HISTORY OF JYOTISHA 2

 

II.          Ea~~s As far as the available evidence goes (and we have no reason to expect

to discover anything opposed to it), any use of eras, in the sense of continuous

reckonings which originated in historical occurrences or astronomical epochs and

were employed for official and other public chronological purposes, did not

prevail in India before the 1st century B.C. Prior to that time, there existed,

indeed, in conn.exion with the sacrificial calendar, a five-years lunisolar

cycle, and possibly some extended cycles of the same nature; and there was in

Buddhist circles a record of the years elapsed since the death of Buddha, which

we shall mention again further on. But, as is gathered from books and is well

illustrated by the e3icts of AiOka (reigned 264227 B.C.) and the inscriptions of

other rulers, the years of the reign of each successive king were found

sufficient for the public dating of pro~ clamations and the record of events.

There is no known case in which any Indian. kin.g, of really ancient times,

deliberately applied himself to the foundation. of an era: and we have no reason

for thinking that such a thing was ever done, or that any Hindu reckoning at all

owes its existence to a recognition of historical requirements. The eras which

came into existence \Ve illustrate the ordinary occurrences. But there are

others. Thus, a repeated ti/hi may occasionally be followed by a suppressed one:

in this case the numbering of the civil days would be 6, 7, 7,9, &c., instead of

6, 7, 7, 8, 9, &c. Or it may occasionally be preceded by a suppressed one: in

this case the numbering would be 5, 7, 7, 8, &c., instead of 5, 6, 7, 7,8, &c.

from the 1st century B.C. onwards mostly had their origin in the fortuitous

extension of regnal reckonings. The usual course has been that, under the

influence of filial piety, pride in allcestry, loyalty to a paramount sovereign,

or some other such motive, the successor of some king continued the regnal

reckoning of hir predecessor, who was not necessarily the first king in the

dynasty, and perhaps did not even reign for any long time, instead of starting a

new reckoning, beginning again with the year I, according to the years of his

own reign.. Having thus run for two reigns, the reckoning was sufficiently well

established to continue in the same form, and to eventually develop into a

generally accepted local era, -which might or might not be taken over by

subsequent dynasties ruling afterwards over the same territory. In these

circumstances, we find the establisher of any particular era in that king who

first continued his predecessors regnal reckoning, instead of replacing it by

his own; but we regard as the founder of the era that king whose regnal

reckoning was so continued. We may add here that it was only in. advanced stages

that any of the Hindu eras assumed specific names:

during the earlier period Of each of them, the years were simply cited by the

term saiiivatsara or vars/za, the year (bearing suchand-such a number), or by

the abbreviations sathvat an.d sam, without any appellative designation.

The Hindus have had two religious reckonings, which it will be convenien.t to

notice first. Certain., statements in. the Ceylonese chronicles, the Dfpava,iisa

an.d Mahvathsa, The Budendorsed by an entry in a record of Moka, show that in

dh!st and the 3rd century B.C. there existed among the Buddhists Jai~

a record of the time elapsed since the death of Buddha ligiouS in 4~3 B.C., from

which it was known that Aioka was anointed to the sovereignty 218 years after

the death. The reckoning, however, was confined to esoteric Buddhist circles,

and did not commend itself for any public use; and the only known inscriptional

use of it, which also furnishes the latest known date recorded in it, is found

in. the Last Edict of AfOka, which presents his dying speech delivered in 226

B.C., 256 years after the death of Buddha. In Ceylon, where, also the original

reckoning was not maintained, there was devised in the 12th century A.D. a

reckoning styled Buddhavarsha, the years of Buddha, which still exists, and

which purports to run from the death of Buddha, but has set up an. erroneous

date for that event in 544 B.C. This later reckoning spread from Ceylon to Burma

and Siam, where, also, it is still used. It did not obtain any general

recognition in India, because, when it was devised, Buddhisn~ had practically

died out there, except at Bodh-Gayh. But, as there seems to have been constant

intercourse between Bodh-Gaya and Ceylon as well as other foreign Buddhist

countries, we should not be surprised to find an occasional instance of its use

at Bodh-Gaya: and it is believed that one such instance, belonging to A.D. 1270,

has been obtain.ed.

TheJains have had, and still maintain, a reckoning from the death of the founder

of their faith, Vira, MahbvIra, Vardharn~na, which event is placed by them in

528 B.c. This reckoning figures largely in the Jam books, which put forward

dates in it for very early times. But the earliest known synchronous date in

itby which we mean a date given by a writer who recoided the year in which he

himself was writingis one of the year 980, or, according to a different view

mentioned in the passage itself, of the year 993. This reckon.ing, again, did

not commend itself for any official or other public use. And the only known

inscriptional instances of the use of it are modern ones, of the I9th century.

