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AUGUST, 1883.]
NOMENCLATURE OF HINDU ERAS.
207
ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE PRINCIPAL HINDÙ ERAS, AND THE USE OF THE WORD SAMVATSARA AND ITS ABBREVIATIONS.
BY J. 7. FLEET, BO.C.S., M.R.A.S. A GREAT deal of the confusion that runs of the era of Salivahana commonly called Saka A through the different arguments that have or SAka.' from time to timo boon put on record in respect! On a previons occasion (Vol. VIII. pp. 151f.) of the Gupta and Valabhi era or eras is to be I have shown that saivat is an abbreviaattributed in the first place, to the want of tion, not of the base sa vatsara, but of the uniformity that prevails in naming these and genitive plural samvatsaránám, "of years. The the other eras that have to be mentioned in the passage that establishes this, by using the full discussion,-and, in the second place, still more word sasivatsaranám exactly where other into the strained and restricted meaning that scriptions use the abbreviation sanhvat, is given as has unfortunately been put upon the word No. 8 below. And in the same paper I gave sanatsara and its abbreviations, especially in four other instances in which sariwat is used to the form sasivat. In this latter connection, 1 denote years of the Saka era. In each of those one of the most specific-and yet, if tested, one instances, it is true, the word is in a passage of the most untenable-remarks, is made by that refers itself specifically to the Saka era. Professor J. Dowson in his Further Note on a And for comparatively modern times, say from Bactrian Páli Insoription and the Sasivat Era, the commencement of the eleventh century in the Jour, R. As. Soc., N. S., VOL IX. pp. A.D., general usage is certainly in favour of the 144 ff. Disputing the position taken up by position assumed by Prof. Dowson in respect Mr. Thomas, that the word samvatsara does of the particular abbreviation sanhvat,-viz. not involve or necessitate a preferential associe- that, if used alone, it must prima facie, if not tion with the era of Vikramaditya, he there absolutely, be understood to denote years of Say! :-"My contention is that the word the era of Vikramaditya. But the case is Sariwatsara, or its abbreviation San, wherever
quite otherwise in respect of the earlier times used alono, must be understood to mean the with which we have to deal, in considering the Sanhvatsara of Vikramaditya until the contrary original nomenclature of this and other Hindu is shown. Saswat and Sadivatsara have desig- eras. And the instances that I shall quote in nated the era of Vikramaditya for at least a illustrating the nomenclature, will show amply thousand years; and it is not to be assumed
that, in those earlier times, the word sarhvatsara without any proof that the word was ever used and its abbreviations had no such restricted absolutely for any other era. There have been meaning at all, but were used freely, whether other Saskvats, but then they have been called with or without qualifying expressions, to by their specific names, as Valabhi-Sanhvat; and denote years of any of the eras that were in the word sashvatsara has been used simply use. In his paper from which I have quoted for the word year, but then the era has been above, Prof. Dowson goes on to say, in respect distinctly stated, as I before pointed out. The of the unlucky sanatsara or sasivat :-" This word Sasavat has been so long absolutely used word has offered a tempting gap in the tangled for the era of Vikramaditya, that it has the mazes of Hindú chronology for escaping difficulright of a lengthened possession, and it is not ties and arriving at a conclusion, right or to be set aside without distinct proof." Pro- otherwise. A more strict adherence to the fessor Monier Williams seems to attach the meaning it has so long borne is due to it, and same value to the word and its principal abbre- will, it is to be hoped, lead to more satisfactory viàtion; in his Sanskrit Dictionary he gives results." But, it is just by restricting the sashvateara as meaning, without any qualifying meaning of the word in the way in which he expression, '& year of Vikramaditya's era',- seeks to restrict it, that such difficulties, which and sashuat (which he suggests is a contraction would not otherwise exist, are created. If once of sashvatsara) as meaning, equally without any it is fully recognised that there is no authority qualifying expression, a year of Vikramaditya's whatsoever for so restricting the meaning of era, commencing B.C. 57, as opposed to a year the word sasivatsara,--and if once the present
