गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

100 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
on Saturday, the 1st February, which was the fifth successive solar day. If this date
is accepted, then the charter was written nine months after the making of the grant.¹ On
the other hand, if the year 585 is here to be taken as current, there should be the same
agreement of the lunar tithi and the solar day in Śaka-Saṁvat 827. And, for this year,
Mr. Sh. B Dikshit finds that the preceding new-moon tithi ended on Thursday, the 7th
February, A.D. 925; and that the fifth tithi of the bright fortnight of Phâlguna ended
on Tuesday, the 12th February, which was again the fifth successive solar day. If this
date is accepted, then the charter was prepared two months before the actual making of
the grant.
It may perhaps be argued, hereafter, in opposition to my results for the exact epoch
of the era, that all the Gupta-Valabhî dates are recorded in expired years, whether the
fact is distinctly stated or not; and, consequently, that it is as an expired year, not cur-
rent, that the year 165 of the Êraṇ pillar inscription is equivalent to A.D. 484-85 current,
and that the year 585 expired, of the present record, is equivalent to A.D. 904-905 cur-
rent. In that case, the solar eclipse would have to be found in Gupta-Saṁvat 585+242=
Śaka-Saṁvat 827 current, somewhere between ² the 21st March, A.D. 904, and the 9th
March, A.D. 905. During this period, there were two eclipses of the sun;³ on Saturday,
the 16th June, A.D. 904, corresponding to the new-moon tithi of the Pûrṇimânta northern
Âshâḍha of Śaka-Saṁvat 827 current; and on Saturday, the 10th November, A.D. 904,
corresponding to the new-moon tithi of the Pûrṇimânta northern Mârgaśîrsha of the
same Śaka year. In respect of the first of them, Mr. Sh. B. Dikshit finds that it was
not visible anywhere in India; but only in the more northern parts of the earth. This,
therefore, cannot be the eclipse intended. In respect of the second of them, he finds
that it was visible at Môrbi; over more than half the northern part of Kâṭhiâwâḍ; and,
to the south, along the coast, as far as Surat, one hundred and seventy miles south-east
of Môrbi, and in the interior, a little further still. And, at Môrbi, the middle of the eclipse
was at 11.54 A.M. of the Môrbi mean civil time. At Ahmadâbâd, one hundred and twenty
miles east by north from Môrbi, one twelfth of the sun's disc was eclipsed; and, in the
more northern parts of India, a considerably greater surface. But, at Môrbi itself, the
magnitude of the eclipse was very small; extending there to only one twenty-fifth part
¹ There is nothing in the record itself, to indicate whether the writing of the charter preceded,
or followed, the making of the grant. The Râjim grant of Tîvaradêva, No. 81, page 291, furnishes
another similar instance. In that instance, the grant was made on the eleventh tithi of Jyêshṭha
(May-June); while the charter was written, or assigned, on the eighth solar day of Kârttika (October-
November); and there is nothing to shew specifically whether it was the following, or the preceding,
Kârttika. That charter may have been written, or assigned, either five months after, or seven months
before, the making of the grant recorded in it.
² See Indian Eras, p. 167. ³ See Indian Eras p. 213.