Indian Epigraphy c15.t15.23

c15.t15.23

The era used in the inscription of the Licchavis of Nepal has been identified by Fleet with the Gupta era and he assigns the Changunarayan inscription of Mānadeva (dated in the year 386, Jyaiṣṭha-sudi 1, Rohiṇī-nakṣatra, Abhijit) to the 28th April 705 A.D.² But Bhagavanlal Indraji identified the Licchavi era with the Vikrama-saṃvat and assigned the Changunarayan inscription to 329 A.D.² while Sylvain Lévi suggested that the Licchavi era started in 110 A.D.⁴ Without taking the astronomical calculations into consideration since they do not appear to be completely satisfactory, the theory of Fleet does not appear to suit the palaeography of the Licchavi inscriptions. The Changunarayan inscription, as for instance, should be palaeographically assigned to a date about the 5th century A.D. and not in the 8th as suggested by Fleet. As regards Bhagwanlal Indraji's views, it has to be remembered that there was hardly any possibility of the spread of the use of the Vikrama-saṃvat in Nepal in the early centuries of the Christian era. It is equally difficult to accept Lévi's theory. The existence of a new era can be entertained only on definite evidence when the identification of an era with any other era prevalent in the neighbourhood of the area and age in question is found to be impossible. We are inclined to identify the era used by the Licchavis of Nepal with the Kaniṣka or Śaka era of 78 A.D. which is known to have been continued in the Bihar-U.P. region by ruling families like the Mitras of Magadha and the Maghas of Kauśāmbī.¹ The Changunarayan inscription of the year 386 may thus be assigned to 468 A.D.²