Indian Palaeography c13.s4.5

c13.s4.5

The study of coin epigraphy is further instructive. The earliest Andhra coins have been found in the Malwa region and are described as of Malwa fabric.¹ They bear the words *Rañō Siri* *Sātakaṇisa* in characters which are hardly distinguishable from those of Nanaghat. But they (see especially Pl. I. 2) clearly show the head-formation recalling the new style of writing of the Mathura Kshatrapas. The coins, even of the Kolhapur fabric, from the time of Vāsishṭhīputra Viḷivāyakura onwards, all show this top head-formation, the flourish in the medial *i*, and angularity in the letters. This style of writing is due to influence from the Malwa region, where the latest Sanchi inscriptions are all in similar characters. Hence these coins date from the first half of the first century A.D. onwards. This new type of lettering continued in the coinage right down to the time of Vāsishṭhīputra Puḷumāvi and even later. But the epigraphy of the stone inscriptions reveals a different story. Here the influence is not so sudden. There is a gradual change from the Nanaghat inscriptions to those of Puḷumāvi. On account of the backwardness of the writing in the Nanaghat inscriptions the coins of Rājā Siri Sātakaṇi have been dated in the second century B.C., and an unnecessary gap has been assumed between his coins and those which follow. It is only for this reason that the Sātakarṇi of the Sanchi inscription¹ has not been properly identified. But this palaeographical anomaly must be understood on the basis of regional differences, and the apparent gap is filled up by the occurrence of occasional letters. If this is borne in mind, there does not seem to be any justification in differentiating between the Sātakarṇi of the Sanchi inscription, Rājā Siri Sātakaṇi of the coins of Malwa fabric, and Sātakarṇi of the Nanaghat inscriptions. The numismatic evidence completely closes up the gap between these inscriptions. Palaeography thus suggests that there is no chronological difference between group I and group II inscriptions of this region. They are to be placed in the first half of the first century A.D.