496

eld

HINDU CHRONOLOGY

easily have been set back to 528 B.c. in circumstances, attending
a determination of the reckoning long after the occurrence,
analogous to those in which the Ceylonese Buddhavarsha set up
the erroneous date of 544 B.C. for the death of Buddha. dinyol
In the class of eras of royal origin, brought into existence in the
manner indicated above, the Hindus have had various reckonings
and which have now mostly fallen into disuse. We may
Bygone
of the still existing
Eras of mention them, without giving them the detailed treat-
ment which the more important of the still existing
royal reckonings demand.
origin. beda The Kalachuri or Chedi era, commencing in A.D. 248
or 249, is known best from inscriptional records, bearing dates
which range from the 10th to the 13th century A.D., of the Kalachuri
kings of the Chedi country in Central India; and it is from them
that it derived the name under which it passes. In earlier times,
however, we find this era well established, without any appellation,
in Western India, in Gujarat and the Thana district of Bombay,
where it was used by kings and princes of the Chalukya, Gurjara,
Sendraka, Katachchuri and Traikutaka families. It is traced
back there to A.D. 457, at which time there was reigning a Traikutaka
king named Dahrasena. Beyond that point, we have at present no
certain knowledge about it. But it seems probable that the founder
of it may be recognized in an Abhira king Isvarasena, or else in
his father Sivadatta, who was reigning at Nasik in or closely about
A.D. 248-49.
The Gupta era, commencing in A.D. 320, was founded by Chandra-
gupta I., the first paramount king in the great Gupta dynasty of
Northern India. When the Guptas passed away, their reckoning
was taken over by the Maitraka kings of Valabhi, who succeeded
them in Kathiawar and some of the neighbouring territories; and
so it became also known as the Valabhi era. alpino sessolve
From Halsi in the Belgaum district, Bombay, we have a record
of the Kadamba king Kakusthavarman, which was framed during
the time when he was the Yuvaraja or anointed successor to the
Sovereignty, and may be referred to about A.D. 500. It is dated
in "the eightieth victorious year," and thus indicates the preserva-
tion of a reckoning running from the foundation of the Kadamba
dynasty by Mayūravarman, the great-grandfather of Kakusthavar-
man. But no other evidence of the existence of this era has been
obtained.
9 The records of the Ganga kings of Kalinganagara, which is the
modern Mukhalingam-Nagarikatakam in the Ganjam district,
Madras, show the existence of a Ganga era which ran for at any
rate 254 years. And various details in the inscriptions enable us
to trace the origin of the Ganga kings to Western India, and to
place the initial point of their reckoning in A.D. 590, when a certain
Satyasraya-Dhruvaraja-Indravarman, an ancestor and probably
the grandfather of the first Ganga king Rajasimha-Indravarman I.,
commenced to govern a large province in the Konkan under the
Chalukya king Kirtivarman I.
of An era commencing in A.D. 605 or 606 was founded in Northern
India by the great king Harshavardhana, who reigned first at
Thanesar and then at Kanauj, and who was the third sovereign in
a dynasty which traced its origin to a prince named Naravardhana.
A peculiarity about this era is that it continued in use for apparently
four centuries after Harshavardhana, in spite of the fact that his line
ended with him. agiono and tone law

The inscriptions assert that the Western Chalukya king Vikrama
or Vikramaditya VI. of Kalyani in the Nizam's dominions, who
reigned from A.D. 1076 to 1126, abolished the use of the Saka era
in his dominions in favour of an era named after himself. What
he or his ministers did was to adopt, for the first time in that dynasty,
the system of regnal years, according to which, while the Saka era
also remained in use, most of the records of his time are dated, not
in that era, but in the year so-and-so of the Chalukya-Vikrama-kala
or Chalukya-Vikrama-varsha," the time or years of the Chalukya
Vikrama. There is some evidence that this reckoning survived
Vikramaditya VI. for a short time. But his successors introduced
their own regnal reckonings; and that prevented it from acquiring
permanence.
In Tirhut, there is still used a reckoning which is known as the
Lakshmanasena era from the name of the king of Bengal by whom
it was founded. There is a difference of opinion as to the exact
initial point of this reckoning; but the best conclusion appears to
be that which places it in A.D. 1119. This era prevailed at one
time throughout Bengal: we know this from a passage in the
Akbarnama, written in A.D. 1584, which specifies the Saka era as
the reckoning of Gujarat and the Dekkan, the Vikrama era as the
reckoning of Malwa, Delhi, and those parts, and the Lakshmanasena
era as the reckoning of Bengal.
The last reckoning that we have to mention here is one known
as the Rajyabhisheka-Saka," the era of the anointment to the
Sovereignty," which was in use for a time in Western India. It
dated from the day Jyaishtha śukla 13 of the Saka year 1597 current,
6 June, A.D. 1674, when Sivaji, the founder of the Maratha
WE allood
kingdom, had himself enthroned.
bThere are four reckonings which it is difficult at present to class
exactly. Two inscriptions of the 15th and 17th centuries, recently

