Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c2: Preface

Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c2

Language: English

Preface

c2.1

MOST of the Tables in this Book were prepared for my own use so far back as 1859. I had long felt the want of some handy and ready means of calculating Indian dates, as the process described in Warren's Kâla Sankâlita and Prinsep's Useful Tables is both cumbrous and troublesome. It struck me that, by substituting decimal parts of days for the Hindu *gharis*, *palas*, and *vipalas*, and by lessening the number of items to be taken out from the tables, the process would be made much more easy. The road in both is the same, but I believe that I have made it both shorter and smoother. The best test, however, of the advantage of my process will be to compare it with one of Warren's own examples for finding the initial day of both the Solar and Luni-Solar Calendars for the year of Kâli-Yuga 4923 complete = A.D. 1822.

c2.2

The following is my process:

c2.3

c2.4

Deduct constant ... ... 2·1475

c2.5

Solar Ahargana ... 1798,166·7106 ÷ 7 = 6·7 or 7 days over = Friday, 12th April 1822, Luni-Solar Ahargana 1744,549·0132 1st day of solar year.

c2.6

53,617·6974 Dd. 1800 Lunations ... 53,155·0582

c2.7

Table XIV ... 462·6392 Dd. 15 Lunations ... 442·9587

c2.8

Conjunction 19·6805 or 20 days earlier = Saturday, 23rd March. Beginning of Luni-Solar year 1 day later = Sunday, 24th March.

c2.9

The following is Warren’s process. See his Kâla Sankâlita, p. 240, and Tables, pp. 65 and 66.

c2.10

Wanted the beginning of the Solar year 4923 Kâli-Yuga, according to the Surya Siddhânta—

c2.11

| | Years. | Days. | G. | V. | P. |
| | 4000 | 1461,035 | 1 | 33 | 20 |
| | 900 | 328,732 | 52 | 51 | 0 |
| | 20 | 7,305 | 10 | 30 | 28 |
| | 3 | 1,095 | 51 | 29 | 22 |
| | | ————— | — | — | — |
| | | 1798,168 | 51 | 29 | 22 |
| Subtract Sodhyam | ... | 2 | 8 | 51 | 15 |
| | | ————— | — | — | — |
| Divided by 7 | ... | 1798,166 | 42 | 38 | 7 |

c2.12

Remainder ... 6 over,

c2.13

which, counted from Friday, gives Suta-dina = Thursday.

c2.14

[N.B.—Here Thursday is a misprint for Friday, as the large fraction of a day, upwards of 42 gharis, or more than two-thirds of a day, is practically a whole day; so that the remainder of 6 days + 42 gharis is reckoned as 7 days, as noted by Warren himself on page 65 at the foot of Example II, where he states that by the Surya Siddhânta the initial day is Friday.]

c2.15

Warren’s Luni-Solar example is on page 66 of his Tables.

c2.16

Wanted the beginning of the Luni-Solar year 4293 Kâli-Yuga, according to the Surya Siddhânta—

c2.17

| Years. | Days. | | | | | Years. | Days. | G. | V. | P. |
| 4923 = | 1798,166 | ... | ... | ... | ... | 4000 | 1417,468 | 13 | 16 | 49 |
| (1) | 1754,549 | ... | ... | ... | ... | 900 | 318,930 | 20 | 59 | 17 |
| | ————— | | | | | | ————— | — | — | — |
| | 53,617 | ... | ... | ... | ... | 20 | 7,087 | 20 | 27 | 59 |
| (2) | 35,436 | ... | ... | ... | ... | 3 | 1,063 | 6 | 4 | 11 |
| | ————— | | | | | | ————— | — | — | — |
| | 18,181 | ... | ... | ... | ... | | 1,744,549 | ... | 48 | 17 |
| (3) | 17,718 | (2) | 100 Lunar years | ... | ... | | 35,436 | 42 | 19 | 55 |
| | ————— | | | | | | ————— | — | — | — |
| | 463 | (3) | 50 | ditto | ... | ... | | 17,718 | 21 | 9 | 57 |
| (4) | 354 | (4) | 1 | ditto | ... | ... | | 354 | 22 | 1 | 23 |
| | ————— | | | | | | ————— | — | — | — |
| | 109 | (5) | 3 Lunar months | ... | ... | | 88 | 35 | 30 | 20 |
| (5) | 88 | | | | | | ————— | — | — | — |
| | ————— | | | | | | | | | |
| Remainder | 21 | ... | ... | ... | ... | | 1,798,147 | 1 | 49 | 56 |
| | | | | | | | + 1 | | | |
| | | | | | | | ————— | | | |
| | | | Luni-Solar Ahargana | ... | 1,798,148 | | | | | |
| | | | Divide by 7 | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | 256,878 weeks + 2 days. | | | |

c2.18

Remainder 2, counted from Thursday, gives Saturday for the Suta-dina, or day of conjunction.

