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162
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
JUNE, 1911,
THE KALIYUGA, YUDHISTHIRA AND BHARATAYUDDHA ERAS.
BY 8, P. L. NARASIMHA STAMI, Esq.; VIZAGAPATAM. THE usua) eras, by which our Hindus assign dates to events are, like the Christian era of the West, the Vikramarka and Salivahana, otherwise known as Sasivat and Saka respectively. OT these, the latter begins 78 years after and the former 56 years before the Christian era. So when they had to deal with events before the commencement of the Vikrama era, they did not adopt the system of retrograde calculation, but used other eras which began many thousand years before it. Two of these are the Yuddhishthira era and Kaliyuga. Besides these the same writers reckoned their dates according to yet another era, which we can rightly call the Bharatayuddha era like the Anus Urbis Candite of the Romans. One understands the importance of these eras to the history of India, when one comes to know that the Kashmir chronology of the Rljatarangini, the Magadha chronology as well as the chronicles of the solar and lunar races of the Purdņas—these and other chapters of the ancient history of India--chiefly base themselves on the abovenamed ancient eras. Moreover, as deeper and deeper researches are made into the history of our land, the importance of these ancient eras increases considerably
At present, however, our modern astrologers and others make use only of the Kaliyuga along with Vikramärka and Sálivdhana eras. But they have certain data from which they can calculate the other two ancient eras, ris., Yudhishthira and Bharataynddha kála, and the data are such that the results of their calculation show that these eras are identical with Kaliyuga in respect of their beginning. For instance, taking the year A.D. 1901-2, it is dated 1823 Saka and 5002 Kali. Therefore, Saka begins with Kali 3180. Again, they say that the year, according to the Yudhishthira era, is obtained by adding 3044 to the Vikrama Sarvat which, in its turn, is got by adding 135 to the Saka date. This, we learn from the following of Panchanga-saran :
अस्मिन् कलियुगे पद शका वर्तन्ते
युधिष्ठिरो विक्रम-शालिवाहनौ ततो नृपस्स्याविजयाभिनन्दनः।
ततस्तु नागार्जुनभूपतिः कलिः कलौ युगे षट् सककालवत्सराः ।। एतेषां प्रमाणाब्दाः
T IP TAT: ) TEAT-a:[134] ucllenaar: (360ooli watsya [ 2006 ]
[ Y0000] Tarawe [RO] FANT: T oer: 11 So the date of the Yudhishthira era also is obtained by adding 3179 to the Saka year : i.e.. the Saka begins with the 3180th year of the Yudhishthira era. Again, on a hill near Aihole, Bijapur District (Bombay Presidency), there is an inscription,' in a Jaina temple of Pulsker II, of the Chalukya family, in which it is stated that the temple was erected 8735 years after the Mababharata battle and when 556 years of the Saka era had passed. The verses of the inscription run thus:
त्रिंशतमु त्रिसहस्रेषु भारताबाहवादितः । समाब्दशतयुक्तषु गतेष्वनेषु पञ्चम [ ३०३५] ॥ 9 Meyrare 994 ) समासु समतीतासु शकानामपि भूभुजाम् [५५६] ।।
Ep. Ind., Vol. VI, pp. 7 and 12.
