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THE CHRONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS OF GUJARAT
moyes of citation of Jovian years27. The general practice is that the name of the samvatsara current at the commencement of the year (solar or lunar) is attached to the whole of that year notwithstanding that the Jovian Samvatsara may have been succeeded by the next one before the end of that year. Occasionally, however, the Samvatsara named on a particular day is found to be the Jovian year that was actually current on that day. The mention of Vyaya (20) on Vaišākha, su. 15 in Saka year 730 and that of Sarvajit (21) on the Amāvāsyā of Srāvana of the same year, evidently signify that the calendar used in Gujarat during the post-Maitraka period followed the latter practice i.e. the practice of citing the saṁvatsara that was actually current on the specified day.
The different schools of Indian chronology differed slightly with regard to the length of the Samvatsara as well as that of the sidereal solar year. In the absence of specific data it should hardly be possible to determine which of these schools was followed by the calendar used in the dates given in the records of this period. In the known records of this period we come across six cases of Samvatsaras-five in epigraphic records and one in literary records. In order to determine the probable school or schools of chronology followed in these dates, it will be worth attempting to calculate the commencement of the given Samvatsara according to the different schools which would have been prevalent by this time and to examine whether it fits in with
27. Pillai, Indian Chronology, pp. 39 f.
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