Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c24.11

c24.11

Now on the supposition that the inscriptions conform to the Madras reckoning, in the first 58 cases the S'aka date represents the number of S'aka years that had expired before the current cyclic year of the inscription and in 28 it shows the current year of that era If we suppose the Bombay reckoning to have been in use, the dates in the first 58 cases will represent the current year and those in the next 28, the *future* year and not the *past* But since it is almost absurd to suppose that the immediately next year should be stated in the inscriptions, it follows that the Madras mode of reckoning was the one in use The objection, however, may be obviated by supposing that these 28 cases conform to the Madras reckoning and give the current year, while the first 58 follow the Bombay mode. But this supposition is not reasonable or probable, since these groups are not confined to particular provinces, and often one of the former exists in the same district or even place with one of the latter. We thus see that though in the majority of cases the inscriptions give the past Saka year, there is a large number in which the current year is given and not the past.