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234 H. G. 9IASTRI

are datcd in ihe year 813 of an unspecified era. The king officiated as a feudatory of NagavaIoka, identiiled wilh the PralihSra king NSgabhata I (circa 730 - 760 A. D.) of North India.¹³ The year 863 is accordingly ascribed to the era known as the Vikrama Era. The datę supplies the earliest known example of the use of the Vikrama Era in the records of Gujarat.

The era is identified with the Krta Era and the Malava-gana Era, menlioned in the epigraphic records of Rajasthan and Malwa during years 269-481 and 461-936 respectively.¹⁴ Some scholars also identify it with the unspecified era used in the Scytho-Parthian inscriptions daled sińce year 72, and ascribe its origin to the Parthian sovereign Vonones.¹⁵ They attribute its later association with the name Vikrama to King Candragupta Vikramfiditya of the Gupta dynasty. But no records of Candragupta Vikrimaditya or his successors are dated in this era.

Some scholars ascribe an Indian origin to this era on the basis of traditional accounts. It is suggestcd that the era was started by the Malava-gana to

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commcmorate its victory over the foreign Sak as and that it was originally named aftcr the M3lava-gana who came to be regardcd as a king when the concept of ganarśjya was lost to oblivion.¹⁶

The sudden appearance of the Vikrama Era in the kingdom of Broach between the extcnsive region of the ValabhT Era in Saurashtra and Central

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Gujarat on the one hand and the region ot' the Saka Era in South Gujarat on the other hand by the middie of the 8th century may be traced to the influence of the Imperial Pratiharas in North India, whose successors are known to have used the Yikrama Era in their kingdom.

Several eras were in vogue in Gujarat during the post-Maitraka period.

The copperplale inscriptions of the RastrakGta kings of mainland Gujarat are dated from Saka year 732 to 852. The months are found to be Amanta.

The Saindhava kings in Western Saurashtra dated their records in the Gupta Era. The known dates¹⁷ rangę from year 513 to 595. The dates apply to the original Gupta Era, the years of which were Caitradi.

The ValabhT Era continucd in North Gujarat and other parts of Saurashtra to a certain extent.

The Una Plates¹⁸ of the CSlukya king, Avantivarman II are dated in the Vikrama Era. The king was a feudatory of the Pratihfira sovereign, MahendrapSla of North India.

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The Caulukya period abounds in dated records, epigraphic and literary.