Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c10.s3.t2: 5.4.2 Dated inscriptions

Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c10.s3.t2

Language
English

5.4.2 Dated inscriptions

c10.s3.t2.1

Inscriptions may be dated in any number of ways, ranging from a simple year date (regnal or era) to detailed specifications of the year, month, *tithi* (lunar day), weekday, and/or other calendrical and astronomical data. From the point of view of epigraphic methodology, it is convenient to discuss the systems of year dating and those of more specific dates separately.

c10.s3.t2.2

5.4.2.1 Year dates

c10.s3.t2.3

*5.4.2.1.1 Regnal years* The practice of dating records in the regnal years²⁵ of a king, as opposed to years of a continuous era, was widespread in early centuries throughout India, beginning with the inscriptions of Aśoka. In the early centuries of the Christian era several dynasties such as the Sātavāhanas, Ikṣvākus, and Vākāṭakas continued to record only regnal years in their inscriptions, and in the medieval period the Pālas and some other eastern dynasties and the Pallavas, Coḷas, and Pāṇḍyas in the south still used regnal years exclusively or primarily.

c10.s3.t2.4

²⁵ The precise calendrical significance of a "regnal year" is not always completely clear. That is to say, we do not always know on exactly what date or occasion (accession to the throne, formal coronation, etc.) the regnal year began, and how this regnal year was correlated with the current calendrical year. In some cases, this seems to have produced calendrical complications; see, e.g., the cases noted in "Regnal Years" (IA 39, 1910, 217–24), and below in connection with the Cālukya-Vikrama era (5.5.1.13).

c10.s3.t2.5

A typical simple formulation of a regnal year date would contain the ruler's name and titles in the genitive case with a word for 'year' in the locative, such as *saṃvatsare* (often abbreviated *saṃvat* or *saṃ*) or less commonly *varṣe* (or their Prakrit equivalents), plus the date in words, numerical figures, or both; for example, *ūdākasa dasama-savachare*, "in the tenth year of Ūdāka," in the Pabhosā cave inscription (SI I.95–7).²⁶ More elaborate formulae, particularly in Sanskrit verse inscriptions, may involve other constructions such as the locative absolute, as in the Eraṇ boar inscription of Toramāṇa (SI I.420–2): *varṣe prathame pṛthivīm pṛthukīrttau pṛthudyutau / mahārājādhirāja-śrī-Toramāṇe praśāsati* . . . ("While the Great King of Kings, the Illustrious Toramāṇa of vast fame and glory was ruling the Earth, in (his) first year . . ."). Further details of the date such as month, *tithi*, weekday, and so on, may or may not be included with the regnal year (see 5.4.2.2).²⁷

c10.s3.t2.6

²⁶ Unusual types of early regnal dates include the Bhārhut pillar inscription (CII 2.2, 11–12) dated only "during the reign of the Śuṅgas" (*suganaṃ raje*) without a specific year, and the Hāthīgumphā inscription (SI I.213–21) which chronicles the king's reign year by year (*padhame vase* . . . *dutiye ca vase* . . . *tatiye puna vase* . . . , etc.).

c10.s3.t2.7

²⁷ Some medieval and later records from Orissa recorded regnal years counted according to the *aṅka* system in which the first year and all years whose unit figure is 6 or 0, except for 10, are skipped over (i.e., the years 1, 6, 16, 20, 26, etc.); see IA 19, 1890, 255–6, and Monmohan Chakravarti, JASB 72, part 1, 1903, 100. Thus, e.g., a period enumerated as twenty-five regnal years according to the *aṅka* system corresponds to only twenty-one normal years (EI 28, 1949–50, 242). There were evidently several variations of this system, which is sometimes said to be based on a sixty-year cycle; see further G. Ramadas, JBORS 17, 1931, 179–80; R. Subrahmanyam, *Inscriptions of the Sūryavaṃśī Gajapatis of Orissa*, xxxi–ii; and A. K. Bhattacharyya, *A Corpus of Dedicatory Inscriptions from Temples of West Bengal*, Appendix B, 190–1.

