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

by the astronomers of Ujjain, for purely technical purposes; and was not known at all in
the territories in which the Early Guptas first rose to power. In fact, in India itself
there was no already existing era which would recommend itself to the Early
Guptas. And we have next to inquire whether there may have been any such era,
beyond the limits of India proper.
By a comparison of the dates of Sivadêva I. and Aṁśuvarman, at page 95 f. above,
I have already shewn, in a general way, that the Gupta era was in use beyond the
north-eastern frontier of India, in Nêpâl; a fact which is duly corroborated by the
results for the date in the inscription of Mânadêva, of the year 386. We must, therefore,
now see what more particular information can be gathered from the epigraphical records
of that country.¹

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¹ And here we may note that the Kings of Valabhî can have had nothing to do either with the
introduction of an era into Nêpâl, or with the borrowing of an era from that country. As I have
already had occasion to remark, the members of the Valabhî family, for the first six or seven genera-
tions inclusive of Bhaṭârka, were mere feudatory Sênâpatis and Mahârâjas; and these members of the
family, at any rate, cannot possibly have conquered Nêpâl, or even have extended their territory up
to the confines of that country. The first of the family who claimed to be a paramount sovereign is
Dharasêna IV., with the dates of 326 and 330; and with the titles of Paramabhaṭṭâraka, Mahârâjâ-
dhirâja, and Paramêśvara, in common with all his successors, and also with that of Chakravartin,
which, not being assumed by any of his successors, may perhaps indicate that his power was more
extensive than theirs ever was. Now, in passing; if we refer his first date of 326 to the epoch of A.D.
319-20, the result, A.D. 645-46, brings us to a very suitable period indeed for him to assume the posi-
tion and titles of a paramount sovereign; viz. to the commencement of the anarchy which, as Ma-
twan-lin tells us (Ind. Ant. Vol. IX. p. 20) attended the death of Harshavardhana, "the warlike lord
of all the region of the north." It ended in the complete disruption, for the time, of the kingdom of
Kanauj. Aṁśuvarman became paramount in Nêpâl, and Âdityasêna in Magadha; and the opportu-
nity was of course taken advantage of by Dharasêna IV., to assert his independence in the west of
India. But, to say nothing of the improbability of the thing on other grounds, the fact that
Aṁśuvarman became king of Nêpâl, is in itself enough to prevent our admitting the possibility of a
conquest of that country by Dharasêna IV. Referring the same date of 326 to the three earlier
proposed epochs, we have respectively A.D. 403, 492, and 516. For these periods there is, perhaps,
no particular objection to our assuming, for the sake of argument, that Dharasêna IV. may have
extended his power over a considerable portion of Northern India, in the parts nearer to Kâṭhiâwâḍ
and Gujarât. But the Valabhî charters, in which a conquest so extensive as that of the whole of
Northern India up to Nêpâl, or inclusive of that country, would most certainly have been recorded,
give not the slightest hint of any such event at any time in the history of the family. In fact, with
the exception of the allusion to the overthrow of the Maitrakas by Bhaṭârka, they give absolutely no
detailed information at all in connection with any of the successes claimed by the members of this
family; which tends to shew very plainly that, from beginning to end, the Valabhî power was purely
local. And, in connection with the earlier proposed epochs, even if Dharasêna IV. did conquer
Nêpâl, or Northern India up to the frontier of Nêpâl, and did introduce there the era of A.D. 319-20,
the question still remains, and cannot be answered,—Why should he act with such extreme inconsist-
ency as to introduce there this era, which, according to those who have sought to establish those
epochs, was not brought into actual use in his own territory; instead of the Gupta era which he him-
self, and his successors, continued to employ for all the official purposes of their own kingdom?