A History of Assam c25.2

c25.2

THE Ahoms, like the other Shān tribes, have no era in the ordinary sense of the word, but compute time by means of the larger Jovian cycle of sixty years, which they call a *tāosinga*. The same system is in vogue amongst the Chinese, Japanese, Mongols and other Eastern races; it is known also to Hindu astrologers, who call the cycle *Vrihaspati Chakra*, or the wheel of Jupiter. It may have been invented by the Chinese, who have dates in it as far back as the year 2637 B.C. The Chinese are said to use also the true Jovian cycle of twelve years for reckoning domestic occurrences, but this smaller cycle was not known to the Ahoms.