The length of this sidereal solar year was determined in the following manner. The astronomer selected what the Greeks termed an exeligmos, the Romans an annus magnus or mundanus, a period in the course of which a given order of things is completed by the sun, moon, and planets returning to a state of conjunction from which they have started. The usual Hindu exeligmos has been the Great Age of 4,3 20,000 sidereal solar years, the aggregate of the Krita or golden age, the Treta or silver age, the Dvapara or brazen age, and the Kali or Iron Age, in which we now are; but it has sometimes been the Kalpa or aeon, consisting according to one view of 1000, according to another view of io08, Great Ages. The astronomer then laid down the number of revolutions, in the period of his exeligmos, of the nakshatras, certain stars and groups of stars which will be noticed more definitely in our account of the lunar year; that is, the number of rotations of the earth on its axis, or, in other words, the number of sidereal days. A deduction of the number of the years from the number of the sidereal days gave, as remainder, the number of civil days in the exeligmos. This remainder being divided by the number of the years, the quotient gave the length of the sidereal solar year: refinements, suggested by experience, inference, or extraneous information, were made by increasing or decreasing the number of sidereal days assigned to the exeligmos.
The Hindus now recognize three standard sidereal solar years determined in that manner:
The result of the use of this sidereal solar year is that the beginning of the Hindu astronomical solar year, and with it the civil solar year and the lunar year and the nominal incidence of the seasons, has always been, and still is, travelling slowly forward in our calendar year by an amount which varies according to the particular authority. For instance, Aryabhata's year exceeds the Julian year by 12 min. 30 sec. This amounts to exactly one day in i i 5j years, and five days in 576 years. Thus, if we take the longer period and confine ourselves to a time when the Julian calendar (old style) was in use, according to Aryabhata the Mesha-samkranti began to occur in A.D. 603 on 10 March, and in A.D. 1179 on 25 March. The intermediate advances arrange themselves into four steps of one day each in 116 years, followed by one step of one day in 112 years: thus, the Mesha-samkranti began to occur on 21 March in A.D. 719, on 22 March in A.D. 835, on 23 March in A.D. 951, and on 24 March in A.D. 1067 (whence 112 years take us to 25 March in A.D. 1179). It is now occurring sometimes on 11 April, sometimes on the 12th; having first come to the 12th in A.D. 1871.
The civil solar year exists in more varieties than one. The principal variety, conveniently called the Meshadi year, i.e. " the year beginning at the Mesha-samkranti," is the only one that we need notice at this point. The beginning of it is determined directly by the astronomical solar year; and for religious purposes it begins, with that year, at the moment of the Mesha-samkranti. Its first civil day, however, may be either the day on which the samkranti occurs, or the next day, or even the day after that: this is determined partly by the time of day or night at which the samkranti occurs, which, moreover, of course varies in accordance with the locality as well as the particular authority that is followed; partly by differing details of practice in different parts of the country. In these circumstances an exact equivalent of the Meshadi civil solar year cannot be stated; but it may be taken as now beginning on or closely about the 12th of April.
Elsewhere the solar months have another set of names, preserving their connexion with the lunar months: the Sanskrit forms of these names are Chaitra, Vaisakha, Jyaishtha, Ashadha, Shravana, Bhadrapada, Asvina or A§vayuja, Karttika, Margasira or Margasirsha (also known as Agrahayana), Pausha, Magha, and Phalguna: in some localities these names are used in corrupted forms, and in others vernacular names are substituted for some of them; and, while in some parts the name Chaitra is attached to the month Mesha, in other parts it is attached to the month Mina, and so on throughout the series in each case. The astronomical solar month runs from the moment of one samkranti of the sun to the moment of the next samkranti; and, as the signs of the Hindu zodiac are all of equal length, 30 degrees, as with us, while the speed of the sun (the motion of the earth in its orbit round the sun) varies according to the time of the year, the length of the month is variable: the shortest month is Dhanus and the longest is Mithuna. The civil solar month begins with its first civil day, which is determined, in different localities, in the same manner with the first civil day of the Meshadi year, as indicated above. The civil month is of variable length; partly for that reason, partly because of the variation in the length of the astronomical month. No exact equivalents of the civil months, therefore, can be stated; but, speaking approximately, we may say that, while the month Mesha now begins on or closely about 12 April, the beginning of a subsequent month may come as late as the 16th day of the English month in which it falls.
