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DECEMBER, 1891.]
THE VIKRAMA ERA.
connection of Vikrama with the era grew up gradually, or was an innovation which took centuries to become generally adopted. And here it may be stated at once that the earliest date (of the year V. 898) which contains the word vikrama at all, describes the era somewhat vaguely as 'the time called vikrama,' and that only about 150 years later, in a poen composed in V. 1050, we hear for the first time of a prince or king Vikrama, in connection with the era.
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The next point to arrest our attention is that, with one slight exception which would rather prove the rule, down to V. 1400 the only princes who used expressions containing the word vikrama in the dates of their documents, were the Chaulukya and Vaghela rulers of Anhilvåd, and that the phraseology employed in the inscriptions of these princes clearly shows a gradual advance from the simple 'year' to 'the year (of the era) established by the illustrious Vikramaditya.' The earliest Chaulukya copper-plate (date No. 38), a grant of the king Mûlaraja, is dated samvat, 'in the year,' 1043. In the copper-plates of Mûlarâja's successors, and in other inscriptions and MSS. the dates of which are referred to the reign of one or other of them, we find in the place of the simple saivat the following phrases :
vikrama-samvat, in a copper-plate of Bhimadêva I. of the year 1086, and in a copper-plate of Karpadêva of the year 1148 (dates No. 47 and 57);
Sri-nripa-Vikrama-samvat, in a stone inscription of Jayasimhadeva of the year 1196
(No. 86);
Srimad-Vikrama-samvat, in a stone inscription of the reign of Kumârapâladêva of the year 1202 (No. 90);
Nripa-Vikrama-kálád-arvák, in a copper-plate of the reign of Ajayapâladeva of the year 1231 (No. 119);
Sri-Vikrama-nripatéḥ samvat and ri-Vikrama-narendra-sahvat, in MSS. of the reign of Bhimadêva II. of the years 1251 and 1261 (Nos. 136 and 144);
Srimad-Vikramadity-ôtpádita-samvatsara- in copper-plates of Bhimadêva II. of the years 1256, 1263, 1283, 1287, 1288, 1295, 1296, and in a copper-plate of Tribhuvanapâladêva of the year 1299 (Nos. 141, 145, 156, 159, 161, 165, 166, and 171);
Srimad-Vikrama-nripa-kál-átíta-samvatsara- and śri-Vikrama-samvat, in a copper-plate of Bhimadêva II. of the year 1266 (No. 148);
Srimad-Vikrama-kal-atita-samvatsaré, in a copper-plate of the Vighêla Visaladeva of the year 1317 (No. 179);
Sri-nripa-Vikrama-sam, in stone inscriptions of the reigns of Arjunadêva and Sarangadêva of the years 1320 and 1343 (Nos. 182 and 195),
Besides, ári-Vikrama-saivat also occurs in two inscriptions of the years 1288 and 1288 or 89 (Nos. 160 and 162) at Girnâr in Kathiâvâd which belonged to Aphilvâd; and we find ári Vikrama-kál-átíta-samvatsara- exceptionally in three copper-plates, of the years 1191, 1235, and 1256 (Nos. 82, 126, and 140), of the later Paramâras of Malava who, in employing a phrase of this kind, may well be supposed to have imitated their neighbours, the kings of Anhilvâd, who more than once had conquered portions of Malava.
Now, what I would lay particular stress on in regard to the above expressions, is the gradual change which may be observed in the phraseology of the dates from the time of Malaraja to that of Bhimadêva II. In the copper-plate of Mûlarâja the year of the date is simply called samhvat, the year.' In the grants of Bhimadêva I. and Karnadêva the year becomes the vikrama-year.' This expression, under Jayasimhadêva, Kumârapâladêva and Ajayapâladêva, is changed to the year of the illustrious Vikrama,' or 'the year of the illustrious prince Vikrama,' or 'the year reckoned from the time of the prince Vikrama.' And finally, under Bhimadeva II., about A. D. 1200, we have the year (of the era) established by the illustrious Vikramaditya.' In fact, that phrase which, supposing the era to have been established by or
