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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1891.
Here again, if from this point of view we look at the results of onr calculations of some of the early dates, it may perhaps seem doubtful whether our calculation has yielded in every case the only possible or the true equivalent of the original date. The year 898 of our earliest regular date (No. 57) undoubtedly is a southern year. The year 919 of the second date (No. 30) is a northern expired year, but here it may be noted that this year is also described as the Saka year 784, a fact which will appear the more remarkable, when I say that down to V. 1439 this is the only instance in which the corresponding Saka year is mentioned by the side of the. Vikrama year in any date of my lists, and which might well be taken to account somehow or, other for the employment of the northern year. The third date, of the year 960 (No. 110) wouid by the strict results of my calculations be a purnimánta date of a northern expired year; but when we consider that in the southern expired year, with the amunta scheme, the tithi of the date commenced exactly at sunrise of the weekday mentioned by the date and ended only 51 min. after mean sunrise of the next day, we may well ask whether such a result, for the southern expired year, should not be regarded as satisfying the requirements of the case equally well. The 4th, 5th and 6th dates, of the years 962, 994 and 1011 (Nos. 58, 133 and 59), are all dates in southern years. The 7th date, again of the year 1011 (No. 111), is by the results of my calculations a púrnimánta date of a northern expired year; but here too the tithi of the date, with the amanta scheme, ended in the southern expired year only 26 minutes after sunrise of the day following the weekday of the date, so that what has been said above of the third date, would here also be applicable. The 8th and 9th dates, of the years 1042 and 1084 (Nos, 31 and 112), are dates in northern expired years; and the 10th 11th, 12th and 13th dates, of the years 1100, 1139, 1154 and 1192 (Nos. 134, 60, 61 and 125), all belong again to southern expired years, I need not continue this enumeration further; enough has been said to show that the number of early dates in northern years is perhaps even smaller than appears at first sight. Besides, it must not be forgotten that, so far as the present question is concerned, the northern expired year is really equivalent to the southern current year, and that there is no stringent reason why, in one or other of the above dates which are here taken as dates in northern expired years, the writer should not be considered to have quoted, exceptionally, a current southern year.
The terms southern and northern ' years, which are usually employed to denote years commencing with the months Kârttika and Chaitra, would naturally lead one to suppose that the Kárttikddi reckoning had always been prevalent in the south and the Chaitrádi reckoning in the north of India. To show how entirely wrong such a supposition would be, and to prove that, whatever may be the practice of quite modern times, down to about the 14th century of the Vikrama era both kinds of years have been used over exactly the same tracts of country, I put before the reader all regular dates, the nature of whose years we are able to determine, from rocks and stones, most of which undoubtedly have always remained at the places where the dates were first engraved on them. What I would conclude from these lists, is, that the use of the so-called southern year was indeed discontinued in northern India about the end of the 14th century, but that before that time the southern year was used in the north much more frequently than the northern year. In my opinion it would be well to discard the terms southern' and 'northern' years altogether, and to call the years, what they really are, Kárttikádi and Chaitrádi years.
Dates on rocks and stones, in southern (Karttiddi) years :
in northern (Chaitrddi) years : V. 898 (No. 57) Dholpur, Northern Rajputång. v. 919 (No. 30) Déôgadh, Gwalior ; [Saka 7847. V. 994 (No. 133) Siyadoni, N. W. Provinces. V. 960 (No. 110) Têrahi, Gwalior; V. 1011 (No. 59) Khajuraho, Bundelkhand.
[perhaps southern]. V. 1100 (No. 134) Byånd, Northern Rajputâna. y. 1011 (No. 111) Amber, North. Räjputana; V. 1154 (No. 61) Déôgadh, Gwalior.
[perhaps southern). V. 1192 (No. 125) Kalanjar, Bundelkhand. V. 1194 (No. 113) Kalasjar, Bundelkhand.
