Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c18.s3.54

c18.s3.54

especially by the princes and people of Mālava. The connection of the name Vikrama with the era grew up gradually and was far from being *generally* adopted *even* in the ninth century A.D. The phraseology employed in the poems and inscriptions of the next centuries shows a gradual advance from the simple *Samvat* to *Vikrama Samvat, Śrīnṛipa Vikrama Samvat* and so on. The change in nomenclature was probably brought about by the princes and people of Gujarāt whose hostility to the Mālavas is well known. The Sātavāhanas could not have founded this or any other era because they always used regnal years, and Indian literature distinguishes between Vikrama and Śālivāhana. As to the claims of Azes, see *Calcutta Review*, 1922, December, pp. 493-494. Fleet points out (*JRAS*, 1914, 995 ff.) that even when the name of a real king stands before the statement of the years, so that the translation would be "in the year of such and such a king" he is not necessarily to be regarded as the actual founder of that particular reckoning. The nomenclature of an era, current in a comparatively late period, more than a century after its commencement, is no proof of origins. Therefore, the use of the terms *Ayasa* or *Ajasa* in connection with the dates 134 and 136 of the Kalawan and Taxila inscriptions, does not prove that Azes was the founder of the particular reckoning used. His name may have been connected with the reckoning by later generations in the same way as the name of the Valabhī family came to be associated with the Gupta era, that of Sātavāhana with the Śaka era, and that of Vikrama with the "Kṛita"-Mālava reckoning itself which commenced in 58 B.C. Regarding the claims of Vikrama see *Bhand. Com. Vol.* and *Ind. Ant.*, cited above. The Purāṇas while mentioning Gardabhilla are silent about Vikramāditya. Jaina tradition places Vikramāditya after 'Nahavāhana, or Nahapāna. Regarding the contention of Fleet that the Vikrama era is a *northern* reckoning attention may be invited to the observations of Kielhorn and to a note on *Chola-Pāṇḍya Institutions* contributed by Professor C. S. Srinivasachari to *The Young Men of India*, July, 1926. The Professor points out that the era was used in Madura in the 5th century A.D. Kielhorn proves conclusively that the area where the era of 58 B.C. was used in the earliest times did not include the extreme north-west of India.