c10.s3.t2.8

Unless, as is occasionally the case, such regnal dates are accompanied by a second date in an established era, they do not by themselves provide an absolute date for the record. Such regnally dated inscriptions must therefore be subjected to the same techniques of dating by paleographic or other methods as are applied to undated inscriptions. It is often possible, however, to establish approximate or occasionally even exact values for such dates by means of historical synchronizations for the rulers concerned. Thus in the case of the regnally dated Aśokan inscriptions, reasonably accurate absolute dates have been established by the synchronization of Aśoka's regnal years with the contemporary Greek kings to whom he refers in his rock edict XIII (see 4.3.1.1 and 7.1.1.1). Among the regnally dated inscriptions of various dynasties of the early Christian era and later, we often have a fair number of records of successive rulers on the basis of which a dynastic succession list can be drawn up. The relative chronology of the dynasty can then often be correlated with known absolute dates; thus the regnal dates of the Vākāṭakas can be established with fair precision on the basis of their relations with the Guptas, and the Pālas can be approximately dated by their interactions with the Gurjara-Pratīhāras and Rāṣṭrakūṭas. (In each of these cases, of course, the latter-mentioned dynasty dated its records in known historical eras.) Even where such historical synchronizations are not available, paleographic dating may be applied as a supplementary technique, and when we have a sequence of regnally dated records of a particular dynasty this method is considerably more reliable than when applied to a single record or a few isolated records.

c10.s3.t2.9

In this way, regnally dated inscriptions can often be ascribed absolute dates with relative precision, at least as compared to undated inscriptions. The chronological reconstruction of a dynasty from regnally dated records is of course still only approximative, as the period of reign for each king can be given only as a minimum, based on the highest regnal date preserved for him in known inscriptions; the actual time of his rule, assumed to be as great as, or more likely greater than, this figure, can only be estimated (cf. 7.1.1.1).

c10.s3.t2.10

*5.4.2.1.2 Years of an era.* Beginning in the first century B.C. some inscriptions were dated in continuous eras.²⁸ This system gradually became more prevalent and was the standard practice in most regions by the early centuries of the medieval era. These continuous or historical eras evidently arose as continuations or extensions of a regnal reckoning of a given king by his successors, who instead of beginning a new reckoning commencing from their own accessions continued counting years from the previous king's dates (SIE 242–3). This development is explicitly indicated in the Mathurā pillar inscription (SI I.277–9) dated in the fifth regnal year of Candragupta II (*. . . śrīcandraguptasya vija(*ya)-rājya-saṁvatsa(*re) paṁcame 5*) and in the sixty-first year of the "continued reckoning" (*kālānuvarttamāna-saṁvatsare ekaṣaṣṭhe* [*sic*] *60 1*), that is, of the Gupta era (5.5.1.6).²⁹ Such an extended regnal-year system would then become a dynastic reckoning, and this in turn would often continue in use, sometimes with a change of name, long after the founding dynasty had fallen.³⁰

c10.s3.t2.11

²⁸ Systems of continuous historical reckoning seem not to have been an indigenous Indian notion, as the earliest genuine historical eras were founded by foreign rulers. But once established, such systems were initiated by many later dynasties of Indian origin (SIE 235–50).

c10.s3.t2.12

²⁹ Cf. also a similar dating formula in a newly discovered inscription of [Gupta] year 121 from Mathurā (Govindnagar): *saṁvatsaraśate ekaviṁśottaraśate* [*sic*] *100 20 1 kālānuvarttamānasaṁvatsare . . .* (EI 40, 1973–74, 20–2).

c10.s3.t2.13

³⁰ See the various examples discussed in section 5.5, particularly the Vikrama and Śaka eras (5.5.1.3 and 5.5.1.4).

c10.s3.t2.14

The name of the era is often but by no means always explicitly noted. In the early dates of a given era, the name was often

c10.s3.t2.15

5.4.2.2 Specific dates

c10.s3.t2.16

Beginning in the last two centuries B.C., the practice of recording dates by the day as well as year gradually came into use. The earliest examples, mostly in inscriptions of Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian kings, usually give a (regnal) year, month, and day of the month.³⁴ The Shinkoṭ reliquary inscriptions of the time of Menander and Vijayamitra (SI I.105, l. 2), for example, contain the date *vaṣaye paṁcamaye 4 1 veśrakhasa masasa divasa paṁcaviśraye*, "In the fifth (5) [regnal] year [of Vijayamitra], twenty-fifth day of the month Vaiśākha." Several inscriptions from this period use Macedonian rather than Indian months; the Sui Vihār inscription of the eleventh year of Kaniṣka, for example (SI I.139, l. 1), is dated on the twenty-eighth day of *daïsiṁka masa*, that is, of Daisios.³⁵

c10.s3.t2.17

³⁴ Occasional examples of this dating system are found as late as the Gupta period; see David Pingree, "A Note on the Calendars Used in Early Indian Inscriptions," *JAOS* 102, 1982, 355–9 (esp. 357).

