The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s2.11

c6.s2.11

In the seventh century the king is said to have been a Tsa-ti-li or Kshatriya; but two centuries earlier a dynasty of Gurjjara or Gujar Rajas was certainly reigning to the north of Mahârâshtra, as we have contemporaneous inscriptions† of a Châlukya prince of Paithan, and of a Gurjjara prince of an unnamed territory, which record grants of land to the same persons. These inscriptions have been translated by Professor Dowson, who refers the dates to the era of Vikramaditya, but in the total absence of any authentic example of the use of this era before the sixth century A.D., I must demur to its adoption in these early records. The Saka era, on the contrary, is found in the early inscriptions of the Châlukya Raja Pulakesi, and in the writings of the astronomers Arya Bhatta and Varâha Mihira. The inscription of Pulakesi is dated in the Saka year 411, or A.D. 489, from which I conclude that the record of the earlier Châlukya Prince Vijaya, which is dated in the year 394, must refer to the same era. The contemporary records of the Gurjjara prince, which are dated in S. 380 and 385 must therefore belong to the middle of the fifth century A.D. All these copper-plate inscriptions were found together at Khaidra, near Ahmedabad. The first inscription of the Gurjjara Raja records the grant of lands to certain Brahmans "who having left the town of Jambusara, dwell in the village of Sirishapadraka, included in the district of Akrureswara." Five years later the same Brahman grantees are described as those "who are to dwell in the town of Jambusara;" and accordingly in the Châlukya inscription, which is dated nine years subsequent to the latter, they are described as actually dwelling in the town of Jambusara. This town is no doubt Jambosir, between Khambay and Baroch, and as it belonged to the Châlukya princes, who ruled over Maharashtra, the kingdom of Gurjjara must have been situated to the north of Khambay, that is, in Râjputâna, where I have already placed it on the authority of Hwen Thsang, and other independent evidence.