Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 20

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JANUARY, 1918
NEW LIGHT ON GUPTA ERA AND MIHIRAKULA
BY K. B. PATHAK.
(Continued from Vol. XLVI, p. 296.) DR. FLEET's discovery of the Mandasor inscription was very interesting and important. But his attempt to prove that the Mâlava era was the same as the Vikrama era of 57 B.C. was a failure and looked like the attempt of a person who wishes, to use Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar's words, 33 "to determine the value of one unknown quantity by means of another unknown quantity, which cannot be done." Nor was Dr. Fleet more suceessful in interpreting the date of the pillar inscription of Budhagupta when he said that the Gupta year 165 was a current year and that34 " in following Albêrûni's statement and adding two hundred and forty-one, what is really accomplished is the conversion of a given current GuptaValabhî year into an expired Saka year, by which we obtain precisely the basis that is wanted for working out results by Hindu Tables, viz., the last Saka year expired before the commencement of the current Saka year corresponding to a given current Gupta-Valabhi year, and that the running difference between current Gupta-Valabhi and current Saka years is two hundred and forty-two." That this view is erroneous will be obvious from a careful consideration of the following two equations which have been explained above
Expired Gupta year (a) 165 = (6) 406 expired Saka year,
Current Gupta year (c) 166 (d) 407 current Saka year. Dr. Fleet has mistaken the expired Gupta year (a) 165 for a current year and made it correspond to the current Saka year (d) 407 and drawn the wrong inference that the difference between current Gupta years and current Saka years is 242 instead of 241. His final conclusion, which is also due to the above mistake, that 35 "in the absence of any distinct specification to the contrary, we must interpret the years in Gupta-Valabhî dates as current years" is equally erroneous. Dr. Fleet attackslo Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar's view that the addition of 241 would turn a past Gupta year into a past Saka year, and the addition of 242, a past Gupta year into a current Saka year." But this view, which is found to be in accordance with the statements of the Jaina authorities and the Sárnáth inscription of Buchagupta, must now be accepted as final and decisive on the point at issue. Let us turn to the date of the Morvi copper plate grant, which is thus expressed
पञ्चाशीत्या युततीते समानां शसपनके।
गोमे दवावदी नृपः सीपरागकमंडले॥ This means that the king made the grant, when 585 years of the Guptas had expired, on the occurrence of a solar eclipse. The eclipse, therefore, occurred in the current Gupta year 586. Our equation is
Expired Gupta 157 - 398 expired Saka. Now the expired Gupta 585 is 428 years later than the expired. Gupta 157. By the addition of 428 to both sides we get the new equation
Expired Gupta 585 = 826 expired Saka. The equivalent Saka year 826 can also be obtained by adding 241 to 585. Therefore
Current Gupta 586=827 current Saka. 33 Jour. Bom. Br. R. A. S., Vol. XVII, part 11, p. 92. See Bühler's opinion, Ind. Ant., XV, p. 33) and Cunningham's letter, ibid, p. 347. 31 Gupta Inscriptions, Introd. p. 84.
35 Idem, p. 129. 36 Idem, p. 84, n. 1.
a lupta Inscriplions, Introd. p. 97.