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NOVEMBER, 1891.]
THE GUPTA-VALABHI ERA.
381
the month MArgasiraha of Valabhi-Samvat 1, not yet determined either as current or as expired, would be the Margasirsha of Saka-Samvat 242 current, and would fall four months before the initial day of Gupta-Samvat 1 as established under B. and C. above, and as applicable also to A. and D. An inference which might, at first sight, be drawn from this fact, is sufficiently obvious; viz. that we have here a current year, and in A. to D. expired years: with the construction that I put upon the fact, it will be considered further on.
F.- The Morbi grant of the year 585 expired. The date to be next considered is contained in the copper-plate grant of Jaipka, from Morbi in Kathiâwâą.
F. Here the details (loc. cit. p. 97) are: - For the making of the grant, the year 585, expressly specified as expired; on the occasion of an eclipse of the sun :) and for the writing of the charter, tho year 505, not specified either as current or as expired; the month Phålguna; the bright fortnight; and the (civil) day 2.
A certain amount of vagueness attends this date, because it includes no details as to the month, &c, of the occurrence of the solar eclipse, and as to the week-day of the writing of the charter. Three eclipses were put before me by Mr. Sh. B. Dikshit, of which one occurred on the 16th June, A. D. 904, corresponding to the new-moon day of the amánta Jy@shtha (or the púrnimanta Ashadha) of Saka-Samvat 827 current; another occurred on the 10th November, A. D. 904, corresponding to the new-moon day of the amanta Karttika (or the púrnimánta Mårgasîrsha) of the same Saka year; and the third occurred on the 7th May, A. D. 905, corresponding to the new-moon day of the amánta Vaisakha (or the purnimánta Jyêshtha) of Saka-Samvat 828 current. And, in order to bring this date into exact accordance with the conditions established for the dates that have been dealt with ander A. to D. above, I selected the last of these three, as being the eclipse intended in the record.
Now, for the period somewhere within which the date of this grant must be placed, von Oppolzer's Canon der Finsternisse, pp. 202, 203, and Plato 101, gives us the following solar eclipses :On the 27th June, A. D. 903, corresponding to the amanta Åshi dha new-moon of Saka
Samvat 826 current; a total eclipse; the central line of the eclipse ended at sunset in Lat. 33° N., Long. 1° W.;
and the eclipse was not visible anywhere in India. On the 21st December, A. D. 903, corresponding to the amanta Margasirsha new-moon of
Saka-Samvat 826 current; & partial eclipse; the central line of the eclipse was nowhere north of Lat. 30° S.; and
so the eclipse was probably not visible anywhere in India. On the 18th May, A. D. 904, corresponding to the amanta Vaisakha new-moon of
Saka-Samvat 827 current; a partial eclipse; the central
line of the eclipse was nowhere north of Lat. 30° s. On the 16th June, A. D. 904, corresponding to the amanta Jyêshtha new-moon of Saka
Samvat 827 corrent ; & partial eclipse ; tbe central line of the eclipse was nowhere north of Lat. 30° S.
. In the passage which contains this date, there is a word which in the published lithograph reads gópte. Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar has stated in 1889 (Jour. Bo. Br. R. As, Soc. Vol. XVII. p. 97) that he found among his papers two impressions by Dr. Burgess which shew that the reading of the original is gauptd; and that he asked Dr. Peterson to take charge of these impressions, as Secretary to the Bombay Asiatic Society, and deposit them in the Society's Museum, where they would be available for inspection. I have not been able to obtain them for inspection, either from Dr. Peterson, or from the Museum. But the point is of importance, only as regards the nomenclature of the era. Even if the era is here specifically called the Gupta era, still the date belongs to the Valabht variety of the era.