While it is certain that the Jam reckoning, as it exists1 has its initial point

in 528 B.C. it has not yet been determined whether that is actually the year in

which VIra died. All that can be said on this point is that the date is not

inconsistent with certain statements in Buddhist books, which mention, by a

Prak~it name of which the Sanskfit form is Nirgrantha-Jnataputra, a contemporary

of Buddha, in whom there is recognized the original of the Jam VIra, Mahgvira,

or Vardhamgna, and who, the same books say, died while Buddha was still alive.

But there are some indications that Nirgrantha-Jnhtaputra may have died only a

short time before Buddha himself; and the evert may easily have been set back to

528 B.C. in circumstances, attending a determination of the reckoning long after

the occurrence, analogous to those in which the Ceylonese Buddbavarsha set up

the erroneous date of 544 n.e. for the death of Buddha.

In the class of eras of royal origin, brought into existence in the manner

indicated above, the Hindus have had varrous reckonings which have now mostly

fallen into disuse. We may Bygone mention them, without giving them the detailed

treat&RS of ment which the more important of the still existing roYal reckonings

demand.

orIgin. The Kalachuri or Chdi era, commencing rn Ad). 248

or 249, is known best from inscriptional records, bearing dates which range from

the Ioth to the 13th century A.D., of the Kalachuri kings of the ChCdi country

in Central India; and it is from them that it derived the name under which it

passes. In earlier times, however, we find this era well established, without

any appellation, in Western India, in Gujart and the Thaoa district of Bombay,

where it was used by kings and princes of the Chalukya,Gurjara, Senclraka,

Katachchuri and TraikUtaka families. It is traced back there to AD. 457, at

which time there was reigning a Traiktaka king named Dahrasena. Beyond that

point, we have at present no certain knowledge about it. But it seems probable

that the founder of it may be recognized in an Abhira king I~vagasna, or else in

his father Sivadatta, who was reigning at Ngsik in or closely about A.D~ 24849.

The Gupta era, commencing in A.D. 320, was founded by Chandragupta 1., the first

paramount lting in the great Gupta dynasty of Northern India. When the Guptas

passed away, their reckoning was taken over by the Maitraka kings of Valabhi,

who succeeded them in KAthiftwr and some of the neighboring territories; and so

it became also known as the Valabhi era.

From Halsi in the Be~gaum district, Bombay, we have a record of the Kadaniba

king Kkusthavarman, which was framed during the time when he was the Vuvarja or

anointed successor to the sovereignty, and may be referred to about AD. 500. It

is dated in the eightieth victorious year, and thus indicates the preservation

of a reckoning running from the foundation of the Kadamba dynasty by

Mayuravarman, the great-grandfather of Kakusthavarman. But no other evidence of

the existence of this era has been obtained.

The records of the Gahga kings of Kalingariagara, which is the modern

Mukhalingam-Nagarikatakam in the Ganjftm district, Madras, show the existence of

a Ganga era which ran for at any rate 254 years. And various details in the

inscriptions enable us to trace the origin of the Gahga kings to Western India,

and to place the initial point of their reckoning in AD. 590, when a certain

Satyairaya-Dhruvaraja-lndravarman, an ancestor and probably the grandfather of

the first Gflnga king Rjasirnha-Indravarman I., commenced to govern a large

province in the Koflka~ under the Chalukya king Kirtivarman I.

An era commencing in A.D. 605 or 606 was founded in Northern India by the great

king Harshavardhana, who reigned first at Thaoesar and then at Kanauj, and who

was the third sovereign in a dynasty which traced its origin to a prince named

Naravardhana. A peculiarity about this era is that it continued in use for

apparently four centuries after Harshavardhana, in spite of the fact that his

line ended with him.

The inscriptions assert that the Western Chalukya king Vikrama or Vikramgditya

VI. of Kalyaoi in the Nizams dominions, who reigned from AD. i076 to 1126,

abolished the use of the ~aka era in his dominions in favor of an era named

after himself. What he or his ministers did was to adopt, for the first time in

that dynasty, the system of regnal years, according to which, while the ~aka era

also remained in use, most of the records of his time are dated, not in that

era, but in the year so-and-so of the Chalukya-Vikrama-ka!a or

Chlukya-Vikrama-varsha, the time or years of the Chalukya Vikrama. There is some

evidence that this reckoning survived Vikramaditya VI. for a short time. But his

successors introduced their own regnal reckonings; and that prevented it from

acquiring permanence.