which postulates an initial point in A.D. 624 or in the preceding
brought to notice from Jesalmer in Rajputana, present a reckoning
or the following year, and bears an appellation, Bhatika Miscel
which seems to be based on the name of the Bhatti
cal event is known, referable to that time, which can
tribe, to which the rulers of Jesalmer belong. No histori-
have given rise to an era. It is possible that the apparent initial
date represents an epoch, at the end of the Saka year 546 or there-
soon afterwards and used in the Jesalmer territory. But it seems
abouts, laid down in some astronomical work composed then or
more probable that it is a purely fictitious date, set up by an attempt
to evolve an early history of the ruling family.duas of

In the Tinnevelly district of Madras, and in the territories of the
same presidency In which the Malayalam language prevails, namely,
South Kanara below Mangalore, the Malabar district, and the
Cochin and Travancore states, there is used a reckoning which is
known sometimes as the Kollam or Kolamba reckoning, sometimes
as the era of Parasurama. The years of it are solar: in the southern
parts of the territory in which it is current, they begin with the
month Simha; in the northern parts, they begin with the next
month, Kanya. The initial point of the reckoning is in A.D. 825:
and the year 1076 commenced in A.D. 1900. The popular view about
are now in the fourth cycle; and that the reckoning originated in
this reckoning is that it consists of cycles of 1000 years; that we
1176 B.C. with the mythical Parasurama, who exterminated the
Western India below the Ghauts, from the ocean. But the earliest
Kshatriya or warrior caste, and reclaimed the Konkan countries,
known date in it, of the year 149, falls in A.D. 973; and the reckon-
ing has run on in continuation of the thousand, instead of beginning
afresh in A.D. 1825. It seems probable, therefore, that the reckoning
"the Kollam year (of such-and-such a number)," sometimes as
had no existence before A.D. 825. The years are cited sometimes as
"the year (so-and-so) after Kollam appeared; and this suggests
that the reckoning may possibly owe its origin to some event,
occurring in A.D. 825, connected with one or other of the towns and
ports named Kollam, on the Malabar coast; perhaps Northern
known as Quilon, in Travancore. But the introduction of Para-
Kollam in the Malabar district, perhaps Southern Kollam, better
surama into the matter, which would carry back (let us say) the
foundation of Kollam to legendary times, may indicate, rather, a
Kollam reckoning begins in the same year A.D. with a century of
purely imaginative origin. Or, again, since each century of the
the Saptarshi reckoning (see below under III. Other Reckonings),
it is not impossible that this reckoning may be a southern offshoot
of the Saptarshi reckoning, or at least may have had the same
astrological origin.

In Nepal there is a reckoning, known as the Newar era and commencing in A.D. 879, which superseded the Gupta and Harsha eras there. One tradition attributes the foundation of it to a king Raghavadeva; another says that, in the time and with the perpaid off, by means of wealth acquired from sand which turned into mission of a king Jayadevamalla, a merchant named Sakhwal new era in commemoration of the occurrence. It is possible that gold, all the debts then existing in the country, and introduced the the era may have been founded by some ruler of Nepal: but nothing authentic is known about the particular names mentioned in connexion with it. This era appears to have been discarded for state the Gurkhas became masters of Nepal; but manuscripts show that and official purposes, in favour of the Saka era, in A.D. 1768, when Inscriptions disclose the use in Kathiawar and Gujarat, in the in literary circles it has remained in use up to at any rate A.D. 1875. 12th and 13th centuries, of a reckoning, commencing in A.D. 1114. which is known as the Simha-samvat. No historical occurrence is ng lanigolotonda silduq tad pebne labito known, on which it can have been based; and the origin of it is chorusy er oft broad fibol of obscure, on bib The eras mentioned above have for the most part served their toledo purposes and died out. But there are three great reckonings, dating from a very respectable antiquity, which have held their own and survived to the present day. These are the Kaliyuga, Vikrama, and Saka eras. It will be convenient to treat the Kaliyuga first, though, in spite of having the greatest apparent antiquity, it is the latest of the three in respect of actual date of origin.

