Indian Epigraphy c15.s2.t6.1

c15.s2.t6.1

As we have seen above, Al-Bīrūnī speaks of a Śrī-Harṣa era which is stated to have started from 457 B.C. and to have been prevalent in his time, i.e. in the 11th century A.D., in the regions of Mathura and Kanauj.⁶ It is said that he received this information from some inhabitants of the Mathura-Kanauj area. There is however no reason to believe that such an era was actually current in the said region in the age in question, and it is doubtful whether such an era was ever instituted, since no such reckoning is known from literary and epigraphic records.¹ As we have seen, the Indians never used any era in dating their documents before the introduction of the old Scytho-Parthian era or Vikrama-saṃvat of 58 B.C. Al-Bīrūnī learnt from the Kashmiriān almanacs that the Śrī-Harṣa era commenced in 606 A.D. and failed to understand how this fact could be reconciled with the information regarding the prevalence of a Harṣa era commencing from 457 B.C. in the Mathurā and Kanauj regions. The persons from the Mathurā-Kanauj area, whom Al-Bīrūnī happended to meet, appear to have played a trick on the foreigner by giving this false information.²