[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Archaeology, epigraphy and coins](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy) › [Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883) › c5.17 # Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c5.17 Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c5.17 - **Language:** English ### [c5.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c5.17) The oldest eras described by the astronomers are the \*Saptârshi-Kâl\*, or cycle of the seven Rishis; the \*Bârhaspatya-Mânas\*, or sixty and twelve year cycles of Jupiter; and the \*Kâli-Yuga\*, or beginning of the \*Kâli-Age\*. Not one of these mounts up to the exaggerated periods of thousands of millions of years like the monstrous systems invented by the astronomers. The oldest of them, the \*Saptârshi-Kâl\*, ascends only to B.C. 4077, or perhaps to 6777 B.C., while the \*Bârhaspatya-Mâna\* and the \*Kâli-Yuga\* reach only a little beyond 3000 B.C. In Alexander's time the Hindus did not claim a greater antiquity than B.C. 6777. I have therefore a very strong suspicion that the present extravagant system of Yugas and Mahâyugas, Manwantaras, and Kalpas, was an invention of the astronomers, which they based on their newly-acquired knowledge of the precession. The problem was a simple one: Given the precession of 49·8 seconds, as determined by Hipparchus, the period of one revolution through the whole circle of 360° would be 26,024 16/166 years. To obtain a whole number of years the fraction was got rid of in the usual way by multiplying 26,024 by 166, and adding 16 to the product, a process which gives a period of exactly 4,320,000 years, or just one \*Yuga\*. - [Previous: c5.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c5.16) - [Next: c5.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c5.18) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c5) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c5.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.cunningham-1883.c5.17) · Pramāṇa