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FOREWORD
Chronology is the backbone of history, dating not only events of political importance but also those of literary and cultural significance. The day, the month and the year marked the earliest natural units for measuring time. The adjustment of the system of lunar months to that of the solar year through the intercalation of the thirteenth month at certain intervals as early as the Vedic age indicates an early advancement in chronological calculations in India. But the system of dating outstanding events in regnal years of individual kings marred a continuous serial dating in centuries and millenia of years in the long span of Indian history. In course of time the problem was solved through the introduction of continued eras commemorating certain events of historical or cultural import. Indian chronology deals with a number of eras that came into vogue in different regions during different periods along with the variant systems of the commencement of their years and the completion of their mooths. The subject requires to be studied more and more intensively regionwise and periodwise.
Kumari Bharati K. Thaker (now Smt. Bharati K. Shelat) undertook to make an intensive study of the different chronological systems used in Gujarat during the successive periods in its ancient history, when she got herself registered as a Ph. D. student under my guidance in 1963. She spared no pains collecting all available dates from the epigraphic and literary sources, and in studying the different chronological systems discerned in them.
The outstanding results of her research may be summed up as follows:
The earliest era used in Gujarat was the Saka Era, which was in vogue here for about three centuries since its inception. The introduction of the so-called Kalacuri Era into South Gujarat during the Gupta Period popularised the system of Kārttikādi years
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