The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c10.32

c10.32

Chandragupta had an additional name Devagupta; Rāmagupta too may have had an additional name, Kāchagupta. Or Kāchagupta may have been the name of the miscreant elder brother of Chandragupta, and later clerical error may have transformed it into Rāma, as has been suggested by Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar.¹ A little carelessness resulting in the dropping of horizontal stroke of *Ka*, which is just like crossing a *t* in the English script, will convert *ka* into *ra*; *cha* can become *ma* if the pen slips to the left just beyond the loop; of *cha*. Kācha need not be rejected as an unknown name; in contemporary times two rulers of a family ruling at Ajanta as the feudatories of the Vākāṭakas are known to have borne it.¹ If we assume that Rāmagupta of the literary tradition is identical with Kācha of coins, we can very well explain the numismatic peculiarities of the Kācha coins in the following manner.