The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s3: 3. Palaeography

The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s3

Language: English

3. Palaeography

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In the Gupta coin legends the letters usually display the same norms which are seen in the contemporary lithic records. The normal forms of letters, however, often get compressed on coin flans owing to the want of adequate space. This frequently happens on the Gupta silver coins, where *ga* often loses its left limb and *ka* its horizontal line; *ta* and *na* often dwindle into a vertical line. We shall make a few observations about the normal form of Gupta characters.

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Owing to typographical difficulties it did not become possible to give each coin legend in its original letters at the place where the coin on which it occurs is described in the book. All the coin legends have, however, been given in their original script in plates **XX-XXVI**, and a reference to the place of each legend in the plate has also been given at the appropriate place in the book to enable the reader to find out the place of each legend in order to study its characters. Facing each legend-plate is a page giving the rendering of its legends in the Devanāgari and Roman characters. This will facilitate their study and decipherment.

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The reader will notice a stylistic difference in the forms of letters as they occur on plates **XX-XXIV** on the one hand and on plates XXV-XXVI on the other. In the first five plates, Mr. C. Sivaramamurti, who kindly prepared them at my request, has tried to give the actual form of the letters as seen on the Gupta coins of the Bayana hoard. The last two plates copy the forms of the letters as they are given in the plates published by Mr. Allan in the *B.M.C., G.D.* Mr. Allan has idealised the forms of the Gupta letters, prepared their types and then composed the legends in them. The two types of plates will enable the reader to visualise both the actual and idealised or generalised forms of Gupta characters.

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The well known characteristics of the Gupta script can be seen in the coin legends. *A*, *ka* and *ra* have a long vertical; it is but rare that this vertical develops a tail (Pl. XXIV. 69). The veriticals of *gha*, *pa*, *ya*, *la* and *sa* dwindle down almost to the same height as the limbs on the right or left. The left limbs of *ga* and *śa* become shorter than the right ones and develop a scrif at the bottom. The letters *ma*, *la*, *sha*, *sa*, and *ha* show two forms in the lithic records, the so-called eastern and the western ones. From among these letters the coin legends show both the forms in the case of *ma* and *ha* only. The eastern forms of *sa*, *la* and *sha* do not appear on the coins. The so-called eastern forms for *ma* or *ha* appear on some coins of the Battle-axe¹ and the Archer² types, and on the variety A of the Lyrist type of Samudragupta,³ on some coins of Kācha⁴ and on all the coins of class I of the Chhatra type of Chandragupta II.⁵ It is interesting to note that on several coins, the so-called eastern and western forms of *ma* appear together,⁶ one on the obverse and the other on the reverse. This would tend to show that both the forms were current in the same locality and had no special territorial significance. It is necessary to add that the eastern forms of *ma* and *ha* become rare in the reign of Chandragupta II and disappear in later reigns altogether.

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¹ Pl. III. 3-4.

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² Pl. II. 12-14.

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³ Pl. III. 15.

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⁴ Pl. IV. 1-2.

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⁵ Pl. VIII. 6.

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⁶ Pl. I. 15.

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We shall now make a few remarks about individual letters. The right limb of *a* is angular in some cases¹ and round in others;² in rare cases its vertical develops a tail.³ *U* shows a pronounced loop in its lower limb.⁴ The vertical of *ka* is long and its horizontal line straight; but sometimes owing to want of space, the horizontal line changes into two lines meeting the vertical at acute angles.⁵ *Kha* has a triangular base.⁶ *Ga* and *gha* have been already commented upon. The letter *ña* appears only as the first part of the conjunet *ñha*; it is like *ja* without the central horizontal line.⁷ The form of *cha*⁸ is the usual one, while *chha* is of the butter-fly type.⁹ The horizontal lines of *ja* sometimes show a slight tendency towards becoming slanting.¹⁰ The letters *jha*, *ñ*, *ṭ*, *ṭha*, *ḍhh*, *pha*, *sha* and *jña* do not appear in the legends. The letter *ḍa* is of the usual type.¹¹ The bipartite form of the letter *ṇa* is rather rarely used,¹² probably because it required more space; the letter usually shows one vertical with one horizontal line above and another below.¹³ The letter *ta* is without a loop and its right limb is often longer than the left one;¹⁴ sometimes the top vertical is omitted.¹⁵ *Tha* is usually a circle,¹⁶ but sometimes it opens at the top.¹⁷ *Da* opens to right and *dha* shows the semicircle to the left.¹⁸ The letter *na* has usually a loop in the left limb;¹⁹ it is dispensed with only on rare occassions.²⁰ The letter *ba* is a square²¹ and the right lower limb of *bha* is usually slightly angular.²² The letter *ma* has four forms. Its lower limb shows sometimes a triangle²³ and sometimcs a circle.²⁴ In its third form the two upper lines are seen to meet the lower one at two different points,¹ and in its fourth form, these lines meet the lower one at one point.² *Ya* is usually tripartite,³ both its limbs being usually denoted by a curve. From the reign of Kumāragupta I, we begin to get a *ya*, where the left limb curve tends to become a straight line in continuation of the base line.⁴ *Ra* is a long straight line, but the vertical of *la* dwindles in height.⁵ *Va* has usually a triangular base,⁶ but on rare occassions it becomes a circular one.⁷ *Śa* has usually a round back with a horizontal line joining its two arms, of which the right one is longer than the left one.⁸ The letter *sha* appears only in the conjunct *ksha*; it is like *pa* with a horizontal line, which does not always join its two limbs.⁹ Both loops of *sa* are well formed and its vertical dwindles in height.¹⁰ Besides its usual form, the letter *ha* shows the eastern one also where the base line is suppressd.¹¹