c10.s3.t2.18

³⁵ See Pingree, op. cit., 355–6, for further details and examples.

c10.s3.t2.19

Some inscriptions of the first to fifth centuries A.D., mostly Śaka and Kuṣāṇa inscriptions in Brāhmī from the Mathurā region, are dated in year (regnal or era), season (*grīṣma*, *varṣā*, or *hemanta*), number of the month in the season, and day of the month. For instance, the Mathurā Jaina image inscription of the time of Huviṣka (SI I.155–6) is dated *savasare 40 4 . . . gṛsyamasa* [= *grīṣmamāsa*] *3 divasa 2*, "In the year 44, month 3 of summer, day 2." Pingree describes this system as "an amalgamation of the Indian tradition of three seasons (*ṛtus*) . . . with the northwestern tradition of counting twenty-nine or thirty days in each month" (op. cit., 357).³⁶

c10.s3.t2.20

³⁶ Cf. Sircar, SI I.121 n. 3, characterizing this system as "a compromise between the Greek . . . and Indian . . . systems of dating," and SIE 246.

c10.s3.t2.21

Inscriptions of approximately the same period from the Deccan, the south, and the northeast are usually dated by year, season, number of the lunar fortnight (*pakṣa*) [rather than month] within the season, and day of the fortnight. For example, the Kārle cave inscription of the Sātavāhana king Vāsiṣṭhīputra Puḷumāvi (SI I.210) is dated *savachare catuvise 20 4 hemaṁtāna pakhe tatiye 3 divase bitiye 2*, "In the twenty-fourth (24) [regnal] year, the third (3) fortnight of winter, the second (2) day." Dates of this type are common among inscriptions of the Sātavāhanas and Ikṣvākus in the Deccan as well as among northern kingdoms such as Maghas of Kauśāmbī and the kings of Bāndhogarh (Pingree, op. cit., 358).

c10.s3.t2.22

The classical dating system, with the year, month, fortnight of the lunar³⁷ month (*pakṣa*), and lunar day (*tithi*)³⁸ of the fortnight,³⁹ first appears sporadically in inscriptions of the early centuries A.D., mainly those of the Western Kṣatrapas. For example, the Guṇḍā inscription (SI I.181–2) is dated *varṣe triyuttaraśate* [*sic*] *100 3 vaiśākhaśuddhe paṁcama . . . tithau*, "in the year one hundred and three (103), in the bright (fortnight) of Vaiśākha, on the fifth *tithi*." This system gradually spread, first through the Deccan and central India, and eventually throughout the subcontinent; by the Gupta period it appears to have become more or less standard.⁴⁰ The Udayagiri inscription of the time of Candragupta II (SI I.279), for instance, is dated *saṃvatsare 80 2 āṣāḍhamāsaśukle*[read *-ai*]*kadaśyām*, "In the [Gupta] year 82, on the eleventh [*tithi*] of the bright [fortnight] of the month of Āṣāḍha."

c10.s3.t2.23

³⁷ In later centuries in certain parts of India, mainly Bengal and the far south, the solar months (Meṣa, Vṛṣabha, Mithuna, etc.) were sometimes cited instead of lunar months; see SIE 223 and A. Venkatasubbiah, *Some Śaka Dates in Inscriptions*, 66–9.

c10.s3.t2.24

³⁸ On the precise definition of *tithi*, see the "Technical note on *tithis*" (5.4.3.3).

c10.s3.t2.25

³⁹ Occasionally the day of the full month, undivided into fortnights, is given, either in place of or in addition to the *tithi* of the fortnight; see EI 8, 1905–6, 289.

c10.s3.t2.26

⁴⁰ Details in Pingree, op. cit., 359.

c10.s3.t2.27

To this basic information additional data of varying types and amounts may be added. The *nakṣatra* occupied by the moon is often noted in later inscriptions but also occurs as early as the second century in the Gunḍā inscription noted previously (*rohiṇī*[sic]*-nakṣatra-muhūrtte*). The weekday (*vāra* or *vāsara*) is first clearly noted⁴¹ in the Eraṇ inscription of the time of Budhagupta, [Gupta] 165 = A.D. 484 (SI I.335, l. 3) in the phrase *suraguror ddivase*, "on Thursday." In subsequent centuries the citation of the weekday becomes more or less standard. (This practice is important in that it permits the verification of dates in later inscriptions; see 5.4.3.2.)