c2.19

In the tables for finding the corresponding dates for any Hijra day I believe that I have made the process more certain as well as more easy, by the adoption of a table, No. XV, showing the number of each day in the Muhammadan year. By this means the corresponding Christian day of any Muhammadan date can be ascertained with absolute certainty in a few minutes.

c2.20

The tables connected with the Christian year appear to me to be much simpler than any others that I have met with. I prepared them for my own use in 1859, and I have since had so many opportunities of testing their accuracy as well as their easy working, that I have no hesitation in putting them forward as really useful and handy Tables.

c2.21

For the Tables of the Seleukidan era, I must crave some indulgence, as the subject is one of much difficulty, partly owing to the meagreness of trustworthy data, and partly to the adoption of the Julian reckoning in the western half of the Syro-Macedonian Empire after its annexation to Rome. As my object is to treat of Indian eras only, I have retained the use of the cycle of Meton with its embolismic months, as I feel quite satisfied that the Julian reckoning was never adopted in the eastern provinces subject to the Bactrian Greeks and Parthians.

c2.22

The present work differs from others on the same subject, not only in the greater completeness as to the number of eras treated of, but also in the greater handiness and simplicity of its Tables for calculation. I believe, therefore, that this "Book of Indian Eras" will help to supply a want, which has long been felt, in its numerous tables for the calculation of any Indian dates by easy and simple processes.

c2.23

The most useful works on Indian Measures of Time that I am acquainted with, are the following:—

c2.24

Warren's Kâla Sankâlita, 1825. Jervis's Weights, Measures, and Coins of India. Prinsep's Useful Tables, 1834. Cowasjee Patell's Chronology, 1866.

c2.25

Colonel Warren, who belonged to the French family of De Warenne, was one of the officers of the Great Trigonometrical Survey. His work gives an elaborate exposition of the Hindu solar and luni-solar measures of time with an account of the Vrihaspati Chakra, or Jupiter cycle of sixty years, and a memoir on the lunar year of the Muhammadans. At the end he has given a series of very useful tables for facilitating the computation of Indian dates. The Kâla Sankâlita is valuable for its accuracy, but its Tables are rather cumbrous and troublesome for any large number of calculations. My own Hindu Tables are simpler and easier to work with than Warren's, but they are essentially the same, and were, in fact, based upon his elaborate and more cumbrous processes.

c2.26

Jervis's Measures of Time form only part of his large work on Indian Weights and Measures. His Muhammadan calendar is excellent; but his list of the corresponding years of the Vikramâditya Sambat is entirely vitiated by his adoption of the wrong initial point of the era as 56 B. C., instead of 57 or 56¾. His account of the 60-year cycle of Jupiter is limited to the corrupt form in use in Southern India.

c2.27

James Prinsep's Useful Tables are founded almost entirely on Warren's Kâla Sankâlita. But his tabular forms are much more handy than those of Warren, and his calendric scales for ascertaining corresponding dates by simple inspection are a really useful invention. For his own use he had wooden cylinders prepared round which the scales were pasted, so that the initial day of any Hindu or Muhammadan year could be set at once to its corresponding date in the Christian calendar. There are several misprints; but the only serious one is in the table of Hindu sidereal years, where the initial days of the Christian years on the left hand from A.D. 1753 onwards are continued in Old Style, while the initial days of the corresponding Hindu years are given in New Style right down to the end. Thus the present year A.D. 1882 is made to begin on Friday (which is O.S.), instead of on Sunday (N.S.), while Tuesday the 10th April is given as the beginning of the Hindu year in N.S.

c2.28

Cowasjee Patell's Chronology is an extremely useful practical work, as it gives a large number of corresponding lists of years of different eras "in use among Parsis, Jews, Greeks, Hindus, Muhammadans, Chinese, Japanese, &c. The brief accounts of the eras are generally taken from Prinsep, as well as the rules for calculating the dates. The Tables are singularly free from misprints; but whilst I was calculating my own Tables and comparing them with his, I found the following errata, which may be worth noting by all those who possess a copy of his work.

c2.29

In A.D. 141 and again in A.D. 543, the name of the intercalary month has been omitted:

c2.30

In A.D. 999, *for* 19th March, *read* 21st March. —— 1168, *for* 15th March, *read* 12th March. —— 1169, *for* 4th March, *read* 1st March. —— 1344, *for* 15th March, *read* 16th March. —— 1597, *for* 7th April, *read* 7th March. —— 1655, *for* 26th February, *read* 28th March. —— 1899, *for* 1st April, *read* 11th April. —— 1983, *for* 15th April, *read* 13th April.

