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94
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1893.
it first became popular amongst Baniyás and Kdyasthas, who began to write the poem in their own alphabet, the Kaithi. It was hence not improbable that the original reading was not Bharna-vára, but Saumya-vára, i. e. Wednesday, and that soumya subsequently became corrupted to bharma,- an easy transition in the Kaithí character. Later, however, I discovered that, while Tal'si Dås was in Ayodhyî, he was not a Vairagi Vaishnava, but a Smarta one. These Smårta Vaishṇavas are also great worshippers of Mahûdêva; thus, the poet himself writes in the Balakanda of the poem “Sambhu prasáda sumati hiya hulasi," and from this we gather that he counted the Rama navaní as falling on the Tuesday, according to the Saiva calculation. According to the Saivas the Ráma navami is calculated as the day whose midday falls on the ninth tithi, because Rama was born at midday, and not as the day on which the ninth tithi ends. Accordingly on the former day the festival of the Rama navami was held. Tul'si Das was unable to agree with the Vairagi Vaishnavas, as regards eating. They eat together, seated in a row, but he always cooked his food himself and ate separately, and it was owing to this disagreement that after composing the Bála, Ayodhya, and Aranya Kandas of his poem, he left Ayodhyâ and went to Banaras where he completed it, as appears from Fandand of the Kishkindhakanda.'
(6) Date of the composition of the Ram Sat'sdi. Authority, Sat. I. 21.
Ahi-rasand thana-dhému rasa
Ganapati-dwija Guru-bdra Mádhava sita Siya-janama-tithi
Sata-saiyá abatára 11 “The two) tongaes of a serpent, the (four) udders of a cow, the (six) flavours, the one task of Ganesa (i. e., Sam. 1642), Thursday, the lunar day in the light half of Vaisakha, which is the birthday of Sitâ (i. e., the ninth), is the date of writing the Sat-sal."
Here again difficulties arise, so I take the liberty of giving the calculations in full for the three possible cases (the Karttikádi current date, being the same as the Chaitrádi expired one).
Problem. To find the equivalent of Sambat) 1842, Vaibakhs sudi 9, Thursday. A. Sambat 1642 expired.
(a) Chaitrádi year,
Sam. 1642 expired = K, Y. 4686. KY. 4600 = (0) 17-60 15 [12] Ind. . = 21.08
86 years = (3) 2132 093 [1] Ind. su. 9 = .08 KY. 4686 = (3) 8.928 [13] 1 sol. Jyaishtha = (1) 29-50 52
(4) 8.42 60 [13]
0-57 14th April
(4) 8-99 28th April Therefore the 9th tathi expired just after sunrise on Wednesday, the 28th April, 1585 A.D., and was running on the preceding Tuesday.
• Similarly Krishna, having been born at midnight on the eighth of the dark half of Bhadrapada, Baivas hold the festival on the civil day (wunrise to sunrise) whose midnight falls on the eighth.
. Pandit Sudh Akar Drivedt points out that it is necessary, if the date is genuine, to asume it to be in the Vikrama Sambat though the word Bambat does not ooour in the date. If we take it masala date, the year is 1720, a contury after the death of our poet.
