Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c7.s2.4

c7.s2.4

¹ Mr. Vajeshankar Gavrishankar, Náib Diván of Bhávnagar, has made a collection of articles found in Valabhi. The collection includes clay seals of four varieties and of about the seventh century with the Buddhist formula Ye Dhárma hetu Prabhava : a small earthen tope with the same formula imprinted on its base with a seal; beads and ring stones many of several varieties of akik or carnelian and sphatik or coral some finished others half finished showing that as in modern Cambay the polishing of carnelians was a leading industry in early Valabhi. One circular figure of the size of a half rupee carved in black stone has engraved upon it the letters ma ro in characters of about the second century.* A royal seal found by Colonel Watson in Valeh bears on it an imperfect inscription of four lines in characters as old as Dhruvasena I. (A.D. 526). This seal contains the names of three generations of kings, two of which the grandfather and grandson read Ahivarmman and Pushyána all three being called Mahárája or great king. The dynastic name is lost. The names on these moveable objects need not belong to Valabhi history. Still that seals of the second and fifth centuries have been discovered in Valabhi shows the place was in existence before the founding of the historical Valabhi kingdom. A further proof of the age of the city is the mention of it in the Kathásarit-ságara a comparatively modern work but of very old materials. To this evidence of age, with much hesitation, may be added Balni Ptolemy's name for Gopnáth point which suggests that as early as the second century Valeh or Baleh (compare Alberuni's era of Balah) was known by its present name. Badly minted coins of the Gupta ruler Kumáragupta (A.D. 417-453) are so common as to suggest that they were the currency of Valabhi.