Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c24.2

c24.2

There are certain difficulties with reference to the Śaka dates and the cyclic years or Saṁvatsaras occurring in the inscriptions which require to be cleared up. The current Śaka year (A. D. 1883-84) in the Bombay Presidency is 1805, and the year of the sixty years' cycle, Subhānu. In the southern provinces and the Madras Presidency the current Śaka year is 1806, the cyclic year being the same. The first question, then, is, "Do the dates in the inscriptions conform to the Bombay reckoning or the Madras reckoning?" and the next, "What is the cause of this difference of a year?"¹ We have also to consider whether the Śaka dates in the inscriptions represent the number of years *that have expired* before the event recorded in them or the *current* year in which the event took place.