Vasanta begins at the Mina-samkranti; the other seasons begin at each successive second samkranti from that. Originally, this scheme was laid out with reference to the true course of the sun, and the starting point of it was the real winter solstice, with Si§ira, as the first season. Now, owing partly to the disregard of precession, partly to our introduction of New Style, each season comes about three weeks too late; Vasanta begins on or about 12 March, instead of 19th or 20 February, and so on with the rest. It may be added that in early times the year was also divided into three or four, and even into five or seven, seasons; and there appears to have been also a practice of reckoning the seasons according to the lunar months, which, however, would only give a very varying arrangement, in addition to neglecting the point that the seasons are naturally determined by the course of the sun, not of the moon. But there is now recognized only the division into six seasons, determined as stated above.
The civil days are named after the weekdays, of which the usual appellations (there are various synonyms in each case, and some of the names are used in corrupted forms) are in Sanskrit today. Adityavara or Ravivara, the day of the sun, sometimes called Adivara, the beginning-day (Sunday); Somavara, the day of the moon (Monday); Mangalavara, the day of Mars (Tuesday); Budhavara, the day of Mercury (Wednesday); Brihaspativara or Guruvara, the day of Jupiter (Thursday); Sukravara, the day of Venus (Friday); and Sanivara, the day of Saturn (Saturday). It may be mentioned, as a matter of archaeological interest, that, while some of the astronomical books perhaps postulate an earlier knowledge of the " lords of the days," and other writings indicate a still earlier use of the period of seven days, the first proved instance of the use of the name of a weekday is of the year A.D. 484, and is furnished by an inscription in the Saugor district, Central India.
The divisions of the civil day are:
There is also the
As their civil day begins at sunrise, the Hindus naturally count all their times, in ghatikas and palas, from that moment. But the moment is a varying one, though not in India anything like the extent to which it is so in European latitudes; and under the British Government the Hindus have recognized the advantage, and in fact the necessity, especially in connexion with their lunar calendar, of having a convenient means of referring their own times to the time which prevails officially. Consequently, some of the almanacs have adopted the European practice of showing the time of sunrise, in hours and minutes, from midnight; and some of them add the time of sunset from noon.
The almanacs show the course of the sun through the nakshatras, as well as the course of the moon; and the course of the sun was marked by them only, before the time when the Hindus began to use the twelve signs of the solar zodiac. So there is nothing exclusively lunar about them. The present names of the lunar months were derived from the nakshatras in the following manner: the full-moon which occurred when the moon was in conjunction with Chitra (the star a Virginis) was named Chaitri, and the lunar month, which contained the Chaitri full-moon, was named Chaitra; and so on with the others. The present names have superseded another set of names which were at one time in use concurrently with them; these other names are Madhu (= Chaitra), Madhava, Sukra, Suchi, Nabhas, Nabhasya, Isha, Urja (= Karttika), Sahas, Sahasya, Tapas, and Tapasya (= Phalguna): they seem to have marked originally solar months of the solar year, rather than lunar months of the lunar year.
Consequently, it happens from time to time that there are two new-moon conjunctions, so that two lunations begin, in one astronomical solar month, between two samkrantis of the sun, while the sun is in one and the same sign of the zodiac, and there is no sarhkranti in the lunation ending with the second new-moon: when this is the case, there are two lunations to which the same name is applicable, and so there is an additional or intercalated month, in the sense that a name is repeated: thus, when two new-moons occur while the sun is in Mesha, the lunation ending with the first of them, during which the sun has entered Mesha, is Chaitra; the next lunation, in which there is no samkranti, is Vaisakha, because it begins when the sun is in Mesha; and the next lunation after that is again Vaisakha, for the same reason, and also because the sun enters Vrishabha in the course of it: in these circumstances, the first of the two Vaisakhas is called AdhikaVaisakha, " the additional or intercalated Vaisakha," and the second is called simply Vaisakha, or sometimes Nija-Vaisakha, " the natural Vaisakha."
