1855.] On the Coins of the Gupta Dynasty. 505 



"Western treatment, following out the artistic notion of that bird 

 given in Sri Gupta's coin. 

 Legend.— VT* *T^cT ^TSTtRtcTST ^sftfTOTC *H "*&%&• 



JParama Bhagavata Rdjddhirdja Sri Kumara Gupta Mahendrasya. 



The second word of this legend is the only portion of the whole 

 that is at all open to question ; it has been read Bhdnuvira by 

 Prinsep,* but this is not by any means a satisfactory interpretation. 

 The 1st and 3rd letters are fixed and constant in the various exam- 

 ples, and are properly rendered in each case as H and 3" ; the second 

 and fourth letters vary considerably in outline on the different 

 specimens; the second letter I have never yet met with in its 

 perfect shape as 3T when tried by the test of the 7T in Gupta, indeed 

 the majority of the coins display it more after the form of a *T, as 

 that consonant is found later in the legend in Mahendrasya. The 

 same remark also applies to the final <T. I see that Prof. Mill has 

 conjecturally supplied the word Bhagavata in the prefix to Kumara 

 Gupta's titles on the Bhitari lat (VI. 4) but Prinsep's Facsimile of 

 the inscription though it accords the needful space for the exact 

 number of letters, gives the final as a manifest «T ; in saying this, 

 however, I must remind my readers that in the alphabet in question, 

 the slightest possible inflection and continuation of a line consti- 

 tutes the essential difference between the two letters *T and ?T, and 

 on the other hand the local copper plates of the Valabhis render 

 the 7T very much after the shape of the Eastern cT, while the indi- 

 genous c[ is but little different from the T of the coins under refer- 

 ence. And finally as the words Barama Bhagavata appear in all 

 their indubitable majority on the succeeding coins of Skanda Gupta, 

 we may fairly assume a mere imperfection in the expression of the 

 individual letters and leave the word as it has been entered in the 

 legend above. 



The coins under notice are not always complete in the Sanskrit 

 legends ; for instance, an otherwise very perfect piece in the cabinet 



* J. A. S. B. VII. 356. Prof. Wilson A. A. 412, has suggested Bhattaraka (?) 

 which the Udayagiri inscription (Bhilsa Topes, 151) rather recommends to our 

 notice. 



