=The Question of Dates.=—Having thus briefly sketched the history of the founder of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar, we must now endeavour to establish the epoch of this important event in its annals. Although Bappa Rawal was nine generations after the sack of Valabhipura, the domestic annals give S. 191 (A.D. 135) for his birth; which the bards implicitly following, have vitiated the whole chronology. An important inscription[4.2.29] in a character little known, establishes the fact of the Mori dynasty being in possession of Chitor in S. 770 (A.D. 714). Now the annals of the Rana’s house expressly state Bappa Rawal to be the nephew of the Mori prince of Chitor; that at the age of fifteen he was enrolled amongst the chieftains of his uncle, and that the vassals (before alluded to), in revenge for the resumption of their grants by the Mori, dethroned him and elevated as their sovereign the youthful Bappa. Notwithstanding this apparently irreconcilable anachronism, the family traditions accord with the inscription, except in date. Amidst such contradictions the development of the truth seemed impossible. Another valuable inscription of S. 1024 (A.D. 968), though giving the genealogy from Bappa to Sakti Kumar and corroborating that from Chitor, and which furnished convincing evidence, was not sanctioned by the prince or his chroniclers, who would admit nothing as valid that militated against their established era 191 for the birth of their founder. After six years’ residence and unremitting search amid ruins, archives, inscriptions, traditions, and whatever could throw light upon this point, the author quitted Udaipur with all these doubts in his mind, for Saurashtra, to prosecute his inquiries in the pristine abodes of the race. Then it was that he was rewarded, beyond his most sanguine expectations, by the discovery of an inscription which reconciled these conflicting authorities and removed every difficulty. This marble, found in the celebrated temple of Somnath,[4.2.30] made mention of a distinct era, viz. the Valabhi Samvat, as being used in Saurashtra; which era was three hundred and seventy-five years subsequent to Vikramaditya.[4.2.31]