On the other hand, it occasionally happens, in an autumn or winter month, that there are two samkrantis of the sun in one and the same amanta or synodic lunar month, between two new-moon conjunctions, so that no lunation begins between the two samkrantis: when this is the case, there is one lunation to which two names are applicable, and there is a suppressed month, in the sense that a name is omitted: thus, if the sun enters both Dhanus and Makara during one synodic lunation, that lunation is Margasira, because the sun was in Vrischika at the first moment of it and enters Dhanus in the course of it; 1 the next lunation is Magha, because the sun is in Makara by the time when it begins and will enter Kumbha in the course of it; and the name Pausha, between Margasira and Magha, is omitted. When a month is thus suppressed, there is always one intercalated month, and sometimes two, in the same Chaitradi lunar year, so that the lunar year never contains less than twelve months, and from time to time consists of thirteen months. There are normally seven intercalated months, rising to eight when a month is suppressed, in 19 solar years, which equal very nearly 235 lunations; 2 and there is never less than one year without an intercalated month between two years with intercalated months, except when there is only one such month in a year in which a month is suppressed; then there is always an intercalated month in the next year also. The suppression of a month takes place at intervals of 19 years and upwards, regarding which no definite statement can conveniently be made here. It may be added that an intercalated Chaitra or Karttika takes the place of the ordinary month as the first month of the year; an intercalated month is not rejected for that purpose, though it is tabooed from the religious and auspicious points of view.
The manner in which this arrangement of intercalated and suppressed months works out, so as to prevent the beginning of the Chaitradi lunar year departing far from the beginning of the Meshadi solar year, may be illustrated as follows. In A.D. 1815 the Meshasarhkranti occurred on 9th April; and the first civil day of the Chaitradi year was 10 April. In A.D. 1816 and 1817 the first civil day of the Chaitradi year fell back to 29 March and 18 March. In A.D. 1817, however, there was an intercalated month, ? ravana; with the result that in A.D. 1818 the first civil day of the Chaitradi year advanced to 6 April. After various shiftings of the same kind - including in A.D. 2822 an intercalation of Asvina and a suppression of Pausha, followed in A.D. 1823, when the first civil day of the Chaitradi year had fallen back to 13 March, by an intercalation of Chaitra itself - in A.D. 1834, when the Meshasamkranti occurred again on 11 April, the first civil day of the Chaitradi year was again Loth April.
It might also be called Pausha, because the sun enters Makara in the course of it; and it may be observed that, in accordance with a second rule which formerly existed, it would have been named Pausha because it ends while the sun is in Makara, and the omitted name would have been Margasira. But the more important condition of the present rule, that Pausha begins while the sun is in Dhanus, is not satisfied.
one civ:l day and end on the next but one, and so cover two sunrises; and it is then treated as a repeated tithi, in the sense that its cumoer is repeated: for instance, if the seventh tithi so begins and ends, the civil day on which it begins is numbered 6, from the tithi which is current at the sunrise of that day and ends on it; the day covered entirely by the seventh tithi is numbered 7, because that tithi is current at its sunrise; the next day, at the sunrise of which the seventh tithi is still current and during which it ends, is again numbered 7; and the number 8 falls to the next day after that, when the eighth tithi is current at sunrise.' On the other hand, a tithi may begin and end during one and the same civil day, so as not to touch a sunrise at all: in this case, it exists for any practical purposes for which it may be wanted (it is, however, to be avoided if possible, as being an unlucky occasion), but it is suppressed or expunged for the numbering of the civil day, in the sense that its number is omitted; for instance, if the seventh tithi begins and ends during one civil day, that day is numbered 6 from, as before, the tithi which is current at its sunrise and ends when the seventh tithi begins; the next day is numbered 8, because the eighth tithi is current at its sunrise; and there is, in this case, no civil day bearing the number seven. In consequence of this method of numbering, it sometimes happens, as the result of the suppression of a tithi, that the day of a full-moon is numbered 14 instead of 15; that the day of a new-moon is numbered 14 instead of 30; and that the first day of a fortnight, and even the first day of a lunar year, is numbered 2 instead of r.