In Tirhut, there is still used a reckoning which is known as the LakshmanasCna

era from the name of the king of Bengal by whom it was founded. There is a

difference of opinion as to the exact initial point of this reckoning; but the

best conclusion appears tc be that which places it in A.D. 1119. This era

prevailed at onc time throughout Bengal: we know this from a passage in thc

Akbarnama, written in A.D. 1584, which specifies the Saka era a~ the reckoning

of Gujart and the Dekkan, the Vikrama era as th reckoning of Malwa, Delhi, and

those parts, and the Lakshmai~asni era as the reckoning of Bengal.

The last reckoning that we have to mention here is one knowr as the

Rgjygbhisheka-~aka, the era of the anointment to th sovereignty, which was in

use for a time in Western India. Ii dated from the day Jyaish~ha fukla 13 of the

~aka year 1597 current =6 June, AD. 1674, when ~~ivaji, the founder of the

Marthl kingdom, had himself enthroned.

There are four reckonings which it is difficult at present to claa exactly. Two

inscriptions of the 15th and 17th centuries, recenth brought to notice from

Jesalmer in Rajputana, present a reckonin~ which postulates an initial point in

AD. 624 or in the precedin~ or the following year, and bears an appellation,

BhAtika, -

which seems to be based on the name of the Bhatti Mh.celtribe, to which the

rulers of Jesalmer belong. No histori- 1.9~edih cal event is known, referable to

that time, which can have given rise to an era. It is possible that the apparent

initial date represents an epoch, at the end of the Saka year 546 or

thereabouts, laid down in some astronomical work composed then or soon

after-wards and used in the Jcsalmer territory. But it seems more probable that

it is a purely fictitious date, set up by an attempt to evolve an early history

of the ruling family.

In the Tinnevelly district of Madras, and in the territories of the same

presidency in which the Malayalam language prevails, namely, South Kanara below

Mangalore, the Malahar district, and the Cochin and Travancore states, there is

used a reckoning which is known sometimes as the Kollam or Kolamha reckoning,

sometimes as the era of Para~urema. The years of it are solar: in the southern

parts of the territory in which it is current, they begin with the month

Sirtiha; in the northern parts, they begin with the next month, Kanya. The

initial point of the reckoning is in AD. 825; and the year 1076 commenced in

A.D, 1900. The popular view about this reckoning is that it consists of cycles

of 1000 years; that we are now in the fourth cycle; and that the reckoning

originated in 1176 n.c. with the mythical Paraiurama, who exterminated the

Kshatriya or warrior caste, and reclaimed the Kohkan countries, Western India

below the Ghauts, from the ocean. But the earliest known date in it, of the year

149, falls in A.D. 973; and the reckoning has run on,in continuation of the

thousand, instead of beginning afresh in A.D. 1825. It seems probable,

therefore, that the reckoning had no existence before A.D. 825. The years are

cited sometimes as the Kollam year (of such-and-such a number), sometimes as the

year (so-and-so) after Kollam appeared; and this suggests that the reckoning may

possibly owe its origin to some event, occurring in A.D. 825, connected with one

or other of the towns and ports named Kollam, on the Malabar coast; perhaps

Northern Kollam in the Malabar district, perhaps Southern Kollam, better known

as Quilon, in Travancore. But the introduction of Para4urgma into the matter,

which would carry hack (let us say) the foundation of Kollam to legendary times,

may indicate, rather, a purely imaginative origin. Or, again, since each century

of the Kollam reckoning begins in the same year A.D. with a century of the

Saptarshi reckoning (see below under III. Other Reckonings), it is not

impossible that this reckoning may be a southern offshoot of the Saptarshi

reckoning, or at least may have had the same astrological origin.

In Nepal there is a reckoning, known as the Nwgr era and commencing in A.D. 879,

which superseded the Gupta and Harsha eras there. One tradition. attributes the

foundation of it to a king Raghavadeva; another says that, in the time and with

the permission of a king Jayadevamalla, a merchant named SflkhwCl paid off, by

means of wealth acquired from sand which turned into gold, all the debts then

existing in the country, and introduced the new era in commemoration of the

occurrence. It is possible that the era may have been founded by some ruler of

Nepal: but nothing authentic is known about the particular names mentioned in

connection with it. This era appears to have been discarded for state and

official purposes, in favor of the Saka era, in AD. 1768, when the GUrkhas

became masters of Nepal; but manuscripts show that in literary circles it has

remained in use up to at any rate AD. 1875.

