History of Gujarát: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I.Campbell, James M.
History
History of Gujarát: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I.
Campbell, James M.
Gujarat (India) -- History
Nahapána cannot have lived long after the year 46. His death may be
fixed about the year 50 of the era to which the three years 41, 42, and
46 belong. He was probably about 75 years old when he died. Deducting
50 from 75 we get about 25 as Nahapána's age at the beginning of the
era to which the years 41, 42, and 46 belong, a suitable age for an
able prince with good resources and good advisers to have established
a kingdom. It is therefore probable that the era marks Nahapána's
conquest of Gujarát. As said above, Nahapána was probably considered
to belong to the Saka tribe, and his son-in-law clearly calls himself
a Saka. It may therefore be supposed that the era started by Nahapána
on his conquest of Gujarát was at first simply called Varsha; that it
afterwards came to be called Sakavarsha or Sakasamvatsara; and that
finally, after various changes, to suit false current ideas, about
the eleventh or twelfth century the people of the Deccan styled it
Sáliváhana Saka mixing it with current traditions regarding the great
Sátaváhana or Saliváhana king of Paithan. If, as mentioned above,
Nahapána's conquest of Gujarát and the establishment of his era
be taken to come close after the conquest of Mathurá by Kanishka,
the Gujarát conquest and the era must come very shortly after the
beginning of Kanishka's reign, since Kanishka conquered Mathurá early
in his reign. As his Mathurá inscriptions [71] give 5 as Kanishka's
earliest date, he must have conquered Mathurá in the year 3 or 4 of his
reign. Nahapána's expedition to and conquest of Gujarát was probably
contemporary with or very closely subsequent to Kanishka's conquest of
Mathurá. So two important eras seem to begin about four years apart,
the one with Kanishka's reign in Upper India, the other with Nahapána's
reign in Western India. The difference being so small and both being
eras of foreign conquerors, a Kushán and a Saka respectively, the
two eras seem to have been subsequently confounded. Thus, according
to Dr. Burnell, the Javanese Saka era is A.D. 74, that is Kanishka's
era was introduced into Java, probably because Java has from early
times been connected with the eastern parts of India where Kanishka's
era was current. On the other hand the astrological works called
Karana use the era beginning with A.D. 78 which we have taken to
be the Western era started by Nahapána. The use of the Saka era in
Karana works dates from the time of the great Indian astronomer Varáha
Mihira (A.D. 587). As Varáha Mihira lived and wrote his great work in
Avanti or Málwa he naturally made use of the Saka era of Nahapána,
which was current in Málwa. Subsequent astronomers adopted the era
used by the master Varáha Mihira. Under their influence Nahapána's
A.D. 78 era passed into use over the whole of Northern and Central
India eclipsing Kanishka's A.D. 74 era. On these grounds it may be
accepted that the dates in the Násik inscriptions of Ushavadáta and in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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