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

78 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
enable us to gradually decrease the limits within which the commencement of the Gupta-
Valabhî year is to be placed on the sliding scale of the twelve months ; or the entry of an
early date, approximating closely to Chaitra śukla 1, followed, in the same record, by
a late date, approximating closely to the new-moon of Chaitra, both of them referred to
one and the same Gupta-Valabhî year, and the latter of them distinctly connected with
an event or ceremony which is specifically said to follow after the event or ceremony with
which the former is connected ; or the entry of a late date, approximating closely to the
new-moon of Chaitra, followed, in the same record, by an early date approximating closely
to Chaitra śukla 1, the two of them referred to two consecutive Gupta-Valabhî years, and,
in the same way, the latter of them distinctly connected with an event or ceremony which
is specifically said to follow the event or ceremony with which the former is connected.
And these conditions, of course, are rather difficult of fulfilment.
Meanwhile, I have now made it clear that the original Gupta year was a northern
year with the Pûrṇimânta northern arrangement of the lunar fortnights ; as was, in
fact, to be expected in the case of a year used by so essentially a Northern India dynasty
as the Early Guptas were. And, further on, I shall shew that the saṁvatsaras of the
Twelve-year Cycle of Jupiter, which are quoted in the grants of the Mahârâjas Hastin and
Saṁkshôbha, not only confirm the above results by proving that the details of them cannot
be referred to a year commencing with the month Kârttika, but also prove that we cannot
be concerned even with a year commencing with the new-moon of the month Mârgaśîrsha
(November-December), which is mentioned by Albêrûnî¹ as having been in use, at any
rate in connection with the Lôkakâla reckoning, by the people of Sindh, Multân, Kanauj,
and other parts, and as having been abandoned at Multân only shortly before his own
time. As a matter of fact, a year commencing with Mârgaśîrsha, and having the Pûr-
ṇimânta northern arrangement of the fortnights, would suit the details of every Gupta-
Valabhî date,—including even the Kaira grant of Dharasêna IV. of the year 330 men-
tioned above, and a Verâwal inscription of Valabhî-Saṁvat 927 which will be fully exhi-
bited further on,—except one, viz. the Majhgawâṁ grant of the Mahârâja Hastin of the
year 191, which has been referred to above. This being the sole exception, the calculations
which determine the commencement and end of the saṁvatsara that is quoted in it, were
gone through again and tested with very great care. But the result is that they distinctly
bar the use of a year commencing with Mârgaśîrsha. And thus,—having no other
¹ Albêrûnî's India, Translation, Vol. II. p. 8 f.—He also, in the same place, mentions a year
commencing with the month Bhâdrapada (August-September). But, from his statement, it seems to
have been confined to the vicinity of Kaśmîr. And, under any circumstances, as Bhâdrapada is
earlier than Kârttika in the Śaka year, the circumstances which bar a year commencing with Kârttika,
still more emphatically bar one commencing with Bhâdrapada.