Chronological Systems of Gujarat

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

Page 48

THE GUPTA PERIOD
both these types of silver coins3. Among these, the sliver coins of Madhya Deśa yield several dates ranging upto G. E. 1484, while a few coins in Gujarat bear impressions of dates and even among the few dates that are impressed, only the digit of 100 is legible, and digits of the tens and the units being entirely legible.
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The Gupta period in Gujarat has left only one inscription which belongs to Skandagupta and bears dates of G. E. 136, 137 and 138.5 The dates of his inscription contain only the year, the month and the day.
As regards the designation of the Gupta Era, there is no ancient authority whatever for connecting the name of the Guptas with it as the establishers of it. In fact the era used by the imperial Guptas of Magadha and their feudatories was called the year or the reckoning of the Guptas from about the middle of the 5th cent. A. C. i. e. more than a century after its start. In the earlier records it is treated as a regnal reckoning of particular kings without giving it any specific
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3. One of the coins of Skandagupta (455 A. C.) which is found from Western India bears a date, but it is illegible, as it has the symbol for 100, but the digit following has been partly preserved (CGE., p. 252).
4. CGE, p. 279.
The silver coins of the Madhyadeśa of Budhagupta (476-77 A. C. to 494-95) are also found dated and these dates range upto 175 G. E. (494-95 A. C.). The date 180 G. E. (499-500 A. C.) on one of his coins is illegibly read as the so-called symbol for 80 is doubtful (IA., Vol. XVIII, p. 227).
5. D. C. Sircar, Select Insciptions, Book II, No. 25 6. J. F. Fleet, CII, Vol. III, pp. 29 f.