There are, on an average, thirteen suppressed tithis and seven repeated tithis in twelve lunar months; and so the lunar year averages 354 days, rising to about 384 when a month is intercalated. It occasionally happens that there are two suppressions of tithis in one and the same fortnight; and the almanacs show such a case in the bright fortnight of Jyaishfha, A.D. 1878: but this occurs only after very long intervals.
The tithi is divided into two karanas; each karana being the time in which the moon increases her distance from the sun by six The degrees. But this is a detail of astrological rather than chronological interest. So, also, are two other details to which a prominent place is given in the lunar calendars; to yoga, or time in which the joint motion in longitude, the sum of the motions of the sun and the moon, is increased by 13 degrees 20 minutes; and the nakshatra, the position of the moon as referred to the ecliptic by means of the stars and groups of stars which have been mentioned above under the lunar month.
In the Indian calendar everything depends upon exact times, which differ, of course, on every different meridian; and (to cite what is perhaps the most frequent and generally important occurrence) suppression and repetition may affect one tithi and civil day in one locality, and another tithi and civil day in another locality not very far distant. Consequently, neither for the lunar nor for the solar calendar is there any almanac which is applicable to even the whole area in which any particular length of the astronomical solar year prevails; much less, for the whole of India. Different almanacs are prepared and published for places of leading importance; details for minor places, when wanted, have to be worked out by the local astrologer, the modern representative of an ancient official known as Sariivatsara, the " clerk of the year."
from the 1st century B.C. onwards mostly had their origin in the fortuitous extension of regnal reckonings. The usual course has been that, under the influence of filial piety, pride in ancestry, loyalty to a paramount sovereign, or some other such motive, the successor of some king continued the regnal reckoning of his predecessor, who was not necessarily the first king in the dynasty, and perhaps did not even reign for any long time, instead of starting a new reckoning, beginning again with the year i, according to the years of his own reign. Having thus run for two reigns, the reckoning was sufficiently well established to continue in the same form, and to eventually develop into a generally accepted local era, which might or might not be taken over by subsequent dynasties ruling afterwards over the same territory. In these circumstances, we find the establisher of any particular era in that king who first continued his predecessor's regnal reckoning, instead of replacing it by his own; but we regard as the founder of the era that king whose regnal reckoning was so continued. We may add here that it was only in advanced stages that any of the Hindu eras assumed specific names: during the earlier period of each of them, the years were simply cited by the term sathvatsara or varsha, " the year (bearing suchand-such a number)," or by the abbreviations samvat and sam, without any appellative designation.
The Jains have had, and still maintain, a reckoning from the death of the founder of their faith, Mahavira, which event is placed by them in 528 B.C. This reckoning figures largely in the Jain books, which put forward dates in it for very early times. But the earliest known synchronous date in it - by which we mean a date given by a writer who recorded the year in which he himself was writing - is one of the year 980, or, according to a different view mentioned in the passage itself, of the year 993. This reckoning, again, did not commend itself for any official or other public use. And the only known inscriptional instances of the use of it are modern ones, of the 19th century. While it is certain that the Jain reckoning, as it exists, has its initial point in 528 B.C. it has not yet been determined whether that is actually the year in which Vira died. All that can be said on this point is that the date is not inconsistent with certain statements in Buddhist books, which mention, by a Prakrit name of which the Sanskrit form is Nirgrantha-Jnataputra, a contemporary of Buddha, in whom there is recognized the original of the Jain Vira, Mahavira, or Vardhamana, and who, the same books say, died while Buddha was still alive. But there are some indications that Nirgrantha-Jnataputra may have died only a short time before Buddha himself; and the event may 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.
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 Chandragupta 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 K.athiawar and some of the neighbouring territories; and so it became also known as the Valabhi era.
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 preservation of a reckoning running from the foundation of the Kadamba dynasty by Mayuravarman, the great-grandfather of Kakusthavarman. But no other evidence of the existence of this era has been obtained.
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 Gahga 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.
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.
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 RajyabhishekaS aka, " the era of the anointment to the sovereignty," which was in use for a time in Western India. It dated from the day Jyaishthasukla 13 of the Saka year 1597 current, =6 June, A.D. 1674, when Sivaji, the founder of the Maratha kingdom, had himself enthroned.