The Kaliyuga era is the principal astronomical reckoning of the Hindus. It is frequently, if not generally, shown in the almanacs: but it can hardly be looked upon as being The Kallnow in practical use for civil purposes; and, as regards yuga Era the custom of previous times as far as we can judge it of 3102 from the inscriptional use, which furnishes a good guide, the position is as follows: from Southern India we have one such instance of A.D. 634, one of A.D. 770, three of the 10th century, and then, from the 12th century onwards, but more particularly from the 14th, a certain number of instances, not exactly very small in itself, but extremely so in comparison

with the number of cases of the use of the Vikrama and Saka | north and the south. The Vikrama era has never been used for eras and other reckonings: from Northern India the earliest astronomical purposes. Its years are lunar, with lunar months, known instance of is A.D. 1169 or 1170, and the later ones number but seem liable to be sometimes regarded as solar, with solar only four. Its years are by nature sidereal solar years, com- months, when they are cited in almanacs of Southern India mencing with the Mēsha-samkrānti, the entrance of the sun which present the solar calendar. Originally they were Kärttiinto the Hindu constellation and sign Mēsha, i.e. Aries (for kādi, with pūrṇimanta months (ending with the full-moon). this and other technical details, see above, under the Calendar);1 They now exist in the following three varieties: in Kathiawār but they were probably cited as lunar years in the inscriptional and Gujarāt, they are chiefly Kārttikādi, with amānta months records which present the reckoning; and the almanacs appear (ending with the new-moon); and they are shown in this form to treat them either as Meshādi civil solar years with solar months, in almanacs for the other parts of the Bombay Presidency: or as Chaitrādi lunar years with lunar months amänta (ending but there is also found in Kathiāwār and that neighbourhood with the new-moon) or pūrṇņimänta (ending with the full-moon) an Ashāḍhādi variety, commencing with Ashāḍha śukla 1, as the case may be, according to the locality. Its initial point lics similarly with amanta months; in the rest of Northern India, in 3102 B.C.; and the year 5002 began in A.D. 1900.2 they are Chaitrādi, with pūrṇimānta months. The era has its initial point in 58 B.C., and its first civil day, Kārttika śukla 1, is 19th September in that year if we determine it with reference to the Hindu Tula-samkrānti, or 18th October if we determine it with reference to the tropical equinox. The years of the three varieties, Chaitrādi, Āshaḍhādi, and Kārttikādi, all commence in the same year A.D.; and the year 1958 began in

This reckoning is not an historical era, actually running from 3102 B.C. It was devised for astronomical purposes at some time about A.D. 400, when the Hindu astronomers, having taken over the principles of the Greek astronomy, recognized that they required for purposes of computation a specific reckoning with a definite initial occasion. They found that occasion in a conjunction of the sun, the moon, and the five planets which were then known, at the first point of their sign Mesha. There was not really such a conjunction; nor, apparently, is it even the case that the sun was actually at the first point of Mēsha at the moment arrived at. But there was an approach to such a conjunction, which was turned into an actual conjunction by taking the mean instead of the true positions of the sun, the moon, and the planets. And, partly from the reckoning which has come down to us, partly from the astronomical books, we know that the moment assigned to the assumed conjunction was according to one school the midnight between Thursday the 17th, and Friday the 18th, February, 3102 B.C., and according to another school the sunrise on the Friday. The reckoning thus devised was subsequently identified with the Kaliyuga as the iron age, the last and shortest, with a duration of 432,000 years, of the four ages in each cycle of ages in the Hindu system of cosmical periods. Also, traditional history was fitted to it by one school, represented notably by the Puranas, which, referring the great war between the Pandavas and the Kurus, which is the topic of the Mahabharata, to the close of the preceding age, the Dvapara, placed on the last day of that age the culminating event which ushered in the Kali age; namely, the death of Krishna (the return to heaven of Vishnu on the termination of his incarnation as Krishna), which was followed by the abdication of the Pandava king Yudhishthira, who, having installed his grand-nephew Parikshit as his successor, then set out on his own journey to heaven. Another school, however, placed the Pandavas and the Kurus 653 years later, in 2449 B.C. A third school places in 3102 B.C. the anointment of Yudhishthira to the sovereignty, and treats that event as inaugurating the Kali age; from this point of view, the first 3044 years of the Kaliyuga-the period from its commencement in 3102 B.C. to the commencement of the first historical era, the so-called Vikrama era, in 58 B.C.-are also known as "the era of Yudhishthira."

