The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s3.1

c17.s3.1

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.