Chronological Systems of Gujarat

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

Page 88

THE POST-MAITRAKA PERIOD
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year 734 (812-13-A.C.) to year 7466 Śaka. (824-25 A.C.), while the plates of his brother Govindarāja Prabhūtavarşa are dated Śaka year 735 (813-14 A.C.) to saka year 7497 (827-28 A.C.). These kings held steady power over Mainland Gujarat and dated their records pertaining to it in the Saka era. However, the Devli plates which record a grant of land situated in Saurashtra form an exception and are dated in the Valabhi era which had been in common use there for a pretty long period of about three centuries. But as the Rāstrakūța records were usually dated in the saka era and as this record - is dated in the Valabhi era prevalent in Saurashtra, the year was expressly specified as a year of the Valabhi era.
The same circumstances account for the use of the Valabhĩ era, with its name specified, in the Unā plates of Balavarman.
Thus dates in the Valabhī era occur only in a few records of this period, but they clearly indicate that the name of the era got specified by this time.
As for the system of the year and the month, these dates do not yield any particulars for verification. The Devli plates do not mention even the month and the lunar days. The Hilol plates and the Unā plates
6. H. G. Shastri, Gujarātano Prācīna Itihāsa, p. 139. 7. Ibid., p. 140 8. They simply refer to a solar eclipse in the Valabhi year 500.
The year was probably Kärttikādi as in the Maitraka period. There were two solar eclipses in the Kārttikādi year 500-one io (Amānta) Paușa and the other in (Amānta) Aşādha. If the years were Caitrādi only the second eclipse would apply.