The Vik

B. C.

The Vikrama era, which is the earliest of all the Hindu eras in respect of order of foundation, is the dominant era and the great historical reckoning of Northern India—that rama Era is, of the territory on the north of the rivers Narbadā of 58 and Mahanadi-to which part of the country its use has always been practically confined. Like, indeed, the Kaliyuga and Saka eras, it is freely cited in almanacs in any part of India; and it is sometimes used in the south by immigrants from the north: but it is, by nature, so essentially foreign to the south that the earliest known inscriptional instance of the use of it in Southern India only dates from A.D. 1218, and the very few later instances that have been obtained, prior to the 15th century A.D., come, along with the instance of A.D. 1218, from the close neighbourhood of the dividing-line between the It is always to be borne in mind that, as already explained, while the Hindu Mesha answers to our Aries, it does not coincide with either the sign or the constellation Aries.

We select A.D. 1900 as a gauge-year, in preference to the year in which we are writing, because its figures are more convenient for comparative purposes. In accordance with the general tendency of the Hindus to cite expired years, the almanacs would mostly show 5001 (instead of 5002) as the number for the Kaliyuga year answering to A.D. 1900-1901. And, for the same reason, this reckoning has often been called the Kaliyuga era of 3101 B.C. There is, perhaps, no particular objection to that, provided that we then deal with the Vikrama and Saka eras on the same lines, and bear in mind that in each case the initial point of the reckoning really lies in the preceding year. But we prefer to treat these reckonings with exact correctness.

A.D. 1900.

Hindu legend connects the foundation of this era with a king Vikrama or Vikramaditya of Ujjain in Malwa, Central India: one version is that he began to reign in 58 B.C.; another is that he died in that year, and that the reckoning commemorates his death. Modern research, however, based largely on the inscriptional records, has shown that there was no such king, and that the real facts are very different. The era owes its existence to the Kushan king Kanishka, a foreign invader, who established himself in Northern India and commenced to reign there in B.C. 58. He was the founder of it, in the sense that the opening years of it were the years of his reign. It was established and set going as an era by his successor, who continued the reckoning so started, instead of breaking it by introducing another according to his own regnal years. And it was perpetuated as an era, and transmitted as such territory Malwa derived its name, who were an important section to posterity by the Malavas, the people from whom the modern with that, records ranging in date from A.D. 473 to 879 style it of the subjects of Kanishka and his successors. In consonance the reckoning of the Malavas, the years of the Malava lords, the Mälava time or era." Prior to that, it had no specific name; the years of it were simply cited, in ordinary Hindu fashion, by the term samvatsara, "the year (of such-and-such a number)," or by its abbreviations samvat and sam: and the same was frequently done in later times also, and is habitually done in the present day; and so, in modern times, this era has often been loosely styled the Samvat era." The idea of a king Vikrama in connexion with it appears to date from only the 9th or 10th century A.D.

The Saka

Era of
A.D. 78.

The Saka era, though it actually had its origin in the southwest corner of Northern India, is the dominant era and the is, of the territory below the rivers Narbada and great historical reckoning of Southern India; that Mahanadi. It is also the subsidiary astronomical reckoning, largely used, from the 6th century A.D. onwards, in the Karanas, the works dealing with practical details of the calendar, for laying down epochs or points of time furnishing convenient bases for computation. As a result of that, it came to be used in past times for general purposes also, to a limited extent, in parts of Northern India where it and is cited in almanacs everywhere. Its years are usually was not indigenous. And it is now used more or less freely, lunar, Chaitrādi, and its months are purnimanta (ending with the full-moon) in Northern India, and amanta (ending with the new-moon) in Southern India; but in times gone by it was sometimes treated for purposes of calculation as having astronomical solar years, and it is now treated as having Mesh di civil solar years and solar months in those parts of India where that form of the solar calendar prevails. It has its initial point in A.D. 78; and its first civil day, Chaitra śukla 1, is 3rd March

