Gupta period gold coins and other objects dating back to 4th to 8th century have been discovered at an agriculture farm in Bihar’s Buxar district, indicating that the place could have been a human settlement or a site of importance in the ancient times.

The people of Giridhar Barav village under Dumraon sub-division chanced upon the gold coins while working at a vegetable farm. The information about the discovery spread like wildfire and it triggered a gold rush.

Villagers assembled and started digging the place indiscriminately. Sources said that a total of five coins were found. Soon the police got wind of the find and rushed to the spot. They managed to seize only three coins. Some potsherds, iron implements and a stone pestle were also found from the site.

The district administration cordoned off the area and informed the state archaeology department about the finds.

“The coins were found from the farm on March 17. The district administration acted swiftly and seized it on March 20 under the Indian Treasure Trove Act, 1878. Seeing their archaeological and historical importance, we sent a technical team and got them safely kept at Sitaram Upadhyaya Museum at Buxar,” additional secretary and director (Museums and archaeology) Deepak Anand told The Telegraph.

“We asked our technical team to protect the area and explore it a bit more. The place is being monitored to check further attempts to dig it. We will consult experts in numismatics and other related subjects to learn more about the coins,” Anand added.

The obverse of the coins depicts Gods and Goddesses. Two coins have Gods having halos around their heads and standing armed with bows and other weapons. One coin shows a Goddess, probably Saraswati, in a seated position carrying an object that looks like the musical instrument ‘veena’. There are other symbols as well.

The reverse sides of the coins have inscriptions that seem to have been written in the late Brahmi script prevalent during the Gupta dynasty era.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s advisor and Bihar Museum director general Anjani Kumar Singh told this newspaper that he has heard about the discovery of the coins.

“We will take a decision on where to keep the coins after experts study them and submit a report,” Singh said.