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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
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year as a northern Šaka year commencing with Chaitra sukla 1, in each instance, by the heliacal-rising system, the given samvatsara actually was current on the given
date.
That the other system of the Twelve-Year Cycle, the mean-sign system, according to which the samvatsaras are determined by the passage of Jupiter from one sign of the zodiac into another, does not apply to the dates in these records, with the epoch of A D. 319-20, is shewn by the fact, as will be seen from the details for this system given below, that it gives correct results in only two cases out of the four by which any absolute proof can be established; viz. in the case of the grant B. dated in Gupta-Samvat 163, and in the case of the grant C. dated in Gupta-Samvat 191.
For the proof that Gen. Sir A. Cunningham's and Sir E. Clive Bayley's proposed epochs cannot be supported, either by the heliacal-rising system, or by the mean-sign system, which is the one that they sought to apply in support of their theories, I must refer to the fuller treatment of these dates in Corp. Inser. Indic. Vol. III. Introduction, page 101ff. The object of the present paper is only to shew how successfully the heliacal-rising system works out for these dates with the epoch of A.D. 319-20; and that the mean-sign system does not apply.
The date in the Bhumarâ pillar inscription, E. below, furnishes no definite proof in itself, because the current Gupta year is not mentioned in it; and consequently the given samvatsara could be proved equally well for epochs differing by a year or more, on either side, from the exact epochs that are being considered. We can only test it, in so far as to see whether, under any particular circumstances, the system fails, through an omission of the given suhvatsara.
See page 210f. above..
Here, and throughout, the year is treated as a northern year. But the details of these dates do not furnish any actual proof as to the purnimanta or amânta arrangement of the lunar fortnights.
i.e. throughout his heliacal rising. But the actual calculation is for his first daily rising after his becoming capable of rising heliacally.
It must be borne in mind that the Hindu tithi is coupled with the week-day on which it ends, after sunrise; and that the Hindu week-day is reckoned, with the civil day and night, from sunrise to sunrise; but the English week-day, and the civil date coupled with it, from midnight to midnight. In comparing Hindu and English dates, the only course is to take mean sunrise and mean midnight (60a.m. and 120 p.m. respectively), and to give, as the English equivalent, that week-day, with ita civil date, which is actually running during these eighteen hours, when of course the same week-day is running in India; i.e. the week-day which is identical for the greater part by both the English and the Hindu reckonings. And, if the difference in mean time between Greenwich and Ujjain, vis. 5 hours, 2 minutes, 52 seconds (using the same longi
[DECEMBER, 1888.
A. The Khôh Grant of the year 156. The first inscription is one of the Khoh Indic. Vol. III. No. 21, page 93; in which the grants of the Maharaja Hastin, Corp. Inscr. date (line Iff.) is-shatpañchâs-ôttare-bda-satê Gupta-nripa-rajya-bhuktau Mahâ-Vaisakha
sainvatsarê Kârttika-masa-sukla-paksha-tritîya
yâm,-"in a century of years increased by the fifty-sixth (year); in the enjoyment of sovereignty by the Gupta kings; in the MahaVaisakha samvatsara; on the third lunar day of the bright fortnight of the month Kârttika,"
This gives us, for calculation, the MahaVaisakha samvatsara, as current on the third tithi or lunar day of the bright fortnight of the month Karttika (October-November) in GuptaSamvat 156 current. And, on the analogy of the Verawal inscription of Valabhi-Samvat 945, this should be the case in Gupta-Samvat 156 +242 Saka-Samvat 398 current; in which year the given tithi corresponds to Sunday, the 19th October, A.D. 475.
Mr. Sh. B. Dikshit finds (see the accompanying Table, Col. A) that Jupiter's rising,' next before the given date, took place on Kârttika śukla 1 of the same year, Saka-Samvat 398 current, corresponding to Friday, the 17th October, A.D. 475; or, by the English calendar, on Saturday, the 18th October. His longitude then was 195° 24'. By both the systems of unequal spaces for the longitudes
tude for Ujjain, 75° 43', taken from Keith Johnston's Atlas, that is used by Mr. Sh. B. Dikshit for his calculations and for the Sayana- Pañching) be taken into consideration, of course the week-days of the two places are absolutely identical, except for the space of 57 minutas 8 seconds, or 2 ghatts 228 palas, at the end of the Hindu week-day; during that time, while at Ujjain a Hindu Thursday, for instance, is still running, at Greenwich the week-day will be Friday. Owing to this there may sometimes be a nominal discrepancy in the resulting English week-day for a given tithi; but the instances will be few and far between; as very few tithis will be found to end so late after sunrise; and the discrepancy will be confined mostly to such occurrences as the rising of Jupiter.-Jupiter's daily rising, next after his becoming capable of rising heliacally, takes place about forty-four minutes before sunrise, and therefore in the period during which the Hindu and the English week-days are not identical. In the present case it took place at the time in question before sunrise on the English Saturday, the 18th October. Karttika sukla 2 did not end till after sunrise on that day. Consequently, as current tithis are not quoted, unless under certain very exceptional conditions not applicable to such occurrences as this, the tithi on which he rose was Karttika sukla 1. And this tithi, ending after sunrise on the Friday (and before sunrise on the Saturday),, has to be coupled with Friday, the 17th October, as its week-day. Hence the apparent, but not actual, difference of a day, according as we take the Hindu or the English calendar. And a similar difference runs through all the dates of the heliacal risings given below.
