Chronological Systems of Gujarat

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

Page 78

THE MAITRAKA PERIOD
accession of Vonones about the middle of the 1st cent. B.C. is no other than the so-called Vikram Era of 58 B.C.71
The Mālavas originally lived in the Punjab and apparently submitted to the Greek and Scytho-Parthian conquerors of that land. Under foreign pressure they gradually migrated to Rajasthan and ruled over the district round Nagar (Mālava-nagar) in Jaipur StateIt was, therefore, the Mālavas who probably carried the Scytho-Parthian era of 58 B.C. from the Punjab to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The era came to be known in these regions as the reckoning associated with the Mālavas and with Kęta who seems to have been an illustrious leader of the Mālava tribe.
With the development of the legend of Vikramāditya Śakāri, the rival of the Saka era got about the 8th cent. A.C. associated with the name of Vikramāditya, the extirpator of the foreigners.
Dr. R. B. Pandeyr2 put forward his opinion that Vikramāditya was the leader of a republic and not an absolute monarch. Though he was mainly instrumental in the foundation of the era, in a republic state, the gana is more important than an individual leader. Under the circumstances the era was to be named after the Mālava-gana. The era was started to commemorate the victory of the Mālava republic against the barborous Sakas whose expulsion from India freed the country from foreign invasion and inaugurated an 71. Ibid, pp. 124 f. 72. R. B. Pandey, IP. pp. 198 ff.