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² Pl. XXIII. 45.

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³ Pl. XXIV. 69.

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⁴ Pl. XV. 14.

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⁵ Pl. XXIII. 41.

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⁶ Pl. XXII. 36.

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⁷ Pl. XXI. 17.

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⁸ Pl. XX. 1.

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⁹ Pl. XXIII. 43.

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¹⁰ Pl. XX. 3.

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¹¹ Pl. XXII. 36.

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¹² Pl. XXV. 7.

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¹³ Pl. XXI. 17.

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¹⁴ Pl. XX. 3.

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¹⁵ Pl. XXIII. 42.

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¹⁶ Pl. XX. 4.

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¹⁷ Pl. XX. 9-10.

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¹⁸ Pl. XX. 4-5.

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¹⁹ Pl. XX. 1.

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²⁰ Pl. XXIV. 68.

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²¹ Pl. XXII. 35.

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²² Pl. XXII. 35.

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²³ Pl. XX. 3-4.

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The medial *ā* is denoted by a line slanting upwards and attached to the top of the letter;¹² in rare cases it is horizontal and separated from the letter; cf. *Kācha* and *rūpākṛiti*.¹³ Medial *i* is denoted by a short curve to left¹⁴ and *ī* by a similar curve to right.¹⁵ The latter, however, is more frequently denoted by a curve opening upwards. The medial *u* is sometimes denoted by a short vertical line as in *pu* and *su*,¹⁶ sometimes by a curve attached to the right limb and opening high upwards as in *gu* and *śu*,¹⁷ and sometimes by a curve opening to right as in *ku*.¹⁸

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The medial long *ū* is denoted merely by the elongation of the vertical in one place, where it occurs; probably a short horizontal stroke has not come out here.²⁰ The medial *e*²¹ is

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shown by a short slanting stroke to left and *ai* by two such strokes on the same side.¹ Medial *o* is indicated by two strokes, one slanting to right and the other to left.² The medial *ṛi* is denoted sometimes by a curve open to right³ and sometimes by one open to left.⁴ Sometimes there is a great flourish in the former;⁵ sometimes it is denoted by a short curve open upwards.⁶ In one case the engraver has committed the mistake of combining both the medial *i* and *ṛi* vowels⁷ in the word *pṛithivī*. It is obvious that in the Gupta age, as now, *pṛithivī* was pronounced as *pṛithivī*.

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¹ Pl. XX. 11.

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² Pl. Ibid.

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³ Pl. XXIII. 7.

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⁴ Pl. XXI. 24.

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⁵ Pl. XX. 4.

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⁶ Pl. XX. 5.

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⁷ Pl. XXI. 23.

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Only a few conjuncts deserve to be mentioned here. In most of the conjuncts like *ṅha*, *pta*, *nta*, *tva*, *ksha*, *tta*, *jja*, *nva*, *ska*, *mba*, *sva*, *dgh*, the normal full forms of both the letters are distinct, but usually with only one common vertical. The subscript *ra* is usually denoted either by a line⁸ or a curve⁹ attached to left. The subscript *ya* is usually bipartite.¹⁰ The superscript *ra* is denoted by a short vertical line attached to the top of the letter.¹¹