c2.31

A very curious coincidence of dates came accidentally to my notice during the past cold season. At Boram Deo in the Central Provinces I found several inscribed Sati Pillars, two of which gave the name of the year of the 60-year cycle of Jupiter in addition to the Samvat date. These two inscriptions are recorded as follows:—

c2.32

A.—Swasti Samvat 1430 samayo Sidhârthi nâma Savachhara.

c2.33

B.—Samvat 1445 Bhâva nâma Samvatsara Aswina badi 13 Some.

c2.34

As Boram Deo is in Chattisgarh or Mahâ Kosala, which formed the old kingdom of the Chedis or Kalachuris, I thought it most probable that these dates were reckoned in the Chedi or Kalachuri Samvat of which the initial point, as I have previously shown, was A.D. 249 = 0. Reckoning from this starting point, the date of A would be 1430 + 249 = 1679 A.D., which was actually the year Sidhârthi, according to the computation of the cycle in use in Southern India.

c2.35

Similarly the date of B would be 1445 + 249 = 1694 A.D., which was actually the year Bhâva of the Southern reckoning.

c2.36

Here then I thought that I had found a clear proof that the Chedi or Kalachuri era had continued in use down to A.D. 1694. But when I proceeded to calculate the week day of B, I found that it did not agree with A.D. 1694. It then struck me that the Samvat might be that of Vikramâditya, according to which the date of A would be 1430 - 57 = 1373 A.D., which to my surprise proved to be also the year Sidhârthi of the Northern reckoning of the 60-year cycle. Similarly the date of B would be 1445 - 57 = 1388 A.D., which was also the year Bhâva of the Northern reckoning. On calculating the week day of B, I found that it agreed exactly with the Vikramâditya Samvat, as the 13th of Aswina-badi in Vik. Sam. 1445 was actually a Monday. Without this mention of the week day, the true equivalent of these two dates would, therefore, have been doubtful, and I should certainly have been inclined to refer them to the Chedi era.

c2.37

Of course, this coincidence could only happen within the limit of the 86-year period in which these two dates are included, as the omission of every 86th name of the Jupiter Cycle in the Northern reckoning would make all the earlier northern names later, and all the latter ones earlier.

c2.38

Since the text of this book was printed, a notice of my attempt to fix the date of the Gupta era has been published by Dr. Thibaut, Principal of the Benares College.* His remarks are confined to the calculations based on the 12-year cycle of Jupiter, as he considers it highly probable that the modern system of Hindu astronomy, with its fairly accurate knowledge of the planetary revolutions, "was not well established before A.D. 400." This I fully admit as the existing Siddhântas are concerned. But the fact that the Macedonian months were in use in Northern India, certainly during the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., offers, in my opinion, a clear proof that the people of North-Western India had adopted the Macedonian era of the Seleukidæ. Now the Greeks of Alexander's army must have brought with them the calendar of Meton, which was a luni-solar cycle of 19 solar years of 365¼ days each, or 235 lunar months.* But this is the very cycle that is still used by the Hindus themselves, and I have very little doubt that they must have corrected the old erroneous reckoning of Garga by the Greek calendar of Meton.

c2.39

∗ Indian Antiquary, Vol. XI, p. 322.

c2.40

If this conclusion be right, then the Hindus of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. must have had a nearly accurate knowledge of the length of the solar year, the amount of error being only one day in 76 years. It seems to me, therefore, not improbable that a fairly accurate adaptation of the cycle of Jupiter to the reckoning of the solar year may be as old as the time of the Indo-Scythians, who made use of the Macedonian calendar in their inscriptions. Of course this is not a proof that the reckoning of the Arya and Surya Siddhântas was in use at so early a period. But it is, in my opinion, a very strong argument that a nearly accurate reckoning must already have been adopted.

c2.41

I am perfectly aware that the date of the Gupta era is still unsettled; but there is one fact that is strongly in favour of the early period that I have arrived at,—namely, the date of A.D. 319, which is assigned by Abu Rihân for the extinction of the Gupta dominion. Now the last of the great Gupta kings was almost certainly Skanda Gupta, and as we have a copperplate inscription dated in the year 146, during his reign, the initial point of the era cannot well be placed later than 319—146=173 A.D., that is within seven years of my proposed date. I, therefore, adhere for the present to the year 166 A.D. as a convenient date, which cannot be far from the truth. In fact the two inscriptions of King Jaika, if they belong to the same person, are very strongly in favour of my date. One of these is dated in the year 794 of the Vikramâditya Samvat, or A.D. 737-38, and the other, from Morbi, is dated in 595 of the Gupta era. Deducting 595 from 738, we get the year 143 A.D., which is 23 years earlier than my date. But if we accept my date as a near approximation to the truth, we obtain 166 + 595 = 761 A.D., as the date of the Morbi inscription, which would give King Jaika a reign of 23 years from 738 to 761 A.D.*

c2.42

∗ See my account of the Seleukidan era in this volume.

