Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India Vol 9.pdf/9



HE tour described in the present volume extended from Bharhut, half-way between Allahabad and Jabalpur, to Asir and Burhanpur on the west, and to Chanda and Markanda on the south, thus covering nearly the whole of the western half of the Central Provinces. In the middle ages the greater part of this country belonged to the Kulachuri Rajas of Chedi or Dahal. At a still earlier date the northern tract, about Uchahara and Mahiyar, was subject to two petty chiefs, or simple Maharajas, who were tributary to the powerful Gupta Kings, in whose era they date all their inscriptions.

Notices of all these records are given in the following pages, with facsimiles of the dates in the accompanying Plates.

The occurrence o f these dates has given me an oppor­tunity of discussing the probable starting point of the Gupta era, which I have fixed approximately to the year 194 A.D. Four of these inscriptions contain a second date in the twelve-year cycle of Jupiter, which, I think it pro­bable, will ultimately lead to the discovery of the true initial point of the Gupta era. I am not at present in possession of all the information necessary for the full discussion of this question; but I may note here that the years of this cycle of Jupiter have the same names as the twelve months of the year, with the addition o f the word Maha, or great, prefixed to each. Thus the year 156 of the Gupta era is also called