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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXIII New Moons and Eclipses in Vol. I, Part I, Pillai has adopted the purnimanta scheme of lunar months. This has misled Dr. Subrahmanyam. Table II gives the solar eclipse on the 13th August 630 A.D. under Bhadrapada. As stated before, this month was purnimanta. The same eclipse may, therefore, be said to have occurred on the new-moon day of amanta Sravana, as stated in the Andhavaram plates. The date is thus perfectly regular. It further corroborates the epoch of the Ganga era fixed by me. It may, again, be noted that this is one of the few dates of the era in a current year and that the scheme of lunar months here is ämänta as in several other records of the Ganga era as shown already.
Let us next see if the date would be regular according to any of the other epochs suggested by other scholars. Leaving aside such epochs as 349-50 A.D., 741 A.D., 772 A.D., and 877-78 A.D. which, on the face of them, appear to be impossible, I shall examine those that approximate to the one fixed by me. They are as follows: 494 A.D. proposed by Mr. Subba Rao, 496 A.D. by the late Mr. J. C. Ghosh, 497-98 A.D. by the late Mr. B.V. Krishna Rao and 504-05 A.D. by Mr. Somasekhara Sarma. Mr. Krishna Rao was previously of the opinion that the Ganga era began on amänta Bhadrapada-su. 13; but he now says that it began on pürgimanta Kārttika-ba. 1 in the expired Saka year 419 (28th September 497 A.D.). From the equivalents of some dates given in his recent article, he seems to take the epoch of the Ganga era as 497-98 A.D. As the Ganga year, according to him, began in Kärttika, we shall get the Christian year corresponding to Gn. 133, for the month of Sravana, by adding 498 to 133. The years of the Christian era corresponding to Gn. 133, according to these epochs, would thus be as follows:
Proposed Epocn of the Ganga Era.
494 A.D.
496 A.D.
497-98 A.D.
504-05 A.D.
Ganga Year 133, Śrāvaṇa amāvāsyā
Corresponding year of the Christian Era.
627 A.D.
629 A.D.
631 A.D.3 637. A.D.
Was there a solar eclipse on this tithi ?
No solar eclipse in purnimänta or amanta Srāvana.
Do.
Do. Do.
Dr. R. C. Majumdar as recently suggested that the Ganga era started some time between 540 and 556 A.D. As he has not, however, stated the exact epoch of the era as well as the beginning of the Ganga year and the scheme of its lunar months, it is not possible to test its correctness by means of this date.
The Andhavaram plates of the Ganga king Indravarman III thus prove the correctness of my view that the Ganga era commenced on amanta Chaitra śu. di. 1 in the expired Saka year 420 (the 14th March 498 A.D.). Thus the epoch of the era for a current year is 497-98 A.D. and for an expired year 498-99 A.D.
1 Above, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 171 f.
JBRS, Vol. XLII, Part I. Curiously enough, he regards all these years of the era as current. For an examination of his view, see ibid., pp. 309 ff.
[This should be 629-30 A.D. according to Mr. Krishna Rao who regards the years of the Ganga era to be current
-Ed.]
Above, Vol. XXXI, pp. 46 ff.
