The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c8.s1.9

v1.c8.s1.9

The theory then that the Vākāṭakas initiated the Chedi era does not bear close examination. There is no evidence to show that they have used it on any seals or coins. There is further another fact almost fatal to this theory. The Vākāṭakas officially issued a large number of charters, but none of these used the Chedi or any other era; they are all dated in the regnal years of the kings issuing them. If the Vākāṭakas were the founders of the Chedi era, if they used it on their coins and even on their seals, it is not very strange that they should have uniformly and consistently avoided its use in their own official charters, which were intended to be referred to as deeds of titles as long as the sun and the moon endured?³ It is true that the Vākāṭakas rose to power within a few years of the beginning of the Chedi era, but there is as yet no evidence to connect them with it. We have to solve the problems of Vākāṭaka chronology without the assistance which such evidence, had it existed, might have afforded.