Indian Epigraphy c15.t7.5

c15.t7.5

As has already been pointed out, an era, which was practically the continuation of a regnal reckoning, did not get a name immediately after its institution. But a specific name was attached to it when it became popular and had to be distinguished from other reckonings. Even then, however, the years of the era could often be referred to without specification simply as saṃvatsara (contracted to saṃ or saṃvat) or varṣa, i.e. ‘the year’. It is therefore not unnatural that a year of the Kaniṣka era was at first simply styled ‘the year’. The earliest epigraphic records that connect this era explicitly with the Śakas belong to the Cālukyas of Bādāmi. The Cālukya inscriptions of the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. use expressions like Śaka-varṣa and Śaka-nṛpa-rājya-abhiṣeka-saṃvatsara (cf. samāsu samatītāsu Śakānām=api bhūbhujām).² There can be no doubt that the Śaka kings referred to in these passages are those who held sway over Western India for about 3 centuries before their extirpation by Candragupta II about the end of the 4th century A.D. As a matter of fact, the Śaka Satraps of Western India are known to have used a continuous reckoning from the year 41 to the year 310,¹ and there is no doubt that this has to be identified with the so-called Śaka-kāla, Śaka-ābda or Śaka-saṁvat, i.e. the era of the Śaka rulers. These Śakas styled themselves Kṣatrapa (literally, ‘provincial governor’) and Mahākṣatrapa (literally, ‘great provincial governor’) which point to their original subordinate position, although the title continued in use even when they reigned practically as independent rulers. We know that Nahapāna was ruling in the year 41-46 of the era with the titles Rājan and Kṣatrapa or Mahākṣatrapa.² The facts that his overlord is not mentioned in the records of his time and that he had an extensive coinage appear to suggest that Nahapāna was enjoying a certain amount of autonomy. He was overthrown from the southern districts of his dominions by the Śātavāhana king Gautamīputra who was himself ousted from most of the areas by another Śaka house. By 130 A.D., the date of the Andhau inscriptions³ of the joint rule of Caṣṭana and Rudradāman of this new Śaka house, Kathiawar was reconquered by the new-comers. Reference in Ptolemy’s Geography (c. 140 A.D.)⁴ to Tiastenes (Caṣṭana) as the ruler of Ozéné (Ujjayinī) points to the recovery of Malwa, and the Junagadh inscription of Rudradāman dated year 72 (150 A.D.)⁵ proves the re-occupation of territories as far south as the Northern Konkan and the Narmadā valley. In the same record Rudradāman calls himself svayam-adhigata-