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 Mamba 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 this reckoning is that it consists of cycles of moo years; that we are now in the fourth cycle; and that the reckoning originated in 1176 B.C. with the mythical Parasurama, who exterminated the Kshatriya or warrior caste, and reclaimed the Konkan countries, Western India below the Ghauts, from the ocean. But the earliest known date in it, of the year 149, falls in A.D. 973; and the reckoning has run on in continuation of the thousand, instead of beginning afresh in A.D. 1825. It seems probable, therefore, that the reckoning had no existence before A.D. 825. The years are cited sometimes as " the Kollam year (of such-and-such a number), " 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 Kollam in the Malabar district, perhaps Southern Kollam, better known as Quilon, in Travancore. But the introduction of Parasurama into the matter, which would carry back (let us say) the foundation of Kollam to legendary times, may indicate, rather, a purely imaginative origin. Or, again, since each century of the Kollam reckoning begins in the same year A.D. with a century of 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 permission of a king Jayadevamalla, a merchant named Sakhwal paid off, by means of wealth acquired from sand which turned into gold, all the debts then existing in the country, and introduced the new era in commemoration of the occurrence. It is possible that 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 and official purposes, in favour of the Saka era, in A.D. 1768, when the Gurkhas became masters of Nepal; but manuscripts show that in literary circles it has remained in use up to at any rate A.D. 1875.
Inscriptions disclose the use in Kathiawar and Gujarat, in the 12th and 13th centuries, of a reckoning, commencing in A.D. 1114, which is known as the Simha-sarinvat. No historical occurrence is known, on which it can have been based; and the origin of it is obscure.
2 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.
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 to posterity by the Malavas, the people from whom the modern territory Malwa derived its name, who were an important section of the subjects of Kanishka and his successors. In consonance with that, records ranging in date from A.D. 473 to 879 style it " the reckoning of the Malavas, the years of the Mala y a lords, the Mala y a 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 sawn: 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 Sarimvat era." The idea of a king Vikrama in connexion with it appears to date from only the 9th or 10th century A.D.
in that year, as determined with reference either to the Hindu M `na-salnkranti or to the entrance of the sun into the tropical Pisces. The year 1823 began in A.D. 1900. 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 Godavari, 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 125.1 He established himself first in Kathiawar, but subsequently brought under his sway northern Gujarat (Bombay) and Ujjain, and, below the Narbada, southern Gujarat, Nasik and probably Khandesh. His capital seems to have been Dohad, in the Paiich Mahals. And he had two viceroys: one, named Bhumaka, of the same family with himself, in Kathiawar; 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 Narbada, and perhaps secured for a time Kathiawar and some other parts on the north of that river. Very soon, however, Chashtana, or else his son Jayadaman, established his sway over all the territory which had belonged to Nahapana on the north of the Narbada; 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 Varahamihira (d. A.D. 587) in his Paiichasiddhantika. That this name came to be attached to it appears to be due to the points that, along with some of the Pahlavas or Palhavas 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. too, 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 Salivahana 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 Karttika, 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 1 See the preceding note.
the term Saka or Saka. In Northern India the case is very different. We have a record dated in the month Karttika, the Saka year 631 (expired), falling in A.D. 709: it comes from Multai in the Betul district, Central Provinces, that is, from the south of the Narbada; 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 Kathiawar 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, and somewhat later to Java; to which parts it was doubtless taken in almanacs, or in invoices, statements of account, &c., by the persons engaged in the trade between Broach and the far east via Tagara (Ter) and the east coast. It also found its way in subsequent times to Assam and Ceylon, and more recently still to Nepal.
The older reckoning of Jupiter appears to be that of the i 2years 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, Vaisakha, &c. In one variety, cycle. each samvatsara runs from one of the planet's heliacal risings - that is, from the day on which it becomes visible as a 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 sathvatsara 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 cycle of Jupiter now in general use is a cycle of sixty years, the samvatsaras of which bear certain special names, Prabhava, Vibhava, Sukla, 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 samvatsaras 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.