It may be remarked that there are about twelve different views regarding the date of Kanishka and the origin of the Vikrama era. Some writers hold that Kanishka began to reign in A.D. 78, and founded the so-called Saka era beginning in that year; one writer would place his initial date about A.D. 123, others would place it in A.D. 278. The view maintained by the present writer was held at one time by Sir A. Cunningham: and, as some others have already begun to recognize, evidence is now steadily accumulating in support of the correctness of it.

in that year, as determined with reference either to the Hindu | the term Saka or Saka. In Northern India the case is very different.

M 'na-samkrānti or to the entrance of the sun into the tropical
Pisces. The year 1823 began in A.D. 1900.

(expired), falling in A.D. 709: it comes from Multai in the Betul We have a record dated in the month Karttika, the Saka year 631 district, Central Provinces, that is, from the south of the Narbadā; but it belongs to Gujarat (Bombay), and perhaps to the north, though more probably to the south, of that province. But, setting that aside, the earliest inscriptional instance of the use of this era in Northern India, outside Käthiäwär and Gujarat, is found in a record of A.D. 862 at Deogarh near Lalitpur, the headquarters town of the Lalitpur district, United Provinces of Agra and Oude; here, however, the record is primarily dated, with the full details of the month, &c., in "Samvat 919," that is, in the Vikrama year 919; it is only as a subsidiary detail that the Saka year 784 is given in a separate passage at the end of the record, a sort of postscript. From this date onwards the era is found in other records of Northern India, but to any appreciable extent only from A.D. 1137, and to only a very small extent in comparison with the Vikrama and other northern eras; and the cases in which it was used exclusively there, without being coupled with one or other of the northern reckonings, are still more conspicuously few. In short, the general position is that the Saka era has been essentially foreign to Northern India until recent times; it was used there quite exceptionally and sporadically, and in very few cases indeed at any appreciable distance from the dividing-line between the north and the south. That it found its way into Northern India, outside Kathiawar and northern Gujarat at all, is unquestionably due to its use by the astronomers. It also travelled, across the sea, by the 7th century A.D. to Cambodia, in almanacs, or in invoices, statements of account, &c., by the persons and somewhat later to Java; to which parts it was doubtless taken engaged in the trade between Broach and the far cast via Tagara (Ter) and the east coast. It also found its way in subsequent times to Assam and Ceylon, and more recently still to Nepāl.

III. OTHER RECKONINGS

The Cycles of Jupiter.

We come now to certain reckonings consisting of cycles, and will take first the cycles of Guru or Brihaspati, Jupiter. This planet, a very conspicuous object in eastern skies, requires a period of 4332-6 days, = 50.4 days less than twelve Julian years, to make a circuit of the heavens, and has provided the Hindus with two reckonings, each in more than one variety; a cycle of twelve years, and a cycle of sixty years. The years of Jupiter, in all their varieties, are usually styled samvatsara; and it is convenient to use this term here, in order to preserve clearly the distinction between them and the solar and lunar years. The samvatsaras have no divisions of their own; the months, days, &c., cited with them are those of the ordinary solar or lunar calendar, as the case may be.

