1855.] On tlie Coins of the Gupta Dynasty. 491 



completed by a perpendicular line. Mr. Freeling's coin further 

 modifies the arrangement adopted in this last, by introducing a 

 third circle in place of the vertical line. Simultaneously with these 

 distinctions is to be noted the difference in the forms of that striking 

 test letter *f m. in the several legends ; on the first cited pieces it 

 is shaped like the ordinary Gupta *r of the Allahabad and other 

 inscriptions, while on the latter it affects the form of the oldest type 

 of the character, which retained its original identity in Western 

 India to so much later a date.* The evidence of inscriptions seems 

 to indicate that Bhilsa was one of the touching points of the two 

 systems of writing at all events as regards this particular letter, as 

 we find the Sanchi Inscriptions of Chandra Guptaf using the west- 

 ern character while other monuments of proximate locality employ 

 modifications of the Gupta style of the letter.J 



The evidence of the inscriptions is also valuable in regard to the 

 provincial forms of the T, a reference to which is necessary as justi- 

 ficatory of the reading of the suffix to that letter on the coins under 

 consideration. 



The western system of writing continued the vertical down stroke 

 of the character by a backward turn, and the same practice is fol- 

 lowed in finishing the perpendicular line of the ^r.§ The eastern 

 Inscriptions, on the other hand, exhibit the T as a simple unswerv- 

 ing stroke from the matra ; and the vertical portion of the 3f is, in 

 like manner, wanting in the foot curve. || The two coins above 

 noticed, which use the eastern form of w and ?T, give the T a curve 

 similar to the western type of that letter in order to express ^, and 

 the coins which affect the western style of writing define the ^3" by 

 a double curve in the opposite direction to that followed by the 

 ordinary linear completion of the local form of the simple letter. 



* Wathen's Plates, J. A. S. B. IV. 476. 

 t J. A. S. B. VI. 455. 



J Eran Inscriptions, J. A. S. B. VII. 632 and 634. 



§ Sah Insn. VII. PI. XV. Chandra Gupta Bhilsa VI.— PI. XXV. Udayagiri 

 Bhilsa, Topes," PI. XXI. Wathen, IV. PI. XL. 



|| Allahabad, Bhitari, Kuhaon, Budha Gupta, Toramana. 



3 T 



