Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c10.s3.t2.19

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