Regarding the origin of the Saka era, there was current in the 10th and 11th centuries A.D. a belief which, ignoring the difference of a hundred and thirty-five years between the two reckonings, connected the legendary king Vikramaditya of Ujjain, mentioned above under the Vikrama era, with the foundation of this era also. The story runs, from this point of view, that the Sakas were a barbarous people who established themselves in the western and north-western dominions of that king, but were met in battle and destroyed by him, and that the era was established in celebration of that event. The modern belief, however, ascribes the foundation of this era to a king Salivahana of Pratishthana, which is the modern Paithan, on the Gōdāvarī, in the Nizam's dominions. But in this case, again, research has shown that the facts are very different. Like the Vikrama era, the Saka era owes its existence to foreign invaders. It was founded by the Chhaharata or Kshaharata king Nahapana, who appears to have been a Pahlava or Palhava, i.e. of Parthian extraction, and who reigned from A.D. 78 to about 125. He established himself first in Kāṭhiāwār, but subsequently brought under his sway northern Gujarat (Bombay) and Ujjain, and, below the Narbada, southern Gujarat, Nasik and probably Khāndësh. His capital seems to have been Dōhad, in the Pañch Mahāls. And he had two viceroys: one, named Bhūmaka, of the same family with himself, in Kāţhiāwār; and another, Chashtana, son of Ghsamotika, at Ujjain. Soon after A.D. 125, Nahapana was overthrown, and his family was wiped out, by the Satavahana-Satakarni king GautamiputraSri-Satakarni, who thereby recovered the territories on the south of the Narbadā, and perhaps secured for a time Kathiawār and some other parts on the north of that river. Very soon, however, Chashtana, or else his son Jayadāman, established his sway over all the territory which had belonged to Nahapana on the north of the Narbadā; founded a line of Hinduized foreign kings, who ruled there for more than three centuries; and, continuing Nahapana's regnal reckoning, established the era to which the name Saka eventually became attached. Inscriptions and coins show that, up to at least the second decade of its fourth century, this reckoning had no specific appellation; its years were simply cited, in the usual fashion, as varsha, "the year (of such-and-such a number)." The reckoning was then taken up by the astronomers. And we find it first called Sakakala," the time or era of the Sakas," in an epochal date, the end of the year 427, falling in A.D. 505, which was used by the astronomer Varāhamihira (d. A.D. 587) in his Pañchasiddhantikā. That this name came to be attached to it appears to be due to the points that, along with some of the Pahlavas or Pal-risings-that is, from the day on which it becomes visible as a havas and the Yavanas or descendants of the Asiatic Greeks, some of the Sakas, the Scythians, had made their way into Kathiawar and neighbouring parts by about A.D. 100, and that the Sakas incidentally came to acquire prominence in the memory of the Hindus regarding these occurrences, in such a manner that their name was selected when the occasion arose to devise an appellation for an era the exact origin of which had been forgotten. The name of the imaginary king Sälivahana first figures in connexion with the era in a record of A.D. 1272, and seems plainly to have been introduced in imitation of the coupling of the name Vikrama, Vikramaditya, with the era of B.C. 58. That the Saka era, though it had its origin in the south-west corner of Northern India, is essentially an era of Southern India, is proved by its inscriptional and numismatic history. During the period before the time when it was taken up by the astronomers, it is found only in the inscriptions of Nahapana, and in the similar records and on the coins of the descendants of Chashtana. After that same time, it figures first in a record of the Chalukya king Kirtivarman I., at Badami in the Bijapur district, Bombay, which is dated on the full-moon day of the month Kärttika, falling in A.D. 578," when there had elapsed five centuries of the years of the anointment of the Saka king to the sovereignty." And from this date onwards the records of a large part of Southern India are mostly dated in this era, by various expressions all of which include See the preceding note.

The older reckoning of Jupiter appears to be that of the 12years cycle, which is found in two varieties; in both of them the samvatsaras bear, according to certain rules which need not be explained here, the same names with the lunar months, Chaitra, Vaiśākha, &c. In one variety, each samvatsara runs from one of the planet's heliacal

The 12years

Cycle.

morning star on the eastern horizon-to the next such rising: and the length of such a samvatsara, according to the Hindu data, is from 392 to 405 days, with an average of 399 days. Inscriptional instances of the use of this cycle are found in six of the Gupta records of Northern India, ranging from A.D. 475 to 528.

In the other variety of the 12-years cycle, which is mentioned in astronomical works from the time of Aryabhata onwards (b. A.D. 476), the samvatsaras are regulated by Jupiter's course with reference to his mean motion and mean longitude: a samvatsara of this variety commences when Jupiter thus enters a sign of the zodiac, and lasts for the time occupied by him in traversing that sign from the same point of view; and the period taken by him to do that-that is, the duration of such a samvatsara-is slightly in excess, according to the Hindu data, of 361-02 days, which amount is very close to the actual fact, 361.05 days. Inscriptional instances of the use of this cycle are perhaps found in two records of Southern India of the Kadamba series, belonging to about A.D. 575.

The 12-years mean-sign cycle seems to be still used in some parts. And the heliacal risings of Jupiter, as also, indeed, those of the other planets, are shown in almanacs for astrological purposes. In either variety, however, the 12-years cycle is now chiefly of antiquarian interest.