c2.43

In Table XVIII I have added a list of eclipses, both lunar and solar, from the beginning of the Christian era down to A.D. 2000. These have been taken from the celebrated French work "L'Art de verifier les dates"—Vol. I, 8vo., 1818. In the original work the hour of each eclipse is given for the meridian of Paris. These I have omitted for want of space. While copying out the dates, I have noted a few errors and omissions, namely:—

c2.44

A.D. 1341, *for* Lunar Eclipse, 13th May, *read* 31st May. A.D. 1392, *for* Lunar Eclipse, — Sept., *read* 2nd Sept. A.D. 1488, *for* Solar Eclipse, 9th July, *read* Lunar. A.D. 1916, *for* Lunar Eclipse, 8th January, *read 18th*.

c2.45

To show how easy it is to make mistakes in dates, it will be sufficient to state that the Emperor Bâber has given the wrong date for his own famous battle of Khânwa, in which he defeated Râna Sangrâm of Mewâr. Bâber says that it took place on Saturday, the 13th of the second Jamâdi, A.H. 933, which both Erskine and Dowson make the 16th March A.D. 1527.† That the name of the week day is correct we learn from Shekh Zein-uddin, who repeats the name in the following quotation from the Korân: "Since God has given a blessing on your Saturday." But the 13th of the second Jamâdi was a Sunday as will be seen from Bâber's own statements of other dates in the same year. Thus he calls—

c2.46

† Baber's Memoirs, translated by Erskine, p. 258.

c2.47

| 24th Muharram 933 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | a Wednesday. |
| 15th Safar | ,, | ... | ... | ... | ... | Wednesday. |
| 16th Rabi I | ,, | ... | ... | ... | ... | Friday. |
| 9th Jamadi I | ,, | ... | ... | ... | ... | Monday. |
| 14th | ,, | ,, | ... | ... | ... | Saturday. |

c2.48

All of these dates bring us to Monday as the 30th or last day of Jamâdi I, and to Tuesday as the 1st of Jamâdi II. Consequently, Saturday was the 12th and not the 13th of that month—a fact which has escaped the notice of both Erskine and Dowson.

c2.49

With reference to the intercalary months of the Hindu luni-solar year, I may mention that there is a great divergence between the published lists of Jervis and Cowasjee Patell.‡ At page 91 I have quoted the native rule as given by Warren and Prinsep, and the following example will show that the table published by Jervis is certainly wrong:

c2.50

∗ For these two inscriptions of Jaika, see my accounts of the Gupta and Vikramâditya eras in this volume.

c2.51

‡ Jervis's Weights, Measures, and Coins of India, p. 94; Cowasjee Patell's Chronology.

c2.52

In the Saka year 1091, or A.D. 1168, the month of Srâvana was intercalary as recorded in an inscription of Vyaya Pandya Deva.* At that date the luni-solar year began on the 1st March, and the solar year on the 24th March. The 23rd March was, therefore, the 31st day of the solar month of Chaitra, and the 1st March was the 8th day of the solar Chaitra. Now, according to the native rule when the luni-solar year begins on the 6th, 7th or 8th of the solar month of Chaitra, then the month of Srâvana will be intercalary. Turning to my Table XVII, page 175, it will be seen that in the year A.D. 1168, or Saka 1091, the month of Srâvana was intercalary. That it was an intercalary year is proved absolutely by the initial date of the following year Saka 1092, which is 20 days later, and therefore the year 1091 just ended must have consisted of 13 lunar months.

c2.53

But Jervis makes the year 1091 Saka a common year, and assigns the intercalary month of Srâvana to the year 1093 Saka. The Patell's year of intercalation are correct, and so also are his names of the intercalary months so far as I have had leisure to test them.

c2.54

ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM.

c2.55

∗ Pali, Sanskrit, and Old Kanarese inscriptions. By J. F. Fleet. No. 141.

Linked texts (2)

Sūryasiddhānta — Maya, Sanskrit
Mahāsiddhānta (Āryasiddhānta) — Āryabhaṭa II, Sanskrit