Indian Epigraphy c6.s4.11

c6.s4.11

An important feature of epigraphic evidence is that many of the knotty problems of early Indian chronology have been solved by inscriptions dated in eras. Of course the use of popular eras in the dating of documents was originally unknown in India and even royal charters used to be dated in the regnal reckoning of the kings who issued them. But the Vikrama Saṃvat of 58 B. C. was introduced by the Scytho-Parthians and the Śaka era of 78 A. D. by the Kuṣāṇas and there are numerous inscriptions dated in these eras as well as others introduced later (e.g. the Traikūṭaka-Kalacuri era of 248 A.D., the Gupta-Valabhī era of 319 A.D., the Eastern Gaṅga era of about 497 A.D., the Harṣa era of 606 A.D., the Bhauma-Kara era of about 831 A.D., the Cālukya-Vikrama era of 1076 A.D., etc.).