The 60years cycle.

the same quarters, no passing over of the name of any samvatsara. And this practice established itself in Southern India, to the exclusion there of the mean-sign and the northern lunisolar varieties; the discrepancy between the last-mentioned variety and the variety thus set up continuing, of course, to increase by

The cycle of Jupiter now in general use is a cycle of sixty years, the samvatsaras of which bear certain special names, Prabhava, Vibhava, Šukla, Pramoda, &c., again in accordance with certain rules which we need not explain here. This cycle exists in three varieties. According to the original constitution of this cycle, the sam-one samvatsara after every 85 or 86 years. In this variety, the vatsaras are determined as in the second or mean-sign variety of the 12-years cycle: each samvatsara commences when Jupiter enters a sign of the zodiac with reference to his mean motion and longitude; and it lasts for slightly more than 361-02 days. This variety is traced back in inscriptional records to A.D. 602, and is still used in Northern India.

southern lunisolar variety, all connexion between the samvatsaras and the movements of Jupiter has now been lost.

The present position of the 60-years cycle in its three varieties may be illustrated thus. In Northern India, by the mean-sign system the samvatsara No. 46, Paridhavin, began, according to different authorities, in August, September or October, A.D. 1899. Consequently, by the northern or expunging lunisolar system, that same samvatsara, No. 46, Paridhavin, coincided with the Meshadi civil solar year beginning with or just after 12th April, and with the the southern or non-expunging lunisolar system those same solar Chaitrādi lunar year beginning with 31st March, A.D. 1900. But by and lunar years were No. 34, Sarvárin.

The treatment of the cycles of Jupiter in the Sanskrit books shows that it was primarily from the astrological point of view that they appealed to the Hindus; it was only as a secondary For the practical application of any of them to historical purposes, consideration that they acquired anything of a chronological nature. it is, of course, necessary that, along with the mention of a samvatsara, there should always be given the year of some known era, or some other specific guide to the exact period to which that samvatsara is to be referred. But it is fortunately the case that the samvatsaras have been but rarely cited in the inscriptional records without such a guide, of some kind or another.

The Saptarshi reckoning is used in Kashmir, and in the Kangra district and some of the Hill states on the south-east of Kashmir; some nine centuries ago it was also in use in the Punjab, The Sap and apparently in Sind. In addition to being cited by tarshi such expressions as Saptarshi-samvat, "the year (so- reckon. and-so) of the Saptarshis," and Sastra-samvatsara, ing. "the year (so-and-so) of the scriptures," it is found mentioned as Lōkakāla," the time or era of the people," and by other terms which mark it as a vulgar reckoning. And it appears that modern popular names for it are Pahari-samvat and Kachcha-samvat, which we may render by "the Hill era" and "the crude era." The years of this reckoning are lunar, Chaitrādi; and the months are pūrṇimānta (ending with the full-moon). As matters stand now, the reckoning has a theoretical initial point in 3077 B.C.; and the year 4976, more usually called simply 76, began in A.D. 1900; but there are some indications that the initial point was originally placed one year earlier.