Inscriptions disclose the use in Kgthiwgr and Gujart, in the 12th and 13th

centuries, of a reckoning, commencing in A.D. 1114, which is known as the

Sithha-sarhvat. No historical occurrence is known, on which it can have been

based; and the origin of it is obscure.

The eras mentioned above have for the most part served their purposes and died

out. But there are three great Three reckonings, dating from a very respectable

antiquity, great which have held their own and survived to the present Eras in

day. These are the Kaliyuga, Vikrama, and Saka eras. general It will be

convenient to treat the Kaliyuga first, though, use. in spite of having the

greatest apparent antiquity, it is the latest of the three in respect of actual

date of origin. -

The Kaliyuga era is the principal astronomical reckoning 01 the Hindus. It is

frequently, if not generally, shown in tht almanacs: but it can hardly be looked

upon as being The sCat!. now in practical use for civil purposes; and, as

regards yuga Era the custom of previous times as far as we can judge it of 3102

from the inscriptional use, which furnishes a good E.C.

guide, the position is as follows: from Southern India wc have one such instance

of A.D. 634, one of A.D. 770, three of thi roth century, and then, from the 12th

century onwards, bu:

more particularly from the 14th, a certain number of instances not exactly very

small in itself, but extremely so in comparisof with the number of cases of the

use of the Vikrama and Saka eras and other reckonings: from Northern India the

earliest known instance of is AD. 1169 or 1170, and the later ones number only

four. Its years are by nature sidereal solar years, commencing with the

Msha-sa1hkr~nti, the entrance of the sun into the Hindu constellation and sign

Msha, i.e. Aries (for this and other technical details, see above, under the

Calendar); i but they were probably cited as lunar years in the inscriptional

records which present the reckoning; and the almanacs appear to treat them

either as ?vIsh~di civil solar years with solar months, or as Chaitradi lunar

years with lunar months amanta (ending with the new-moon) or pur~zimanta (ending

with the full-moon) as the case may be, according to the locality. Its initial

point lies in 3102 B.c.; and the year 5002 began in A.D. 2900.2

This reckoning is not an historical era, actually running from 3102 s.c. It was

devised for astronomical purposes at some time I about A.D. 400, when the Hindu

astronomers, having taken over the principles of the Greek astronomy, recognized

that they required for purposes of computation a specific reckoning with a

definite initial occasion. They found that occasion in a conjunction of the sun,

the moon, and the five planets which were then known, at the first point of

their sign Msha. There was not really such a conjunction; nor, apparently, is it

even the case that the sun ~was actually at the first point of Msha at the

moment arrived at. But there was an approach to such a conjunction, which was

turned into an actual conjunction by taking the mean instead of the true

positions of the sun, the moon, and the planets. And, partly from the reckoning

which has come down to us, partly from the astronomical hooks, we know that the

moment assigned to the assumed conjunction was according to one school the

midnight between Thursday the 17th, and Friday the 18th, February, 3102 B.C.,

and according to another school the sunrise on the Friday.

The reckoning thus devised was subsequently identified with the Kaliyuga as the

iron age, the last and shortest, with a duration of 432,000 years, of the four

ages in each cycle of ages in the Hindu system of cosmical periods. Also,

traditional history was fitted to it by one school, represented notably by the

Pur~as, which, referring the great war between the Pgiilavas and the Kurus,

which is the topic of the Mahbhrata, to the close of the preceding age, the

Dvgpara, placed on the last day of that age the culminating event which ushered

in the Kali age; isamely, the death of Krishi~a (the return to heaven of Vishnu

on the termination of his incarnation as Krishi~ia), which was followed by the

abdication of the P~dava king Yudhishthira, who, having installed his

grand-nephew Parikshit as his successor, then set out on his own journey to

heaven. Another school, however, placed the Par4avas and the Kurus 653 years

later, in 2449 B.C. A third school places in 3102 B.c. the anointment of

Yudhishthira to the sovereignty, and treats that event as inaugurating the Kali

age; from this point of view, the first 3044 years of the Kaliyugathe period

from its commencement in 3102 B.c. to the commencement of the first historical

era, the so-called Vikrama era, in 58 B.c.are also known as the era of

Yudhishthira.

