The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c17.s3.4

c17.s3.4

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.