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MARCH, 1873.]
CORRESPONDENCE, &c.
93
gulated as near as may be after Muslim fashion; and let the legal officers of such courts, from the highest to the lowest, be invested with all the sanc- tion that our own Indian Government, the only one on Muslim, no less than on non-Muslim, principles competent to do so within Indian limits, can give A Kazi-el-Kuzât in each Presidency, with a Sheykh- Ielam at Calcutta, nominated by the Government, salaried by Government, removable by Government | -all conditions, be it observed, of the Sheykh-Islam and of every Kadi in the Ottoman Empire itselfendowed with the appropriate patronage for subordinate appointments, but requiring for the validity of each and every nomination our own confirmatory sign and seal ; good Muhammadan law colleges and schools, conducted under our supervision, and maintained on our responsibility : these are what would give us a hold over the most important, because the most dangerous, element in our Indian Empire, such as nothing else could give : a hold that the disaffection, did it ever occur, of others from within, or the assaults of rival powers, not least of infidel ones, from north or elsewhere without, would only strengthen.
"Let us be wise and understand this, and not incur the reproach of those, rulers too in their day, who could not discern the signs of the times. We can no more check or retard the Muhammadan revival' in India than we can hinder the tide from swelling in the English Channel when it has risen in the Atlantic. The Revival' is a world-movement, an epochal phenomenon; it derives from the larger order of causes, before which the lesger laws of race and locality are swept away or absorbed into unity. But we can turn it to our own advantage; we can make the jaws of this young-old lion bring forth for us honey and the honey-comb. And this we can do without in the least compromising our own Christian character as & Government or as a nation. The measures required at our hands in our Indian heritage pre simply mercy, justice, and judgment; and these belong to no special race or creed; they are the property of all, Christian and Muslim alike-of West as of East, of England as of Mecca."
No finer contribution has recently been made on a question of vital importance to the government and destinies of India.-A. H. B.
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. ON INDIAN DATES.
to its kings what I believe to be their true date To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary.
though, in dcing this, he differs to the extent of Sir-So much of our knowledge of the medieval
300 and 400 years from Wathen, Dowson, and history of India depends on the correct decypher
almost every other recent writer on these subjects. ment of inscriptions on rocks and stones or copper
All this is bad enough, and renders inscriptions plates, that it is of the utmost importance, not only
per se nearly useless for the purpose of fixing the that their meaning, but more especially their dates,
dates of buildings or events; but it would be a fearshould be tested by every available means. The
ful aggravation of the case, if, besides the difficulinscriptions, it must be confessed, have hitherto ties attaching to the initial date, it should turn out proved of very little use in settling our chronology, that, either frora negligence or design, the dates in or affording dates for buildings, and this state of the inscriptions were so falsified that they could things must continue until orientalists can agree
not be depended upon. I have recently been led to among themselves as to the eras from which they suspect that this is the case in more instances than are dated. So long, for instance, as Mr. Thomas is one ; and it seems so important that it should be of opinion that the Sah kings date their coins ascertained whether this is so or not, that I request and inscriptions from the era of the Seleucida you will allow me an opportunity of laying the (311 B. C.); Mr. Justice Newton from that of case before your readers. The first case I wish to Nahapana, practically Vikramaditya, which is a refer to, is the well-known copper-plate grant of favourite with others (56 B. C.); and Dr. Bhau Daji Pulakes'i I. of the Chalukya dynasty, dated in 411 from the Saka era (78 A.D.)-we have some 400 years S'aka, or 489 A.D. This was first brought to the among which to choose for the date of the famous notice of the learned by Sir Walter Elliot, in the repairs of the Palesini bridge. In like manner, till 4th volume of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic it is agreed whether the Guptas began to reign Society, p. 7, et seqq. ; but even at that early date he 318 A. D. or were then exterminated-and those saw the difficulty of reconciling this date with the who have treated this subject are about equally circumstances narrated in the inscription, and theredivided on this point-we have at least a couple fore proposed (page 12) to substitute Saka 610 for of centuries to veer and haul upon for all the dates Saka 411. of this period; and, except Lassen, I know of no When I wrote on the subject in 1869 (J. R. A. S., distinguished orientalist who has fairly lovked on new series, volume IV. p. 92), this appeared to me both sides of the Ballabhi difficulty, and assigned too violent a correction, and I suggested substituting
• Conf. Ind. Art. vol. I. p. 61.-ED.
