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

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; INTRODUCTION. 31
Prof. Wright states that, in the original, we have a vague impersonal passive, meaning
"it was dated by them," "there was a dating by them," or "people dated by them;" but
that this certainly does not expressly imply that this dating took place from the year of
the extinction of the Gupta power, and in consequence of that event. That such an
interpretation might, if found on other grounds to be justifiable, be given to this expression
may be admitted. But it is at the least equally open to us to interpret the expression as
meaning that the Guptas had been so powerful that, even when they were dead and gone,
people still used their era to date by. And we shall have to determine hereafter, from an
examination of the details of the recorded Gupta and Valabhî dates, which of these two
possible interpretations is the one that must be adopted.
There is also one other point in the revised translations, to which special attention
should be paid. Prof. Wright's rendering, "(the year) 712 of the era of Valabhî, which
is also the Gupta era,"—and Prof. Sachau's, "the year 712 of the Balaba era, which is
identical with the Guptakâla,"—are essentially different, in their ultimate bearing, from
M. Reinaud's, "the year 712 of the era of Ballaba and of that of the Guptas." They
shew very clearly that Albêrûnî was speaking of absolutely one and the same era, under
two names; not of two different eras, with the same, or almost the same, epoch.
The Theories based on M. Reinaud's rendering of Albêrûnî's Statements.
Up to the present time, however, the only rendering of Albêrûnî's statements that has
been available, is that given by M. Reinaud. His translation has been taken as the
basis of argument by all writers on the subject. And, for a full comprehension of the
whole question, it will be necessary now to consider the matter from the light that was
given by him.
According to his rendering, we had three years to choose between, for the epoch of
the era,—Śaka-Saṁvat 240, 241, or 242, expired; involving a question, especially in res-
pect of the exact determination of the corresponding date in the Christian era, that could
only be settled by accurate calculations of the data available from the inscriptions, ex-
plained in detail, so that general readers might see that the processes were satisfactory.
But, whatever might be the final settlement of this point, the fact remained that
Albêrûnî had information given to him of the existence of an era, coupled with the name
of the Guptas and of the city of Valabhî, which began at some point in A.D. 319, or within
a year on either side of that date, and which it is convenient to speak of as the Gupta,
the Valabhî, or the Gupta-Valabhî era. And, that this era was actually used in connec-
tion with the name of Valabhî, at any rate, was proved by the Verâwal inscription of the
Chaulukya king Arjunadêva of Aṇhilwâḍ,¹ in which the leading record of the year is

¹ Originally brought to notice, many years ago, by Tod, in his Annals of Râjasthân; but
critically edited, for the first time, by Hultzsch, in 1882, in the Ind. Ant. Vol. XI, p. 241 ff.