North Indian Inscriptions

THE KṚITA ERA

encomium with subsequent poets. Thus, we find a reference to Vikramāditya’s liberality not only in the work of Hāla but also in one of the introductory verses (verse 10) of the Vāsavadattā by Subandhu, who has to be placed about the close of the 6th century A.D. at the latest.

        Let us now turn to the second question, namely, the determination of the meaning of the term Kṛita. It has been pointed out above that the earliest inscriptions of the Vikrama era record years which are called simply Kṛita and that Kṛita is always in apposition with varsha or vatsara . We had thrown out two suggestions, according to one of which Kṛita meant ‘made’ or ‘artificial’ and referred to an era invented by the people or astronomers for the purpose of computing dates. There was, however, nothing in this suggestion which could inherently command acceptance. The second suggestion we will consider here again, because it has somehow escaped the notice of scholars. Before we do so, let us see what theory has been propounded by Altekar when he wrote his articles on the Baḍvā and Barṇāla inscriptions.

       He suggests that the era was known as Kṛita because it was founded by some individual of that name. It is true that Kṛita as a personal name was not familiar to later Indian history and literature, but the case was different in earlier times. “Kṛita was the name of one of the Viśvēdēvas; Vāsudēva had given it to one of this sons from Rōhiṇī; a pupil of Hiraṇyābha was known by that name; and fathers of Uparichara and Haryavana were christened by it. What inherent improbability is there in postulating that the so-called Vikrama era may have been originally started by a king named Kṛita?”¹ In the same breath he says that “According to the Viśvarūpa, Kṛita has also the sense of fruit or reward. This meaning seems to be connected with one of the Vedic meanings of the word,—’booty’. At the time of the founding of the era, a king named Kṛita may probably have scored a memorable victory and won great booty (kṛita) . To commemorate the victory an era was started called Kṛita named after its founder and his great achievement.” What these last two sentences exactly mean it is somewhat difficult to understand. Altekar probably means that there was a king, who, because he scored a victory and won great booty (kṛita), was, therefore, called Kṛita and that the era was called Kṛita after this founder to commemorate the victory which gave him not only Kṛita or booty but also the consequent name Kṛita. Nevertheless, he admits that his theory is only a tentative one and that “so far we have no evidence whatsoever of a king named Kṛita having flourished by the middle of the 1st century B.C.” “It is also true” he continues, “that an era named after king Kṛita should be known by a taddhita expression like Kārta-varsha or saṁvatsara, on the analogy of the expression Gaupt-ābdē varsha-śata-trayē varttamānē occurring in the Ganjam plates of the time of Śaśāṅkarāja.” Altekar adduces a two-fold reason. “The authors of early inscriptions,” says he at first, “were not particularly strong in Sanskrit (as is, for instance, evidenced by the present inscriptions) and the expression Kṛita (saṁvatsara) for Kārta (saṁvatsara) is quite possible in their compositions.” By “the present inscriptions” he, of course, means the Three Maukhari Inscriptions on Yūpas. But what is the language of these records ? On page 46 he says : “The language of the record may be described as incorrect Sanskrit.”² He has apparently forgotton that this represents the Gāthā dialect or the mixed Sanskrit in which the Buddhist works and the inscriptions of the Kushāṇa period were composed. We shall, however, consider the earliest Kṛita date, namely, of the Nāndsā record which reads as follows: Kṛitayōr=ddvayōr=vvarsha-śatayōr=dvyaśītayōḥ 200 80 2 Chaittra-pūrṇṇamāsy=asyāṁ=pūrvvāyām, “the full-moon day of Chaitra after two centuries of Kṛita years (and) eighty-two (had passed away)—this, being the specification (of the date).” Does not the language of this date represent chaste Sanskrit? And yet we find here, not Kārta-varsha, but Kṛitayōr . . . =varsha-śatayōr. Here Kṛita stands exactly in apposition with the group of years, showing
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¹ Ep. Ind., Vol. XXIII, p. 50.
² Ibid., p. 46.