________________
THI MAURYAN AND INDO-GREEK PERIODS
19
vhich are used in the inscriptions issued under the reigns of the Sakas and the Kuśāņas.16
As the lunar days are counted in a serial number even beyond the number fifteen, the months were probably solar. The years used in the inscriptions of the time of Menander cannot be assigned to the Seleucidian era'7 founded by Seleucus in. 312 B. C. or to the Buddha Nirvana Era which was counted from 483 B. C.18, even if the figures representing hundreds are dropped."9
As the dates of these inscriptions contain no other particulars, it is not possible to determine the systems of the years and the months. 16. R. B. Pandey, Indian Palaeography, pp. 192 f. 17. The first continuous ruoning era which came into general
circulation is that introduced to commemorate the foundation of Seleucus's dynasty. The initial point of the Seleucidian era has been fixed by Fynes Clinton to the 1st of October, 312 B.C. According to Ulugh Beg, this era started from 3rd October, 312 B. C. This era dates from the defeat of Nikanor, general of Aptigonus, by Seleucus who became the master of Babylon
(A. Cunningham, A Book of Indian Eras, p. 38). 18. According to Theravåda Buddhism, the Buddha's Parinirvāņa
occurred in 544 B. C. [P. V. Bapat (Gen. Ed.), 2500 years of
Buddhism, p. 5). 19. R. B. Pandey, Indian Palaeography, 192
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