Now, the samvatsaras are calculated by means of the astronomical solar year commencing with the Mesha-sarilkranti, the entrance of the sun into the sign Mesha (Aries). The process gives the number of the samvatsara last expired before any particular Mesha-samkranti, with a remainder denoting the portion of the current saiiivatsara 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-samkranti. As the result, apparently, of unwillingness to take the trouble to work out the full details, at some time about A.D. Boo a practice arose, in some quarters, according to which that sariavatsara of the 60-years cycle which was current at any particular Mesha-samkranti was taken as coinciding with the astronomical solar year beginning at that samkranti, and with the Chaitradi 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 Mesha-sarirkrantis. 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 sariiva.tsara beginning and ending between the two Meshasarirkrantis 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 practically became mere appellations for the solar and lunar years.
Meanwhile, just after A.D. coo, 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 Mesha-samkranti 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-samkranti in A.D. 909; and No. 3, Sukla, began and ended between the two Mesha-sarilkrantis. Accordingly, No. 2, Vibhava, was the lunisolar sathvatsara for the Meshadi solar year and the Chaitradi 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 sathvatsara was taken as the lunisolar sariivatsara for the Meshadi 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 same quarters, no passing over of the name of any sathvatsara. 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 one samvatsara after every 85 or 86 years. In this variety, the 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 sathvatsara 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 12 April, and with the Chaitradi lunar year beginning with March 31, A.D. 1900. But by the southern or non-expunging lunisolar system those same solar and lunar years were No. 34, Sarvarin.
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 consideration that they acquired anything of a chronological nature. For the practical application of any of them to historical purposes, 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, and apparently in Sind. In addition to being cited by such expressions as Saptarshi-sarilvat, " the year (soand-so) of the Saptarshis,". and Sastra-samvatsara, the year (so-and-so) of the scriptures," it is found mentioned as Lokakala, " 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-sarnvat, which we may render by " the Hill era " and " the crude era." The years of this reckoning are lunar, Chaitradi; and the months are purnimrinta (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.
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 independent movement of their own, which, referred to the ecliptic, carries them round at the rate of loo years for each nakslzatra 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 I to 2700, and then commence afresh. In practice, however, it has been treated quite differently. According to the general custom, which has distinctly 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 numeration of the years has been centennial; whenever a century has been completed, the numbering has not run on tor, 102, 103, &c., but has begun again with I, 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 centennial reckoning, by suppressed or omitted hundreds, with its earlier centuries commencing in 3076, 2976 B.C., and so on, and 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. And the practical difficulties attending the use of such a system for chronological purposes are obvious; isolated dates recorded in such a fashion cannot be allocated without some explicit clue to the centuries to which they belong. Fortunately, however, as regards Kashmir, we have the necessary guide in the facts that Kalhana recorded his own date in the Saka era as well as in this reckoning, and gave full historical details which enable us to determine unmistakably the equivalent of the first date in this reckoning cited by him, and to arrange with certainty the chronology presented by him from that time. The belief underlying this reckoning according to the course of the Seven Rishis is traced back in India, as an astrological detail, to at least the 6th century A.D. But the reckoning was first adopted for chronological purposes in Kashmir and at some time about A.D. 800; the first recorded date in it is one of " the year 89," meaning 3889, = A.D. 813-814, given by Kalhana. It was introduced into India between A.D. 925 and 1025.
No inscriptional use of this cycle has come to notice. There seems no substantial reason for believing that the reckoning was really started in 24 B.C. The alleged constitution of the cycle, which appears to be correct within about twelve days, and might possibly be made apparently exact, suggests an astrological origin. And, if a guess may be hazarded, we would conjecture that the reckoning is an offshoot of the southern lunisolar variety of the 60-years cycle of Jupiter, and had its real origin in some year in which a Prabhava samvatsara of that variety commenced, and to which the first year of a Grahaparivritti cycle can be referred: that was the case in A.D. 967 and at each subsequent 180th year.
In the Chittagong district, Bengal, there is a solar reckoning, known by the name Maghi, of which the year 1262 either began or ended in A.D. 1900; so that it has an initial point The Maghi in A.D. 639 or 638. It appears that Chittagong was reckon- conquered by the king of Arakan in the 9th century, and remained usually in the possession of the Maghsthe Arakanese or a class of them - till A.D. 1666, when it was finally annexed to the Mogul empire. In these circumstances it is plain that the Magh reckoning took its name from the Maghs; its year, which is Meshadi, from Bengal; and its numbering from the Sakkaraj, the ordinary era of Arakan and Burma, which has its initial point in A.D. 638.
