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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
.(JUNE, 1887.
October, A.D. 738. In onder, however, to arrive remains the same; vis, the month AshAdha in at these conflicting resulte, he assumed that the A.D. 738 being intercalary, from the 29th year commenced, not with the month Karttika, September, A.D. 737, to the 17th October, A.D. but with the month MArgasirsha (November- 738. And, in that year, the given tithi was December), in accordance with a custom which, uridoubtedly not a Sunday, but a Monday, when Albiran tells us, was current among the people there was no solar eclipue, and when the nakshatra of Sindh, Multân, Kanauj, and LÅhôr. By this was Anuradha, not Jyêshtha. arrangement, of course, the month Karttika of I confess that, from the first, I have thought Vikrama-Samvat 794 would belong to the end of that the Dhiniki grant is not genuine ; partly the year, and would therefore fall in A.D. 788, from the type of the Devanagari characters used not 737. But, by the southern reckoning, the in it, which though they present some apparently new-moon day of Karttika in A.D. 738 would be antique characteristics, are much inferior to those the 16th Noveinber, which was not the day of the used in certain early palm-leaf M88., and are also
clipee. Accordingly, there remained something rude, even as compared with the characters of the still to be explained; and Gen. Cunningham Santingad grant of the Rashtrakata king Danti. proposed to complete the arrangement by reading du , of Saka-Samvat 675 expired (A.D. 753. Asrina, instead of Karttika; which would agree 54), and partly from its giving so much earlier with the real eclipse-day, vis. the 17th or) 18th an instance than can be found anywhere else, of October, A.D. 738. “But, as that day was a the use of the name of Vikrama in connection with "Saturday, a very inauspicious day, the writing the era. My impression has been that the graut " of the grant was probably made on the following was made spurious by substituting the word vi. "day, or Sunday, which was the first day of krama for Valabhi. This view, I find, cannot "Karttiks; and this might have led to the sub- be upheld; as the recorded details are not "stitution of the name of Karttika, for that of correct for Valabhi-Sadavat 794 (A.D. 1113), or * "Asvina, is the actual day of the eclipse." year before or after. But, that the grant really There was, really, no reason at all for propos is spurious, is, I think, now certain, from all the ing this alteration of the text; for, from the results that I have recited above, And judging localities mentioned by Albiran, a year commence by the characters, I should be inclined to refer ing with MArgasfrsha could only be coupled with the fabrication of it to about the eleventh or the Púrnimdnta northern arrangement of the twelfth century A.D. As the Jyeshţha nakshatra months; and, by that arrangement, the 17th Oc- appears to occur always on, or within two days tober, A.D. 738, on which day, as we have seen, after, the new-moon tithi of Karttiks, this detail the eclipse occurred in India, actually was the was probably selected as a fairly safe one; the new-moon day of Kärttika. The Párnimanta others being purely fictitious. northern arrangement, however, is barred in the
J. F. FLEET. present case by the points to which I have drawn attention above. And, in respect of the year PROGRESS OF EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIP. commencing with Margasiraha, as also of one
No. 4. commencing with Bhadrapada (August-Septem- Revue Critique d'Histoire et de Littérature ; ber), which Albfrant tells us, he found in use in 9th August 1886.-Review by M. Sylvain Lévi the vicinity of Kasmir," I think it is not im. of a compendious Sanskrit Grammar, by possible that he may really be only referring to Hjalmar Edgren (one of TYühner's simplified some particular sanatsaras of the Twelve-year grammars). The writer saye—"The foundation Cycle of Jupiter, commencing in those months. is the inestimable grammar of Whitney. The
Gen. Cunningham's proposals, therefore, will | author usually contents himself with follownot do. Nor will Dr. Bühler's interpretation of ing it, only departing from his model at chapters the date; for the reason that the text does not where he judges it to be too complicated. He include any word meaning "expired,' and there has modified the order of the declensions for for refers to Vikrama-Samvat 794 as, in the practical reasons, at the expense, however, of a literal and popular understanding, a current year. scientifio arrangement. After allowing for a few And though, for calculation, the year has to be errors of the press, the work remains good gram. treated as an expired one, yet that is only in wc. mar for the purposes for which it was written." cordance with the requirements of the Tables ; 25th October-Review of the Diwani At'imah, and the period covered by the southern Vikrama- the guatronomic poems of Maulana Abd. Ishaq Samvat 794, treated as expired by those Tables, Shirtzi, the cotton-carder; Persian text, Con • Bainaud'Pragmente Arabes et Pormans, p. 1451..
• ante, Vol. II. p. 1080., and Plate. Reinand'. Pragments Arabes et Person, p. 146.
