Indian Palaeography c13.s2.t1.1.1

c13.s2.t1.1.1

We will begin our study with the palaeography of the coins (Pl. V *a, b*). Allan was the first numismatist to make a detailed study of the palaeography of the Brāhmī coin legends. His chronological scheme is taken for granted by others. But it is clear from a perusal of his *Catalogue of the Coins of Ancient India* that his study was influenced by factors other than palaeography. When no other evidence was available he fell back on the style of writing. No systematic attempt was made by him to analyse the letters. He dated some coins to the third century B.C. merely because their script resembled Aśokan Brāhmī. But, as we have seen, no reliance can be placed on such apparent resemblance. Similarly, Rapson, while illustrating a plate of early Persian and Indian coins countermarked with Brāhmī letters, assigned them to the fourth or fifth century B.C. on the evidence of the original coins, but coins by their very nature have a longer span of life than is usually believed. When was the countermarking with Brāhmī letters started? What is the meaning of the word 'countermarking' as applied to these coins? A close examination shows that the word here does not mean 'putting a new symbol on the coins', usually assumed to be the mark of the money-changers or the mint-masters. In these cases the letters are stamped on the old figures and thus the latter are partly defaced. This practice was possible only after the original coin-figures had ceased to be recognizable.