The Hijra (Hegira) era, the reckoning from the flight of Mahomet, which dates from the r6th of July, A.D. 662, is, of course, used by the Mahommedans in India, and is Nlnduized offshoots customarily shown, with the details of its calendar, of the in the Hindu almanacs. An account of it does not lljra fall within the scope of this article. But we have to mention it because we come now to certain Hinduized reckonings which are hybrid offshoots of it. We need only say, however, in explanation of some of the following figures, that the years of the Hijra era are purely lunar, consisting of twelve lunar months and no more; with the result that the initial day of the year is always travelling backwards through the Julian year, and makes a complete circuit in thirty-four years. The reckonings derived from it, which we have to describe, have apparent initial points in A.D. 59 1, 593, 594, and 600. They had their real origin, however, in the 14th, 16th, and 17th centuries.
The emperor Akbar succeeded to the throne in February, A.D. 1556, in the Hijra year 963, which ran from 16 November 1 555 to 3 November 1556. Amongst the reforms aimed at by him and his officials, one was to abolish, or at least minimize, by introducing uniformity of numbering, the confusion due to the existence of various reckonings, both Mahommedan and Hindu. And one step taken in that direction was to assign to the Hindu year the same number with the Hijra year. It is believed that this was first done by the Persian clerks of the revenue and financial offices at an early time in Akbar's reign, and that it received authoritative sanction in the Hijra year 971 (21 August 1563 to 8 August 1564). At any rate, the innovation was certainly first made in Upper India; and the numbering started there was introduced into Bengal and those parts as Akbar extended his dominions, but without interfering with local customs as to the commencement of the Hindu year. The result is that we now have the following reckonings, the years of which are used as revenue years: - In the United Provinces and the Punjab, there is an Asvinadi lunar reckoning, known as the Fasli, according to which the year 1308 began in A.D. 1900; so that the reckoning has an The Fasli apparent initial point in A.D. 593. The name of this T h e reckoning reckoning is derived from fall, a harvest, of which there are two; the fasl-i-rabi or " spring harvest," of Upper commencing in February,and the fast-i-kharif, or "autumn India. harvest " commencing in October. The years of this reckoning begin with the purnimanta Asvina krishna 1, which now falls in September. A peculiar feature of it is that, though the months are lunar, they are not divided into fortnights, and the numbering of the days runs on, as in the Mahommedan month, from the first to the end of the month without being affected by any expunction and repetition of tithis; and, for this and other reasons, it seems that in this case a new form of Hindu year was devised, of such a kind as to enable the agriculturists to realize their produce and pay their assessments comfortably within the year. The Hijra era has, of course, now drawn somewhat widely away from this and the other reckonings derived from it; the Hijra year commencing in A.D. 1900 was 1318, ten years in advance of the Fasli year.
In Orissa and some other parts of Bengal, there is a reckoning, or two almost identical reckonings, the facts of which are not quite clear. According to one account, the term Amli-san, " the official year," is only another name of the Vilayatisan, " the year received from the vilayat or province of Hindustan." But we are also told that the Vilayatisan is a Kanyadi solar year, whereas the Amli-san, though it too has solar months, changes its number on the lunar day Bhadrapada sukla 12 (mentioned above in connexion with the Onko cycle of Orissa), which comes sometimes in Kanya, but sometimes in the preceding month, Sirimha. Elsewhere, again, it is the Vilayati-san which is shown as changing its number on Bhadrapada sukla 12. In either case, the year 1308 of this reckoning, also, began in A.D. 1900; and so, like the Fasli of Upper India, this reckoning, too, has an apparent initial point in A.D. 593. The day Bhadrapada sukla 12 now usually falls in September, but may come during the last three days of August. The first day of the solar month Kanya now falls on 15th or 16 September.
In Bengal there is in more general use a Meshadi solar reckoning, known as the Bengali-san or " Bengal year," according to which the year 1307 began in A.D. 1900; so that this The Ben- reckoning has an apparent initial point in A.D. 594. The gali-san. initial day of the year is the first day of the solar month Mesha, now falling on 12th or 13 April.