The Vikrama era, which is the earliest of all the Hindu eras in respect of order

of foundation, is the dominant era and the The vik- great historical reckoning

of Northern Indiathat rama Era is, of the territory on the north of the rivers

Narbad af.58 and Mahanadito which part of the country its use B. C. has always

been practically confined. Like, indeed, the Kaliyuga and Saka eras, it is

freely cited in almanacs in any part of India; and it is sometimes used in the

south by immigrants from the north: but it is, by nature, so essentially foreign

to the south that the earliest known inscriptional instance of the use of it in

Southern India only dates from AD. 1218, and the very few later instances that

have been obtained, prior to the i5th century AD., come, along with the instance

of AD. 1218, from the close neighborhood of the dividing-line between the It is

always to be borne in mind that, as already explained, while the Hindu Mesha

answers to our Aries, it does not coincide with either the sign or the

constellation Aries.

2 We select AD. 1900 as a gauge-year, in preference to the year in which we are

writing, because its figures are more convenient for comparative purposes. In

accordance with the general tendency of the Hindus to cite expired years, the

almanacs would mostly show 5001 (instead of 5002) as the number for the Kaliyuga

year answering to A.D. 1900-1901. And, for the same reason, this reckoning has

often been called the Kaliyuga era of 3101 B.c. There is, perhaps, no particular

objection to that, provided that we then deal with the Vikrama and Saka eras on

the same lines, and bear in mind that in each case the initial point of the

reckoning really lies in the preceding year. But we prefer to treat these

reckonings with exact correctness.

north and the south. The Vikrama era has never been used for astronomical

purposes. Its years are lunar, with lunar months, but seem liable to be

sometimes regarded as solar, with solar months, when they are cited in almanacs

of Southern India which present the solar calendar. Originally they were

Kgrttik~di, with pur~iimanta months (ending with the full-moon). They now exist

in the following three varieties: in Kgthigwar and Gujart, they are chiefly

Krttikdi, with amdnta months (ending with the new-moon); and they are shown in

this form in almanacs for the other parts of the Bombay Presidency:

but there is also found in Kgthiawar and that neighborhood an Ashalhadi variety,

commencing with Ashtidha iukla 1, similarly with amnta months; in the rest of

Northern India, they are Chaitrgdi, with prl.iimdnta. months. The era has its

initial point in 58 B.C., and its first civil day, Krttika ~ukla I, is 19th

September in that year if we determine it with reference to the Hindu

Tul-sathkrinti, or 18th October if we determine it with reference to the

tropical equinox. The years of the three varieties, Chaitrdi, Ashadhgdi, and

Karttikgdi, all commence in the same year A.D.; and the year 1958 began in AD.

1900.

Hindu legend connects the foundation of this era with a king Vikrama or

Vikramitditya of Ujiain in Mglwg, Central india: one version is that he began to

reign in 58 s.c.; another is that he died in that year, and that the reckoning

commemorates his death. Modern research, however, based largely on the

inscriptional records, has shown that there was no such king, and that the real

facts are very different. The era owes its existence to the Kushan king

Ka~ishka, a foreign invader, who established himself in Northern India and

commenced to reign there in s.c. 58. He was the founder of it, in the sense that

the opening years of it were the years of his reign. It was established and set

going as an era by his successor, who continued the reckoning so started,

instead of breaking it by introducing another according to his own regnal years.

And it was perpetuated as an era, and transmitted as such to posterity by the

Malavas, the people from whom the modern territory Mlwg derived its name, who

were an important section of the subjects of Kaoishka and his successors. In

consonance with that, records ranging in date from AD. 473 to 879 style it the

reckoning of the Mglavas, the years of the Malaya lords, the Malaya time or era.

Prior to that, it had no specific name; the years of it were simply cited, in

ord1nary Hindu fashion, by the term sainvatsara, the year (of such-and-such a

number), or by its abbreviations saivat and sash: and the same was frequently

done in later times also, and is habitually done in the present day; and so, in

modern times, this era has often been loosely styled the Sathvat era. The idea

of a king Vikrama in connection with it appears to date from only the 9th or

ioth century A.D.

The Saka era, though it actually had its origin in the southwest corner of

Northern India, is the dominant era and the great historical reckoning of

Southern India; that is, of the territory below the rivers NarhadS. and The ~aka

Mahanadi. It is also the subsidiary astronomical ~~078. reckoning, largely used,

from the 6th century A.D.

onwards, in the Kara~as, the works dealing with practical details of the

calendar, for laying down epochs or points of time furnishing convenient bases

for computation. As a result of that, it came to be used in past times for

general purposes also, to a limited extent, in parts of Northern India where it

was not indigenous.

MATERIAL FOR BA PART 2 PAPER 5

MATERIAL FOR MA