History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.638

v6.c82.638

A variety of eras have been used in India for hundreds of years; this has created a great deal of confusion in chronology and history. For the lists of eras now in use or met with in inscriptions and Sanskrit literature, vide Cunningham on Indian eras, 'Indian Ephemeris' by Swamikannu Pillai vol. I part 1 pp. 53-55, V. B. Ketkar's 'Indian and foreign chronology' pp. 171-172; P. C. Sen-Gupta in 'Ancient Indian eras' (pp. 222-238) and Dr. Saha's paper in 'Science and Culture' for 1952 (Calcutta) at p. 116 that gives a table of eras with the starting year of the eras, their current years, year beginnings (solar and luni-solar), lunar month end, provenance &c. Vide also p. 258 of the C. R. C. Report (Table 27) for a similar long list of eras. In this work only a few eras of importance will be briefly dealt with. Alberuni (Sachau vol. II. p. 5) names five eras, viz. of Śrī Harsha, Vikramāditya, Śaka, Valabha and Gupta. He gives two different versions about the first and leaves the question undecided.