Chronological Systems of Gujarat

SR No.: 006798
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bharati K Shelat
Publisher: Pranav Shelat
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 422
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 6 MB

Page 108

THE SOLANKI PERIOD
91
raka period under the influence of the Pratihāra suzerains. But its use remained absolutely limited, as the eras commonly used in Gujarat, were the Valabhī Era in Western and Northern Gujarat and the Kalacuri Era in Southern Gujarat in the Maitraka period and the Gupta and the Valabhi Eras in Saurashtra and the Saka Era in Mainland Gujarat in the post-Maitraka period. It is especially in the Solanki period that the Vikrama Era, which is current in Gujarat for several centuries, came into common use in this region. As no epigraphic records of the Cāvaļā dynasty have come forth, it is hardly possible to determine the era used in its kingdom. Hence it seems quite likely that the credit of making the Vikrama Era widely prevalent in Gujarat goes to the Solanki dynasty. The probability of the association of Mūlarāja I's ancestors with GurjaraDeśa in South Rajasthan which was under the sway of the Pratihāras5 corroborates the above assumption.
Almost all the epigraphic records of the Solanki dynasty along with the Vāghelā lineage are dated in the Vikrama Era and even most of the literary records of this period are dated in this era.
The known records of this period abound in numbers, but here also chronological data are supplied by epigraphic sources to a much larger extent than by literary sources. Among the epigraphic records, stone inscriptions form a great majority in comparison to copper-plate inscriptions, image-inscriptions contribute a far larger number to this score. The literary data are mainly available in the Puspikās and Praśastis. The 5. D. K. Shastri, op. cit., pp. 139 ff.