Chronological Systems of Gujarat

Author(s): Bharati K Shelat
Publisher: Pranav Shelat

Page 33

II. THE MAURYAN PERIOD
The Mauryan Period
The earliest period of documented history of Gujarat is the period of the Mauryan Rule. The Mauryan king Asoka (cir. B.C. 273-232) has left several epigraphic records in the different parts of the country. A version of the fourteen rock edicts is incised on a rock, lying on the way from Junagadh to Mt. Girnar.
The inscriptions of Asoka date certain events in the years counted from his coronation, i.e. in his regnal years'. Hence it follows that no regular and continuous era was used in the Mauryan records at least upto the reign of Asoka. But from the reading 'Muriya, kāla' in the Hathigumpha inscription of King Khāravela, of Orissa, Bhagawanlal Indrajiand Sten Konow4 established that the inscription virtually contains a reference to the Mauryan era”. This era was presu1. The years given in his fourteen rock edicts range from year 8 to
year 13 (D.C. Sircar, Select Inscriptions, Book I, Nos. 18, 13,
8.9,10-Rock edicts Nos. XIII, VIII, III, IV, V). 2. R.B. Pandey, Indian Palaeography, pp. 183 ff. 3. B.M. Barua, Old Brahmi Inscriptions in the Udayagiri Khandagiri
Caves, p. 4 4. ASI. AR, 1905-06, p. 166 5. Prinsep reads (-) riya; Cunningham (--]ya. Indraji and Sten
konow 'Muriya'. Jayaswal and Benarji also offer the reading Muriya. (B.M. Barua, Op. cit., p. 27). Smith also accepts the reading proposed by Bhagawanlal Indraji (EHI, 2nd ed., p. 187, f.n. 1), Jayaswal further assertained the existence of the Mauryan era (JBORS., Vol. III. p. 450).