The system of Fasli reckonings was introduced into Southern India under the emperor Shah Jahan, at some time in the Hijra year 1046, which ran from 26 May, A.D. 1636, to 15th The Fasli May, A.D. 1637. But the numbering which was current o f Bo as in Northern India was not taken over. A new start was bay an d made; and, as the year of the Hijra had gone back, Madras. during the intervening seventy-three Julian years, by two years and a quarter (less by only five days) from the date of its commencement in the year 971, the Fasli reckoning of Southern India began with a nominal year 1046 (instead of 971+73 =1044), commencing in A.D. 1636. The Fasli reckoning of Southern India exists in two varieties. The years of the Bombay Fasli are popularly known as Mrigasal years, because they commence when the sun enters the nakshatra Mrigasiras, which occurs now on 6th or 7 June: The Vilayati-san and Amlisan of Orissa. the reckoning seems to have taken over this initial day from the Maratha Sur-san (see below). The Fasli years of Madras originally began at the Karka-samkranti, the nominal summer solstice: under the British government, the commencement of them was first fixed to 12 July, on which day the samkranti was then usually occurring; but it was afterwards changed to 1 July as a more convenient date. The years of the Bombay and Madras Fasli have no division of their own into months, fortnights, &c.; the year is always used along with one or other of the real Hindu reckonings, and the details are cited according to that reckoning.
Another offshoot of the Hijra era, but one of earlier date and not belonging to the class of Fasli reckonings, is found, in the Maratha country, in the Sur-san or Shahur-san, " the year of The Mar- months," also known as Arabi-san, " the Arab year." aha Sur- This reckoning, which is met with chiefly in old sanads or Sall or charters, appears to have branched off in or closely about Arabi- the Hijra year. Y 745, which ran from 15 May, A. D. 1344, to San 3 May, A.D. 1 345; but the exact circumstance in which it originated is not known. The years of this reckoning begin, like those of the Bombay Fasli, with the entrance of the sun into the nakshatra Mrigasiras, which now occurs on 6th or 7 June; but the months and days are those of the Hijra year. The Sir-san year 1301 began in A.D. 1900; and so the reckoning has an apparent initial point in A.D. 600. A peculiarity attending this reckoning is that, whatever may be the vernacular of a clerk, he uses the Arabic numeral words in reading out the year; and the same words are given alongside of the figures in the Hindu almanacs.
Authorities. - The Hindu astronomy had already begun to attract attention before the close of the 18th century. The investigation, however, of the calendar and the eras, along with the verification of dates, was started by Warren, whose Kala Sankalita was published in 1825. The inquiry was carried on by Prinsep in his Useful Tables (1834-1836) by Cowasjee Patell in his Chronology (1866), and by Cunningham in his Book of Indian Eras (1883). But Warren's processes, though mostly giving accurate results, were lengthy and troublesome; and calculations made on the lines laid down by his successors gave results which might or might not be correct, and could only be cited as approximate results. The exact calculation of Hindu dates by easy processes was started byShankar Balkrishna Dikshit, in an article published in the Indian Antiquary, vol. 16 (1887). This was succeeded by methods and tables devised by Jacobi, which were published in the next volume of the same journal. There then followed several contributions in the same line by other scholars, some for exact, others for closely approximate, results, and some valuable articles by Kielhorn on some of the principal Hindu eras and other reckonings, which were published in the same journal, vols. 17 (1888) to 26 (1897). And the treatment of the matter culminated for the time being in the publication, in 1896, of Sewell and Dikshit's Indian Calendar, which contains an appendix by Schram on eclipses of the sun in India, and was supplemented in 1898 by Sewell's Eclipses of the Moon in India. The present article is based on the above-mentioned and various detached writings, supplemented by original research. For the exact calculation of Hindu dates and the determination of the European equivalents of them, use may be made either of Sewell and Dikshit's works mentioned above, or of the improved tables by Jacobi which were published in the Epigraphia Indica, vols. 1 and 2 (1892-1894).
(J. F. F.) Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911), s.v. "Hindu Chronology"