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OCTOBER, 1896.] ON THE DATES OF THE SAKA ERA IN INSCRIPTIONS.
from, the solar reckoning, notwithstanding the nominal use of solar months, is of little practical importance.23
271
As regards the civil beginning of the solar month, attention may perhaps be drawn to the date No. 392 of S. 1714 (Vol. XXIV. p. 4, No. 138), from which it appears that a day on which the samkranti took place, by the Arya-siddhânta, as late as 11 h. 54 m. after mean sunrise, was counted the first day of the solar month.23
Lunar Months.
Intercalary months. Intercalary months are distinctly quoted only in the regular dates Nos. 27, 28 and 96 of S. 1121 expired, 1145 expired, and 1355 current (Vol. XXIII. p. 117 ff.), and in the irregular date No. 188 of S. 1091 expired (Vol. XXIV. p. 15). In three of these four dates the name of the month (Âshâḍha, Sravana, and Bhadrapada) is qualified by the word dvitiya, and in one by prathama (pratham-Ashadha). But the months were intercalary also in other dates where this is not actually stated. Thus the month Sravana of the date No. 8 of S. 855 expired (Vol. XXII. p. 114) was the second Sravana; the month Jyaishtha of the date No. 71 of S. 1113 expired (ibid. p. 125) was the second Jyaishtha; the same month of the date No. 74 of S. 1189 expired (ibid. p. 125) was the first Jyaishtha; and the month Bhadrapada of the date No. 41 of S. 1332 expired (ibid. p. 119) was the first Bhadrapada. The true and intercalated months are nowhere distinguished by the terms nija and adhika.
The purnimanta and amanta schemes. With the exception of apparently four dates, the dates in dark fortnights of which we are able to give the exact European equivalents all work out satisfactorily with the amanta scheme of the lunar months. Omitting the dates from Cambodia,25 the earliest amánta date is that of the Paithan plates of the Rashtrakuta Govinda III. of S. 716 (Vol. XXIII. p. 131, No. 107), and the next that of the Radhanpur plates of the same king of S. 730 (ibid. No. 108). After that, the amúnta scheme is used throughout, except as it would seem, in a Balagâive inscription of the Western Chalukya Sômêsvara I. of S. 976 expired (ibid. p. 122, No. 56), and in a copper-plate inscription of Harihara II. of Vijayanagara of S. 1313 expired (ibid. No. 57). But there can hardly be any doubt that the wording of these two dates of S. 976 and S. 1313 is incorrect. With the universal agreement of all the other dates after S. 730, it would be impossible to admit that at the time of these two dates the purnimanta scheme could have been used in the localities where these dates come from; and we possess other dates both of Sômesvara 1.20 and of Harihara II. of Sômêsvara I. one other date of nominally the very same tithi29- which shew that the scheme of the months during their reigns was the amanta scheme. The probabilities, therefore, in my opinion, are that in the date of S. 976, as in another date of Sômêsvara I.,29 the day Sunday has been wrongly put down instead of Tuesday (which would make the date fall in the amanta Vaisakha), and that in the date of S. 1313 the month Vaisakha has been quoted erroneously instead of (the amúnta) Chaitra.
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The number of purnimanta dates is thus reduced to two only, one of which, of S. 534 (Vol. XXIII. p. 130, No. 106), is from a copper-plate inscription of the Western Chalukya Pulikêsin II., while the other, of E. 726 expired (ibid. p. 122, No. 55), is from a copper-plate inscription of the Rashtrakuta Govinda III. The first of these two dates we need not
26 Vol. XXIV. p. 7, Nos. 150 and 151. 28 Vol. XXIV. p. 7, No. 150.
22 The same conclusion may be drawn from the practice observed in dates of the Kollam era.
23 The date also shews that the beginning of the month was calculated by the Arya-siddhanta, not by the Sú rya-siddhanta.
24 This date shews that the system of intercalation followed in 3. 855 expired was the true system; for by the mean system of intercalation the day of the date, the 8th August A. D. 933, would have been the full-moon day of the first Bhadrapada (not of the second Srivana).
25 In Cambodia the aminta scheme was used in Ś, 589 (Vol. XXII. p. 122, No. 58), and, before that, in §. 548 (ante, Vol. XXI. p. 47).
27 Vol XXIII. p. 126, No. 77, and Vol. XXIV. p 203, No. 297. 29 Ib.d. No. 151.
