Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c20.2

c20.2

Now the difference between the Christian and the Vikrama starting points being nearly 57 years, the equivalent for Vikrama 375 should be 318, and not 319. But as we know from Abu Rihân that the Balabhi era actually began in 319, some explanation is required to show how Tod’s erroneous factor of 56 gave the right year A.D. The explanation is a very simple one,—namely, that the *Vikramâditya* years in the province of Gujarât, where the inscription was found, began then, as they do now, with the month of *Kârtika* or October, and consequently the true factor for converting the Vikrama date into the Christian equivalent was 56¼, or 56 as used by Tod. The proof of this is equally simple. The Hijra year 662 did not begin until the 4th of November 1263 A.D. This being the case, the month of Ashâdha (or June-July) of the Christian year 1263 had already passed by, and therefore the Ashâdha of Samvat 1320 of the Northern reckoning cannot belong to that year. But if we take the Southern reckoning prevalent in Gujarât, then 56 will become the nearest factor, and Tod’s 375—56 will give the correct year A.D. 319. Then deducting 56 from the given Samvat year 1320, we get A.D. 1264 as the concurrent Christian year. This agrees exactly with the given year of Muhammad, 662, which began on 4th November 1263, and ended on the 23rd October 1264.