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NOTES AND QUERIES.
JANUARY, 1889.]
bright fortnight, on Thursday..
such, though they are not distinctly so qualified;
The (Hijra) year 801; the (Vikrama) year 1455; and (2) proves that the southern reckoning of in the Saka (year) 1321." the Vikrama era was preserved in Bihar down to A.D. 1399.
Here the data are :-The year 293 of the era of Lakshmanasêna, the Hijra year 801, and Vikrama. Samvat 1455 and Saka-Samvat 1321, not specified either as current or as expired; the month Bravana (ordinarily July-August); the bright fortnight; the seventh civil day, and the seventh tithi; and Guru, i.e. Guruvåra, or Thursday.
Since, in the absence of an examination of the original record, the correct Hijra year can only be established by inference, the most important item is the mention of Saka-Saivat 1321.
And this shews that we have to find the English equivalent in A.D. 1398 or 1399, according as the given Saka year is to be applied as current or as expired.
By Professor K. L. Chhatre's Tables, the results
are:
(1) In Saka-Samvat 1321 current, the given tithi, Sravana sukla 7, ended on Saturday, the 20th July, A.D. 1398, at about 55 ghatis, 50 palas, after mean sunrise, for Bombay.*
(2) And in Saka-Samvat 1322 current (1321 expired), the given tithi, Bravana sukla 7, ended, as required, on Thursday, the 10th July, A.D. 1399, at about 17 gh. 10 p.
This resulting date can be referred to the given Vikrama year, only if the latter, Vikrama-Samvat 1455, is taken as a southern Vikrama year, expired; and as really denoting the southern Vikrama-Samvat 1456 current, commencing with K&rttika sukla 1, corresponding approximately to the 12th October, A.D. 1398, and ending on the 30th September, A.D. 1399. For, the northern Vikrama-Samvat 1456 current (1455 expired), commencing with Chaitra éukla 1, extended approximately from the 19th March, A.D. 1398, to the 7th March, A.D. 1399, and had ended before the date in question.
This record, therefore,-(1) gives an instance of the use of an expired Baka year, and an expired Vikrama year; to be applied as
NOTES AND QUERIES.
PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE OF A BUFFALO IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. A Malay in Trong, Perak, wrote to the Assistant Resident as follows on the 19th March 1885:"Yourservant begs to inform your honour that on Saturday we will slaughter a white male-buffalo in Trong, to cleanse the kampong (village) of all evil, in accordance with the custom of the old people.
31
The charter is issued from the town of Gajarathapura; but I do not know the modern representative of this name. If the times should be reduced for the town of Bihar, they would be about 2 gh. 7 p. later in each
This date has been noticed by Gen. Sir A. Cunningham, in his Indian Fras, p. 77f. He gave the same result, Thursday, the 10th July A.D. 1399. But, instead of explaining it by the use of the southern scheme of the Vikrama year, he seems to have accepted a statement made by Buchanan, on the authority of a Brahman named Kamalakânta, to the effect that, in that part of the country, the Vikrama era was taken as commencing only one hundred and thirty-four years before the Saka era, instead of one hundred and thirty-five years, as is taken to be the case in Northern India generally. The meaning of this statement, unless it can be shewn to be limited to the period from Chaitra sukla 1 to the purnimanta Karttika or amanta Aévina krishna 15, is that, in the part of the country to which this record belongs, the reckoning of the Vikrama era, with the northern scheme of the year, is one year behind the reckoning in other parts of Northern India. And, on this view, the resulting English date would belong to the northern Vikrama Samvat 1455 expired or 1456 current, com. mencing with Chaitra sukla 1, corresponding approximately to the 8th March, A.D. 1399, and ending on the 25th February, A.D. 1400,-according to this supposed erroneous reckoning of the era. But any such reckoning could have really come to exist, or to seem to exist, only if the years of the Vikrama era, given in the Tables and Almanacs, were current years; which is not the case. And other instances will be forthcoming, which, taken all together, render it quite certain that the true explanation is that which I have put forward; viz. the preservation in Bihar and in neighbouring parts of Northern India of the southern scheme of the Vikrama year, commencing with Karttika sukla 1, at least as late as the end of the fourteenth century A.D. J. F. FLEET.
"If this is not done, then there will be less pad! (paddy) and perhaps more sickness. This is done once in six years. There is an abstinence from everything during this one day (22nd March Sunday). No persons from a distance can enter Trong on that day. In former times on such occasions the limit for people living close by is three days and people from any distance seven instance. This would not cause any difference in the resulting week-days, as determined for Bombay. C. Patell's Chronology, p. 156. Indian Eras, p. 183,
Indian Eras, p. 188.
