History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c9.s2.t1.22

c9.s2.t1.22

It is thus evident how very uncertain and various the readings on these coins are. The only dates on which there is some degree of agreement are 54 and 257 for Īśānavarman; 58 and 234 for Sarvavarman; and 57, 71 and 250 for Avantivarman. These must evidently refer to two distinct eras, as some of the numbers are expressed in two digits only, and others in three. Sir Richard Burn is of opinion that the numbers in three digits are in the Gupta era, and those in two point to years in the Maukhari era beginning from about 500 or 499 A. D., when Ārya Bhaṭa composed his great astronomical work and exactly 3,600 years of the Kaliyuga had elapsed.² But the Haraha inscription shows that the Maukharis used a third era, whether we take its date to be the year 589 or 611 Vikrama. It therefore baffles explanation why, if the Maukharis had started an era of their own, an inscription of the dynasty does not use it. Besides, the years 257 for Īśāna, and 234 or 250 for the later kings; 58 for Sarvavarman and 57 for his successor, are gross absurdities; and there is no known case of the prevalence of several eras in such a circumscribed territory as that of the Maukharis. Thus, any reliance on the dates supplied by the coins only makes confusion worse confounded; and we must, therefore, choose the alternative of accepting the date given in the Haraha inscription, which, as discussed above, is the Vikrama year 611=554 A. D. This is one of the starting points in the Maukhari chronology, and the other is 606 A. D., when Grahavarman was killed. Hence assigning an average of twenty years to each of the six rulers, the seventh reign being extremely short, we feel justified in assuming that the Maukharis began their rule over Kanauj sometime about the close of the fifth century A. D.