Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c7.s3.4

c7.s3.4

The regular establishment of Chālukya power in South Gujarāt seems to have been the work of Dhārāśraya Jayasimhavarman son of Pulakesi II. and younger brother of Vikramāditya Satyāśraya (A.D. 679-689). A grant of Jayasimhavarman's son Śilāditya found in Navsāri describes Jayasimhavarman as receiving the kingdom from his brother Vikramāditya. As Jayasimhavarman is called Paramabhattāraka Mahārāja, he was practically independent. He had five sons and enjoyed a long life, ruling apparently from Navsāri. Of the five Gujarāt Chālukya copperplates noted below, three are in an era marked Sam. which is clearly different from the Śaka era (A.D. 78) used in the grants of the main Chālukyas. From the dates in the case the new era of the Gujarāt Chālukyas may be deduced as of Gujarāt origin. Grants remain of Jayasimhavarman's sons dated S. 421, 443, and 490.³ This checked by Vikramāditya's known date (A.D. 679-689) gives an initial between A.D. 249 and 259. Of the two Gujarāt eras, the Gupta-Valabhī (A.D. 319) and the Traikūṭaka (A.D. 248-9), the Gupta-Valabhī is clearly unsuitable. On the other hand the result is so closely in accord with A.D. 248-9, the Traikūṭaka epoch, as to place the correctness of the identification almost beyond question.