A History of Assam c25.s2: Duodenary Series
A History of Assam c25.s2
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Duodenary Series
c25.s2.1
| Serial Number. | Ahom. | Chinese. | Japanese. | Tibetan. |
| 1 | tyeo | toze | ne | byi-ba |
| 2 | plāo | chāo | us | g lang. |
| 3 | ngi | yin | torru | s tag. |
| 4 | māo | māo | ov | yo-s. |
| 5 | si | shin | tats | b rug. |
| 6 | siu | sze | mi | sb rul. |
| 7 | singa | wu | uma | r ta. |
| 8 | mut | we | tsitsuse | l cag. |
| 9 | sān | shin | sar | sp rou. |
| 10 | rāo | yeo | torri | bya. |
| 11 | mit | seo | in | kyi. |
| 12 | keo | hā | y | pag. |
c25.s2.2
The Tibetans, it should be observed, compound their words so as to form a cycle not of sixty, but of 252 years. Their method is described in Csoma de Kőrös' Tibetan Grammar, pp. 147 and ff.
c25.s2.3
I have been unable to obtain any explanation of the Ahom words used in these series. The Chinese call the words in their denary series *tien kan*, or terrestrial signs, while those in the duodenary series are the horary characters, and are known as *teche* or celestial signs. The denary series in the Japanese system is made up of the elements, of which they reckon five, doubled by the addition of the masculine and feminine signs *je* & *to*; the second series consists of the signs of the zodiac. The Tibetans, like the Japanese, employ the names of the elements for the denary series, but, for the duodenary, they take the names of certain animals—mouse, ox, tiger, etc.
c25.s2.4
The Ahoms commence their first cycle in the year 568 A.D., so that in order to ascertain the year in our era, corresponding to an Ahom *lākli*, the number of completed *tāosingas* should be multiplied by sixty, the number of the *lākli*, or year in the current *tāosinga*, added, and also 568. In inscriptions, as well as in the Ahom *buranjis*, the name of the *lākli* alone is given, and not the serial number of the *tāosinga*, but it is universally reckoned that Sukāphā entered Assam in the first year of the twelfth *tāosinga*, and it is easy to keep a tally of the *tāosingas* from that time on, as numerous events occurring in each *tāosinga* are mentioned in all the *Buranjis*. Thus Supāṭphā's coins are dated in *lākli rāisān*. This is equivalent to the 33rd year, and as it must be the nineteenth *tāosinga*, the date will be 18 × 60 + 33 + 568 = 1681 A.D. This, according to the *Buranjis* is the year of Supāṭphā's accession to the throne.