U4i 



V. A. Smith — The Sdlivdhana Era. 



[Not. 



The following is an extract from a note on it by Genl, A. Cunning- 

 ham : 



" I have not been able to make anything out of the marginal legend 

 of Mr. Carnac's gold Gupta coin. But the name of the king is undoubted- 

 ly Kumara Gupta — which is inscribed in two lines between the figures, 

 thus : 





4Sj g^ 



The reverse legend looks like ^^^r^ Apranasha. 



The following papers were read — 



1. The Sdlivdhana Era. — By V. A. Smith, G. S. 



Prof. Max Miiller observes, " Though I have throughout called the 

 era which begins 78 A, D. the S'aka era, or the S'aka, I cannot admit that 

 it is wrong to call it the S'alivahana era, or speak of it, as Dr. Kern does, 

 as the era which Anglice, but not in Sanskrit, is called S'alivahana era." 



The only examples of the application of the name of S'alivahana to the 

 S'aka era in Sanskrit writings which Max Miiller can adduce are two. 

 The first is the colophon of a Sanskrit work edited at Bombay in the year 

 1863 A. D., and the second is the colophon of a MS. copy of the Mu- 

 hurtamartanda in which the date is expressed both as the year 1493 of 

 the S'aka era, and as the year 1493 from the birth of S'alivahana.* 



The recently published Jain inscrijotion from the Lalitpur district in 

 Bundelkhand is interesting as affording an earlier example of the applica- 

 tion of S'alivahana's name to the S'aka era, being dated " in the year of 

 King Vikramaditya 1481, that of S'alivahana 1346." The exact date 

 specified corresponds to the end of April or the beginning of May 1424 

 A. D. according to Dr. Rajendralala Mitra.f The genuineness of the 

 inscription is indubitable. 



♦ Max Midler, ' India, What can it Teach us?' p. 300 (1883j. 

 t J. A. S, B. Vol. Lll, rt. I, (18b3) pp. 68, 7(i. 



