The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.14

c8.s11.14

¹ The original seasons, each including eight fortnights, were, grishma, 'the hot weather,' varshāḥ, 'the rains,' and hēmanta, 'the cold season.' Other instances of the use of this primitive division of the year in the records with which we are now concerned, are furnished by the grants of the early Kadamba kings (pages 288, 289 below) and by the grant of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman (page 320 below). In other records, the system is found in the inscriptions in the Nāsik caves (Archæol. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. IV. p. 107), and those in the Kanheri caves (id. Vol. V. pp. 75, 79), and in the Dudia grant of the Vākāṭaka Mahārāja Pravarasēna II. (Epigraphia Indica, Vol. III. p. 258).—The present seasons, each of four fortnights, are, vasanta, 'the spring,' grishma, varshāḥ, śarad, 'the autumn,' hēmanta, and śiśira, 'the dewy season.'—A significant trace of the primitive division of the year into three seasons only, is to be found in the cāturmāsya or four-monthly sacrifices, performed, at the beginning of each season, on the full-moon days of the months Phālguna (Feb.-March), Āshāḍha (June-July), and Kārttika (Oct.-Nov.).