The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c7.s1.65

c7.s1.65

The Indian nations, in so far as they maintained a record of political events, kept it by methods of their own, which are difficult to understand, and until recently were not at all understood. The eras used to date events are not only different from those used by other nations, but very numerous and obscure in their origin and application. Cunningham's *Book of Indian Eras* (1883) enumerates more than a score of systems which have been employed at different times and places in India for the computation of dates; and his list might be considerably extended. The successful efforts of several generations of scholars to recover the forgotten history of ancient India have been largely devoted to a study of the local modes of chronological computation, and have resulted in the attainment of accurate knowledge concerning most of the eras used in inscriptions and other documents.¹