Now, the samvatsaras are calculated by means of the astronomical solar year commencing with the Mesha-samkrānti, the entrance of the sun into the sign Mesha (Aries). The process gives the number of the samvatsara last expired before any particular Mesha-samkrānti, with a remainder denoting the portion of the current samvatsara elapsed up to the same time; and the remainder, reduced to months, &c., gives the moment of the commencement of the current samvatsara, by reckoning back from the Mesha-samkrānti. As the result, apparently, of unwillingness to take the trouble to work out the full details, at some time about A.D. 800 a practice arose, in some quarters, according to which that samvatsara of the 60-years cycle which was current at any particular Mēsha-saṁkrānti was taken as coinciding with the astronomical solar year beginning at that samkrānli, and with the Chaiträdi lunar year belonging to that same solar year. And this practice set up a lunisolar variety of the cycle, in connexion with which we have to notice the following point. While the duration of a mean-sign samvatsara is closely about 361-02 days, the length of the Hindu astronomical solar year is closely about 365.258 days. It consequently happens, after every 85 or 86 years, that a mean-sign samvatsara begins and ends between two successive Mēsha-samkrāntis. In the mean-sign cycle, such a samvatsara retains its existence unaffected; and the names Prabhava, Vibhava, &c., run on without any interruption. According to the lunisolar system, however, the position is different; the samvatsara beginning and ending between the two Mēshasamkrāntis is expunged or suppressed, in the sense that its name is omitted and is replaced by the next name on the list. The second variety of the 60-years cycle, thus started, ran on alongside of the mean-sign variety, and, being eventually transferred, with that variety, to Northern India, is now known as the northern lunisolar variety. It preserves a connexion between the samvatsaras and the movements of Jupiter: but the connexion is an imperfect one; and both in this variety, and still more markedly in the remaining one still to be described, the samvatsaras prac-independent movement of their own, which, referred to the ecliptic, tically became mere appellations for the solar and lunar years. Meanwhile, just after A.D. 900, another development occurred, and there was started a third variety, which is now known as the southern lunisolar variety. The precise year in which this happened depends on the particular authority that we follow. If we take the elements adopted in the Surya-Siddhanta as the proper data for that time and for the locality-Western India below the Narbada-to which the early history of the cycle belongs, the position was as follows. At the Mēsha-samkrānti in A.D. 908 there was current, by the mean-sign system, the samvatsara No. 2, Vibhava: but No. 4, Pramoda, was current by the same system at the Mesha-samkrānti in A.D. 909; and No. 3, Sukla, began and ended between the two Mesha-samkrāntis. Accordingly, No. 2, Vibhava, was the lunisolar samvatsara for the Meshādi solar year and the Chaitrādi lunar year commencing in A.D. 908; and by the strict lunisolar system, which was adhered to by some people and is now known as the northern lunisolar system, it was followed in A.D. 909 by No. 4, Pramoda, the name of the intermediate samvatsara, No. 3, Sukla, being passed over. On the other hand, whether through oversight, or whatever the reason may have been, by other people the name of No. 3, Sukla, was not passed over, but that samvatsara was taken as the lunisolar samvatsara for the Mēshādi solar year and the Chaitradi lunar year beginning in A.D. 909, and No. 4, Pramoda, followed it in A.D. 910. On subsequent similar occasions, also, there was, in

The idea at the bottom of this reckoning is a belief that the Saptarshis, "the Seven Rishis or Saints," Marichi and others, were translated to heaven, and became the stars of the constellation

Ursa Major, in 3076 B.C. (or 3077); and that these stars possess an

carries them round at the rate of 100 years for each nakshatra or twenty-seventh division of the circle. Theoretically, therefore, the Saptarshi reckoning consists of cycles of 2700 years; and the numbering of the years should run from 1 to 2700, and then comdifferently. According to the general custom, which has distinctly mence afresh. In practice, however, it has been treated quite prevailed in Kashmir from the earliest use of the reckoning for chronological purposes, and is illustrated by Kalhana in his history of Kashmir, the Rajataramgini, written in A.D. 1148-1150, the num been completed, the numbering has not run on 101, 102, 103, &c., eration of the years has been centennial; whenever a century has but has begun again with 1, 2, 3, &c. Almanacs, indeed, show both the figures of the century and the full figures of the entire reckoning, which is treated as running from 3076 B C., not from 376 B.C. as the commencement of a new cycle, the second; thus, an almanac for the year beginning in A.D. 1793 describes that year as "the year 4869 according to the course of the Seven Rishis, and similarly the year 69.' And elsewhere sometimes the full figures are found, sometimes the abbreviated ones; thus, while a manuscript written in A.D. 1648 is dated in "the year 24 (for 4724), another, written in A.D. 1224 is dated in the year 4300." But, as in the Rajataramgini, so also in inscriptions, which range from A.D. 1204 onwards, only the abbreviated figures have hitherto been found. Essentially, therefore, the Saptarshi reckoning is a earlier centuries commencing in 3076, 2976 B.C., and so on, and its centennial reckoning, by suppressed or omitted hundreds, with its later centuries commencing in A.D. 25, 125, 225, &c.; on precisely the same lines with those according to which we may use, e.g. 98 to mean A.D. 1798, and 57 to mean A.D. 1857, and 9 to mean A.D. 1909, chronological purposes are obvious; isolated dates recorded in And the practical difficulties attending the use of such a system for such a fashion cannot be allocated without some explicit clue to