Chronological Systems of Gujarat

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

Page 72

THE MAITRAKA PERIOD
Among the dates one (No. 3) belongs to a royal charter of the Rāstrakūța dynasty which originally rose to power in South India and used the Śaka era in almost all its records. But the Lāța branch of the Rāstrakūtas seems to have been established as late as cir 750 A.C.55 The known dates supplied by the literary sources, however, commenced with the Saka year 531 (609 A.C.). The earliest of these dates occurs in the Višeşāvaśyaka Bhāsya by Jinabhadragani Kşamāśramana who is identified with Jinabhadra Vācanācārya of Nivrti Kula.56 As this kula originated from Nivrti, a son of śreșthin Jinadatta of Surpāraka57, the origin of the use of the Saka era in the work of his descendant may be ascribed to Konkan. The association of the use of the Saka era with South India becomes more clear in the case of the Saka date given in the Harivansa Purāņa by Jinasenasūri, who belonged to the Punnāta Sangha of Karnataka and settled at Vardhamānapura in Saurashtra. The era commonly used in Karnatak was the saka era since the 6th cent. A.C. It is, however, difficult to account for the use of the Saka era in the works of Jinadāsagani Mahattara and Uddyotanasūri.58
D. C. Sircar indicates that the Jains gave special preference to the Saka era and explains the preference by the fact that the Sakas are represented as the
55. H G. Shastri, MG, Pt. II, p. 330 56. U. P. Shah, Akota Bronzes, p. 29 57. Malavaniya, Ganadharavāda intro, p. 31 58. The original place of Jinadāsagani Mahattara is not known.
But Uddyotanasūri seems to have belonged to North India. (Vasant Rajara Mahostsava Smāraka Grantha, pp. 267 ff)