c10.s3.t2.28

⁴¹ But see also SIE 219 n. 2.

c10.s3.t2.29

Other types of calendrical and astronomical details sometimes added to dates of inscriptions of the Gupta period and later, especially in connection with dates in the Śaka era,⁴² include the *yoga* (period in which the combined longitudinal motion of the sun and moon equals one *nakṣatra* or 13° 20'), *karaṇa* (half-*tithi*), and *lagna* (zodiacal sign rising).⁴³ Sometimes still further data such as the season (*ṛtu*), *rāśi* (sun's zodiacal sign), half-year (*ayana*, i.e., *dakṣiṇāyana* or *uttarāyaṇa /udagayana*), and time of day in *ghaṭikās* ("hours" of forty-eight minutes) are provided. Special astronomical circumstances such as the sun's entry into zodiacal signs (*saṃkrānti/saṃkramaṇa*), especially the *viṣuva(t)-saṃkrānti* or entries into the equinoctial signs and the *dakṣiṇāyana*- and *uttarāyaṇa-saṃkrānti* or entries into the solstitial signs, may also be mentioned. Particularly common are references to solar or lunar eclipses (*grahaṇa*, *uparāga*), since these were considered especially auspicious times for the granting of gifts.⁴⁴ Citations of eclipses are useful for verifying dates, since their occurrences can be readily checked in various standard reference sources such as Th. Ritter von Oppolzer's *Canon der Finsternisse*.⁴⁵

c10.s3.t2.30

⁴² Kielhorn, IA 20, 1891, 412 = KS I.610.

c10.s3.t2.31

⁴³ See Fleet, IA 18, 1889, 162 n. 1.

c10.s3.t2.32

⁴⁴ F. Kielhorn, "Die Sonnen- und Mondfinsternisse in den Daten Indischer Inschriften," *Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen*, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, 1896, 59–75 = KS II.826–42. See also Venkatasubbiah, *Some Śaka Dates*, 19–27.

c10.s3.t2.33

⁴⁵ Wien: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1887. English translation, *Canon of Eclipses*, by Owen Gingerich (New York: Dover, 1962).

c10.s3.t2.34

A typical example of a complex date from a late inscription is that of the Ajmer slab inscription containing the *Harakeli-nāṭaka* (IA 20, 212), reading *saṃvat 1210 mārga-sudi 5 āditya-dine śravaṇa-nakṣatre makarasthe candre harṣaṇa-yoge bālava-karaṇe*, "In the [Vikrama] year 1210, the bright [fortnight of] Mārga[śīrsa], [*tithi*] 5, Sunday, in the *nakṣatra* Śravaṇa, with the moon in Makara, the *yoga* Harṣaṇa, and *karaṇa* Bālava."⁴⁶

c10.s3.t2.35

⁴⁶ For an even more elaborate date, including specific times of day, see the Burhānpūr mosque inscription (Appendix, no. 14), ll. 5–6. In the case of such precise dates, the day and time cited in the inscription is presumably that of the ceremonial performance of the gift, foundation, etc., commemorated in the inscription, rather than that of the actual incision of the inscription itself.

c10.s3.t2.36

Various abbreviations were often employed in the notation of dates. The seasons (in the older dating systems) were often abbreviated as *he* or *hema*, *va* or *vā*, and *gri* or *gī* for *hemanta*, *varṣā*, and *grīṣma* (or their Prakrit equivalents), respectively. The days of the bright (*śukla*/*śuddha*/*sita*) and dark (*kṛṣṇa*/*bahula*/*asita*) fortnights are commonly abbreviated as *śudi* or *sudi* (= *śukla-divase* etc.) and *badi*/*vadi* (= *bahula-divase* etc.) or *vadya*,⁴⁷ respectively. (For further examples of abbreviations, see BPLM 160 n. 5 and SIE 220.)

c10.s3.t2.37

In many inscriptions a formulaic phrase such as *etasyāṃ pūrvāyām*, “At this aforementioned [time (*velāyām*), or lunar day (*tithau*)],” *asyāṃ saṃvatsara-māsa-divasa-purvāyām*, “On this aforementioned year, month, and day,” or the like, would be added after the date by way of introducing the body of the document.⁴⁸

Linked texts (7)