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DECEMBER, 1891.]
THE VIKRAMA ERA.
407
it was, down to V. 1400, styled the Vikrama era by poets only. In official documents the description of the era as Vikrama era is practically confined to the kingdom of Aṇhilvâd, and the inscriptions of the rulers of that kingdom show how the original expression sarvat, the year,' (in V. 1086) first became the vikrama-samvat, and was afterwards further amplified until about A. D. 1200, it had become the year of the era) established by the illustrious Vikramaditya.' In the language of both poetry and prose, what we may call the technical expressions Vikrama era' and 'year of the king Vikrauna' were preceded by the simpler or vaguer terms 'vikrama-time' and vikrama-year;' and my chronological list shows that, the later the dates, the more frequently were their years expressly referred to the Vikrama era.
This state of the case, in my opinion, certainly tends to show that the era was neither established by, nor designedly invented in memory, of, a king Vikramaditya. Had it been founded by a king Vikramaditya in 58 B. C., or had there existed any tradition to that effect, it would indeed be more than strange that no allusion should ever have been made to this for more than a thousand years afterwards. And had it been invented in memory of some great king, the name of that king would surely have been prominently mentioned in the earliest dates, and would not have been brought to our notice gradually and, as it were, hesitatingly, when the era had already been in use for at least five hundred years. Besides, it must be borne in mind (though on this I would lay little stress) that, independently of the fact that this era commences in 58 B, C., nothing has yet been brought forward to prove the existence of a king Vikramaditya in the century preceding the birth of Christ. And as regards the late Mr. Fergusson's theory, according to which the Brahmans, during the tenth or eleventh century A D., in memory of a king Vikramaditya, invented this era which they made to commence in A. D. 544, bnt for convenience of reckoning antedated 600 years, that theory, highly artificial as it was in itself, can no longer be upheld, because we now possess at least two (contemporaneous) dates which are anterior to A. D. 544.7
The reason why the era in later times was joined with the name of a king Vikrama, has therefore still to be sought; and, as suggested by the dates, the question in the first instance would appear to be, how and in which sense the word vikrama originally came to be connected with the years of the era.
We have seen above that the greater number of early dates which admit of verification belong to southern (Karttikadi) years, and have arrived at the conclusion that this reckoning by Kárttikadi years was a distinguishing feature of the Vikrama era. While the "Saka year began with the month Chaitra (March-April), the Vikrama year originally commenced with the month Kirttika (October-November); the former began in spring, the Vikrama year began in autumn.
Now autumn (sarad) in India was the season when kings went out to war; autumn was pre-eminently the Vikrama-kala. This the poets knew as well as the authors of the Niti- and Dharma-sástras, and are never tired of impressing on us. In the Rámáyana Rama says to Sagriva :10 -
This is the month of Sråvan, first Of those that see the rait-clouds burst.
See Professor Max Miller's India, what can it teach us?, p. 284: "The whole theory would collapse if one single coin or stone could be produced dated (contemporaneously) A. D. 043."
See Mr. Fleet's Gupta Inscriptions, Introduction, P. 66, note 2: "It can hardly be doubted that the original scheme of the Vikrams yours is the one commencing with the first day of the bright fortnight of Karttika." I cannot quite concur in the remark of Mr. Fleet that the counting of the era by autumna is worth noting "as being one of the points which identify the MAlava era with the Vikrama era;" for the word larad also occurs in dates of other eras, and its employment is due to the fact that the writers of the dates
Professor Geldner draws my attention to the fact that already in the Rigveda Indra destroys the strongholda of the demons in autumn. Compare Rigveda, i, 131, 4; 174, 2; ii, 12, 11 ; vi, 20, 10. - According to Varahamihira's Brihatsamhita, xliv, 1 and 2, the lastration of horses, elephants, and troops (preparatory to going out to war), is to take place on the eighth, twelfth, or fifteenth of the bright half of Karttika or Asvayuja...
10 See the Kishkindhakanda, xxvi, 14-17, and XXI, 60-61. I quote above from Mr. Griffith's Translation
