishankar Prasad, a renowned poet of modern Hindi literature, wrote a play named Skandagupta in 1928, based on the life of Gupta emperor Skandagupta. In the 1960s, Shanta Gandhi, Professor of Ancient Indian Drama while at National School of Drama, revived interest in Jaishankar Prasad's plays by successfully staging his most important play Skanda Gupta written in 1928, with little changes to the original script. The news article Dainik Jagran claimed that the popular movie Baahubali 2: The Conclusion was based on Skandagupta's life. References Bibliography Further reading Singh, Jai Prakash (1976) History and Coinage of Skandagupta Kramāditya, Varanasi:Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University. External links The Bhitari Pillar Inscription of Skandagupta The Bihar Stone Pillar Inscription of Skandagupta The Junagadh Rock Inscription of Skandagupta Coinage of Skandagupta 5th-century Indian monarchs Gupta Empire Year of birth unknown 467 deaths