Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c10.s3.t2.22

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."