Indian Chronology (Solar, Lunar and Planetary): A Practical Guide to the Interpretation and Verification of Tithis, Nakshatras, Horoscopes and other Indian Time-records, B.C. 1 to A.D. 2000 c2: Preface
Indian Chronology (Solar, Lunar and Planetary): A Practical Guide to the Interpretation and Verification of Tithis, Nakshatras, Horoscopes and other Indian Time-records, B.C. 1 to A.D. 2000 c2
- Language
- English
Preface
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THIS book, which was announced to the public under various names *, is now issued under a title which restricts it to its original scope, namely, as a Manual of Indian Chronology, designed to present in one view and in a usable form all the material ordinarily required by investigators in that field of research.
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The bulk of the tables, as well as of the letter-press, is devoted to a detailed exhibition of the decursus of Indian Chronology, solar, lunar and planetary, with eclipses, week-days, English calendar months and dates, adhika and kshaya masas, and mean places of the Sun and major planets, from B.C. 1 to A.D. 2000. The portion of the work, called Table X, will, it is hoped, supply a long-felt want among Epigraphists and Archæologists, official as well as non-official, in India, inasmuch as it will enable them to verify on the spot and in less than a minute in any case, the exact English equivalent of any Indian date occurring in any inscription as well as to test its genuineness. The instructions set opposite the Eye-Table at the end of the book are alone sufficient for any person, however previously unacquainted with the subject, to calculate quite accurately the ending moment of a tithi or nakshatra.
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The work is intended, however, for the use of a much wider public than the scientific few who are interested in Indian chronological research. The same principles, whereby we are enabled to re-call into the light of history the inscriptions that are being unearthed at the rate of a thousand every year by the various Indian Epigraphical departments, continue to guide the religious observances and civil usages of millions of people in India at the present day, and no one interested in the social and religious life of this vast continent can fail to take at least some slight account of a system, so ancient and so thoroughly ingrained in the habits of the people. The Indian calendar is generally considered either too abstruse for popular, or too inaccurate for scientific, exposition, but neither of these objections is more than a fallacy. A good deal has been done in the past to put Indian chronology on its proper footing, namely, as the faithful handmaid of Indian history, and there is no reason why the torch so worthily carried in their day by the late Professor Kielhorn, the present Dr. Fleet and other workers in the field, should not be kept bright and burning in the hands of their successors, provided they are equipped with the necessary knowledge of data and principles.
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Lastly, there is hardly any person, holding a position of consequence, public or private, in India, who is not occasionally confronted with the citation of an Indian date. To Magistrates, Judges, Lawyers, Missionaries, Business Men of every description, as well as to Historians, it is of interest to know the meaning of chronological terms in daily use among the people, although all may not, equally with the epigraphist and the archæologist, feel inclined to enter upon a regular study of Indian chronology. To those with scanty leisure, Tables XII and XVIII, forming a luni-solar and planetary Ephemeris for the 80 years A.D. 1840 to A.D. 1920, together with the simple instructions as to their use, contained in the Second and Fourth Parts of the book headed "Use of the Tables" and "Planetary Chronology" as well as in the Eye-Table, will be found no less handy than serviceable. The publications ordinarily known by the name of Jantri are unscientific, and few of them are up to date, whereas the ephemeris portion of the present work will enable any one to understand and decide, with reference to first principles, any question of current Indian chronology for seventy years past and some ten years to come. A table (XV) has also been inserted to link together the Indian and Muhammadan calendars.
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∗ "Tithis, Nakshatras and other Indian dates B.C. 1 to A.D. 2000" (Indian Review for May 1910); "Indian Astronomy and Chronology with a Criticism on Indian Astrology" (Advt. page of the Journal of the South Indian Association, Madras), etc.
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The book necessarily contains a vast amount of figures and tables, but the perusal of no part of it will requisition a greater knowledge of mathematics than is implied in the four simple rules of Arithmetic. Decimals have been used freely in order to ensure accuracy, but not only have tables whereby the decimal parts of a day, degree, etc., can be converted into *ghalikas*, *palas*, hours, minutes and seconds, been freely inserted, but the more important tables for the calculation of anomalies and equations for *tithis* and *nakshatras* (Table IX) and the Nakshatra Table itself (Table XI) have been twice given, once in the form of decimals and again as days, *ghalikas* and *palas*.
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It was originally intended to limit this compilation to solar and lunar chronology, but the frequent occurrence, in chronological records, in Indian literature as well as in daily Indian life, of allusions to the mean or actual places of planets, induced the writer to add a considerable number of tables on this interesting, though somewhat difficult, subject. The tables of anomalies and equations, used for planets, are based mainly on those of *Vavilala Kuchinna*, as reproduced in Warren's *Kala Sankalita*. The computation of the geocentric longitudes of planets for the years A.D. 1840 to A.D. 1920, contained in Table XVIII, entailed an enormous number of detailed calculations, but the results will, it is hoped, be found sufficiently accurate for practical purposes. By "practical purposes" the author means solely the purposes of Indian chronology, and he wishes it to be distinctly understood that he does not believe in astrology any more than in the need for, or efficacy of, the fasts, festivals and donations mentioned in Chapter XVI, "Notes on tithis in relation to festivals", which find a place in this book, merely and solely because of the frequent references in inscriptions to Hindu fasts and feasts.
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In conclusion, the author wishes to state that, while he has spared no pains to acquaint himself with the works of previous writers on the subject, he has endeavoured to work out details upon his own method which is explained in Part III—"Construction of Tables". To one honoured name in the field of Indian astronomy and chronology, that of Professor Hermann Jacobi, he wishes, though an utter stranger, to express special indebtedness, since to him the author owes his first knowledge of the subject as well as numerous illustrations serving to test the correctness of his method.
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Lastly, he must thank the *Premier Press*, of Messrs. Hoe & Co., for the skill with which they have executed a work, which, though packed with figures, has been reproduced with a high degree of neatness consistently with economy. The author would have been glad to have inserted the proper diacritical marks throughout the text, but this would have entailed further delay in publishing a work, which, in the endeavour to make it accurate and reliable in more important respects, has already been kept too long in the press. Such marks have, therefore, been sparingly used, except in the Index, which gives the proper marks for every Sanskrit word occurring in the text, and to which reference should be made in case of doubt. The Index also explains the meaning of terms not occurring in the text, such as *Dakshinayana*, *Uttarayana*, *Aparapaksha*, etc.
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MADRAS, 25th March 1911. } L.D.S.