Chronological Systems of Gujarat

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

Page 79

THE CHRONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS OF GUJARAT era of peace and prosperity, which figuratively might be regarded as Krtayuga" (Goiden age).
The people of India enjoyed peace and prosperity for about 135 years from 57 B.C. At the end of this period the Sakas again started their invasions and occupied the whole of Sindhu, Surāṣtra and Avanti.
Nevertheless they survived the catastrophe as a people, carved out a new Mālava territory to the north-east of Avanti, cherished the hope of regaining Avanti and continued to call their era Krta for a few centuries more.
The Mālava people continued their struggle with the Sakas but owing to the disintegration of their power, they were not able to restore their dream of Krtayuga. "The name Krta was dropped from the era. As the Mālava-gana was alive, the era was still remembered as to commemorate the firm foundation of the Mālava republic in 57 B.C., when the Sakas were defeated. It came to be called the Mālava era, the era of the Mālava-gana, the Mālava people and the Mālava lords.
When the Gupta power was rising in the first half of the 4th cent. the Mālavas were still a powerful republic beyond the south-west horizon of the Gupta kingdom. Chandragupta II exterminated them. The Guptas had their own era starting from 319-20 A.C. But the ideal of freedom for which the Mālavas stood, still possessed the minds of the people in Malwa. They 73. Kția is not only a chronological division of time in Hindu
astronony but also a conceptual term denoting a virtuous and happy age. This is borne out by a verse found in the AitareyaBrāhmana (Ibid., p. 198).