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Indian Epigraphy c15.t8: 3. Jupiter’s Sixty-year Cycle

Indian Epigraphy c15.t8

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3. Jupiter’s Sixty-year Cycle

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¹ Ojha, *Bhāratīya Prācīn Lipimālā*, pp. 188-89.

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The duration of Jupiter’s stay in a particular zodiacal sign is called Jupiter’s year which lasts for 361 days, 2 ghaṭikās or daṇḍas and 5 palas. This year is thus shorter than the solar year by 4 days, 13 ghaṭikās or daṇḍas and 26 palas. That is why one Jupiter’s year becomes suppressed in 85 solar years.

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There is a name for each one of the 60 years of Jupiter’s Cycle, and the years are mentioned by their names. But the 60 names are counted in North and South India in two different orders.

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The sixty years of Jupiter’s Cycle are as follows : (1) Prabhava, (2) Vibhava, (3) Śukla, (4) Pramoda (Pramodūta), (5) Prajāpati, (6) Aṅgiras, (7) Śrīmukha, (8) Bhāva, (9) Yuvan, (10) Dhātṛ, (11) Īśvara, (12) Bahudhānya, (13) Pramāthin, (14) Vikrama, (15) Vṛṣa, (16) Citrabhānu, (17) Subhānu, (18) Tāraṇa, (19) Pārthiva, (20) Vyaya, (21) Sarvajit, (22) Sarvadhārin, (23) Virodhin, (24) Vikṛti, (25) Khara, (26) Nandana, (27) Vijaya, (28) Jaya, (29) Manmatha, (30) Durmukha, (31) Hemalamba (Hemalambin), (32) Vilambin, (33) Vikārin, (34) Śārvarin, (35) Plava, (36) Śubhakṛt (Śobhakṛt), (37) Śobhana, (38) Krodhin, (39) Viśvāvasu, (40) Parābhava, (41) Plavaṅga, (42) Kilaka, (43) Saumya, (44) Sādhāraṇa, (45) Virodhakṛt, (46) Paridhāvin, (47) Pramādin, (48) Ānanda, (49) Rākṣasa, (50) Nala or Anala, (51) Piṅgala, (52) Kālayukta, (53) Siddhārthin (Siddhārtha), (54) Raudra, (55) Durmati, (56) Dundubhi, (57) Rudhirodgārin, (58) Raktākṣa, (59) Krodhana, and (60) Kṣaya or Akṣaya.

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Varāhamihira applies the name Vijaya (No. 27) to the first year of the Kaliyuga era while later writers like the author of the Jyotiṣatattva gives it as Prabhava (No. 1). In North India, Jupiter’s year theoretically begins from the planet’s entry into a particular zodiacal sign, though in actual practice Caitra-sudi 1 is regarded as its first day.

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According to Varāhamihira,¹ to find out the name of a particular Śaka year after the North Indian system, one has to multiply the number of the expired Śaka year by 11 and the product again by 4; to the product 8589 has to be added, and the sum has to be divided by 3750; the quotient has then to be added to the number of the Śaka year and the product has to be divided again by 60. The remainder thus received would be the number of the expired year in the Cycle beginning with Prabhava.

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¹ Bṛhatsaṃhitā, VIII. 20.

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In South India, Jupiter’s year is regarded as the same as the solar year. The first year of the Kali era is Pramāthin (No. 13), and the year is taken to begin from Caitra-sudi 1.

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The rule for finding out the name of a particular Śaka year according to the South Indian Cycle of Jupiter is as follows: 12 has to be added to the number of the expired Śaka year; the sum has then to be divided by 60; the remainder would be the number of the current year of the Cycle beginning from Prabhava. Another rule is as follows 12 has to be added to the number of the expired Kali year; then the sum has to be divided by 60 and the remainder would be the number of the year of the Cycle beginning with Prabhava.

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The names of the years according to Jupiter's 60-year Cycle are only occasionally met with in the records of North India. But they are very popular in the South even today. It was formerly believed that the earliest epigraph mentioning such a name is the Mahākūṭa pillar inscription of Cālukya Maṅgaleśa (597-610 A.D.) of Bādāmi, dated in the year Siddhārtha (Siddhārthin).¹ But recently the name of the cyclic year Vijaya has been traced in two Nagarjunikonda inscriptions, one of the time of the Ikṣvāku king Vīrapuruṣadatta (second half of the 3rd century A.D.) and another of his son Ehuvula Śāntamūla (close of the 3rd and the early part of the 4th century).² Vijaya was originally the first year of the Cycle.

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¹ Ind. Ant., Vol. XIX, p. 18.

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² Ep. Ind., XXXV, pp. 1 ff.

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