Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c10.s3.t2.10

c10.s3.t2.10

*5.4.2.1.2 Years of an era.* Beginning in the first century B.C. some inscriptions were dated in continuous eras.²⁸ This system gradually became more prevalent and was the standard practice in most regions by the early centuries of the medieval era. These continuous or historical eras evidently arose as continuations or extensions of a regnal reckoning of a given king by his successors, who instead of beginning a new reckoning commencing from their own accessions continued counting years from the previous king's dates (SIE 242–3). This development is explicitly indicated in the Mathurā pillar inscription (SI I.277–9) dated in the fifth regnal year of Candragupta II (*. . . śrīcandraguptasya vija(*ya)-rājya-saṁvatsa(*re) paṁcame 5*) and in the sixty-first year of the "continued reckoning" (*kālānuvarttamāna-saṁvatsare ekaṣaṣṭhe* [*sic*] *60 1*), that is, of the Gupta era (5.5.1.6).²⁹ Such an extended regnal-year system would then become a dynastic reckoning, and this in turn would often continue in use, sometimes with a change of name, long after the founding dynasty had fallen.³⁰