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410
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1891.
point to my lists in which, out of 200 dates, no less than 45 (Nos. 151-195) have been put down as irregular. But a more careful examination will show that the case is not as bad as it appears, at first sight. For of what I have called irregular dates, two (Nos. 158 and 159) are really regular, 10 and seven others (Nos. 151-157) are shown to be regular, when calculated by the proper Siddhanta which the writer of the date must be supposed to have followed; and in the case of eight other dates (Nos. 160-167) the irregularity is simply owing to the facts that the dates either are partly illegible or that they were misread by those who first deciphered them. Thus the number of irregular dates would already be reduced from 45 to 28. And, out of these again eight (Nos. 168-175) are termed irregular solely because the tithi apparently is joined in them, not with the day on which it ended, but with the day on which it commenced. Now we know that a tithi often must be joined with the day on which it commences, and in the case of some of these so-called irregular dates we can already now point out the exact rule by which it has actually been so treated. The whole subject of what may be called current tithis is indeed so intricate and offers to the Hindus themselves so great difficulties that it cannot be treated here incidentally and for the Vikrama dates alone; but what I have seen of it would certainly for the present make me suspend my judgment in cases where the civil day would seem to have been joined with the tithi commencing on it, and I would therefore not venture to say that any of the dates 168-175 are really incorrect.
Accordingly there remain altogether 20 dates (Nos. 176-195) which there seem to be good reasons for considering as wholly or partly faulty. Out of this number no less than fifteen dates occur in copper-plate inscriptions, two (Nos. 177 and 189) are dates of stone inscriptions, two (Nos. 182 and 195) are in verses recording the times when certain literary works were composed, and one (No. 186) is a date of a MS. Here the comparatively large number of apparently incorrect dates met with in copper-plate grants 15 out of 45 dates of copper-plate inscriptions which my list contains- must strike us as very remarkable and, considering the general correctness of other dates, one cannot help suspecting that some at least of the documents which contain those incorrect dates must be forgeries.
Years of other eras, quoted along with the Vikrama years :--In addition to the Vikrama year, ten of the calculated dates (Nos. 20, 22, 23, 25, 30, 43, 45, 48, 119, and 200) also quote the corresponding Saka year, once (in No. 20) incorrectly. I have already mentioned that the earliest and only ancient date of this description occurs in the Dêôgadh stone inscription of Bhôjadê va of Kanauj of V. 919 (No. 30), and that after that time the Saka year is not quoted again along with the Vikrama year till V. 1439 (No. 43). One of the ten dates (No. 119 of V. 1717) quotes, besides the 'Saka year, also the corresponding Saptarshi year, here described as the Sastra year; and the same Saptarshi year is quoted also with the Vikrama year only, in the date No. 94. Two dates, of V. 1202 and 1266 (No. 108 and No. 9) quote the Simha year; and the well-known Veraval date of V. 1320 (No. 129) quotes not only the Simha, but also the Muhammadan (Hijra) and Valabhi years. Besides, the date No. 261 of the chronological list, of V. 1652, quotes the Allai (or Ilâhi) year to which the day of the date belcaged. As regards the Vikrama year itself, it may be mentioned here that the four dates Nos. 23, 47, 101, and 167 of the list of calculated dates are expressly referred to the Ashadhadi Vikrama year, of which I have treated separately ante, Vol. XVIII. p. 251.20
Jupiter years quoted along with the Vikrama years: - Jupiter years are quoted in only sixteen dates of my list, and it is a remarkable fact and one which well accords with the original practical character of the Vikrama era, that none of these dates is earlier than V. 1232 (No. 163). With the exception of one quite modern date from the Kanarese country (No. 200 of V. 1841), the systems followed are the so-called northern systems. In three dates, of V.
10 On the dates Nos. 158 and 159 see my remarks on 'repeated tithis,' below.
20 The Ashaḍhâdi Vikrama year 1574 is quoted in the date of a MS., described by Professor A. A. Macdonell in the preface of his edition of Katyfyana's Sarvánukramant, p. xiii.
