Indian Epigraphy c15.t15.15

c15.t15.15

The continuous use of the era by Droṇasiṃha’s successors for a few centuries led to the era being designated the Valabhī-saṃvat¹ in that region. This fact is also at the root of the confused tradition about the era, recorded by Al-Bīrūnī in the 11th century A.D. Thus Al-Bīrūnī says, “As regards the Gupta-kāla, people say that the Guptas were wicked powerful people, and that when they ceased to exist this date was used as the epoch of an era. It seems that Valabha was the last of them, because the epoch of the Guptas fall, like that of the Valabha era, 241 years later than the Śaka-kāla.”² Al-Bīrūnī is certainly right when he says that the Gupta and Valabhī eras are identical and that the said era started 241 years after the commencement of the Śaka era, i.e. in 319 A.D. But his conjecture that the era started from the end of the Guptas is obviously wrong since we know for certain that the Maitrakas of Valabhī did not start any new era but only continued the use of the era of their former masters, the Imperial Guptas. This is quite clear from the dates of the Girnar (near Junagadh in Kathiawar) rock inscription of Skandagupta, viz., the Gupta years 136 and 138, and the date of the Bhamodra Mohota plates of Droṇasiṃha, viz. 183, which are respectively the latest Gupta dates in Kathiawar and the earliest date of the Maitrakas. The confusion is apparently due to the fact that the Maitrakas of Valabhī ruled independently sometime after the end of Gupta rule in Kathiawar.