HISTORY OF JYOTISHA 3

 

And it is now used more or less freely, and is cited in

almanacs everywhere. Its years are usually lunar, Chaitradi, and its months are

purtiimanta (ending with the full-moon) in Northern India, and amdnta (ending

with the new-moon) in Southern India; but in times gone by it was sometimes

treated for purposes of calculation as having astronomical solar years, and it

is now treated as having Mesh di civil solar years and solar months in those

parts of India wliefe that form of the solar calendar prevails. It has its

initial point in A.D. 78; and its first civil day, Chaitra ~ukla 2, is 3rd March

in that year, as determined with reference either to the Hindu M na-sathkrnti or

to the entrance of the sun into the tropical Pisces. The year 1823 began in A.D.

1900.

Regarding the origin of the ~aka era, there was current in the 10th and 11th

centuries All, a belief which, ignoring the difference of a hundred and

thirty-five years between the two reckonings, connected the legendary king

Vikramaditya of Ujjain, mentioned above under the Vikrama era, with the

foundation of this era also. The story runs, from this point of view, that the

Sakas were a barbarous people who established themselves in the western and

north-western dominions of that king, but were met in battle and destroyed by

him, and that the era was established in celebration of that event. The modern

belief, however, ascribes the foundation of this era to a king Salivahana of

Pratishthflna, which is the modern Paithaii, on the GOdavarI, in the Nizams

dominions. But in this case, again, research has shown that the facts are very

different. Like the Vikrama era, the Saka era owes its existence to foreign

invaders. It was founded by the Chhaharta or Kshaharata king Nahapana, who

appears to have been a Pahlava or Palhava, i~e. of Parthian extraction, and who

reigned from A.D. 78 to about 125.1 He established himself first in Kathiawar,

but subsequently brought under his sway northern. Gujarat (Bombay) and Ujjain,

and, below the Narbada, southern Gujarat, Nsik and probably Khndesh. His capital

seems to have been DOhad, in the Panch Mahals. And he had two viceroys: one,

named Bhumaka, of the same family with himself, in Kathiawar; and another,

Chashtana, son of Ghsamotika, at Ujjain. Soon after A.D. 125, Nahapana was

overthrown, and his family was wiped out, by the Satavahana-Satakar1~i king

GautamiputraSri-Stakarpi, who thereby recovered the territories on the south of

the Narbad, and perhaps secured for a time Kathiawar and some other parts on the

north of that river. Very soon, however, Chashtana, or else his son Jayadaman,

established his sway over all the territory which had belonged to Nahapana on.

the north of the Narbada; founded a line of Hinduized foreign kings, who ruled

there for more than three centuries; and, continuing Nahapanas regnal reckoning,

established the era to which the name Saka eventually became attached.

Inscriptions and coins show that, up to at least the second decade of its fourth

century, this reckoning had no specific appellation; its years were simply

cited, in the usual fashion, as varsha, the year (of such-and-such a number).

The reckoning was then taken up by the astronomers. And we find it first called

~akakala, the time or era of the Sakas, in an epochal date, the end of the year

427, falling in A.D. 505, which was used by the astronomer Varahamihira (d. A.D.

587) in his Panchasiddhntika. That this name came to be attached to it appears

to be due to the points that, along with some of the Pahiavas or Palhavas and

the XTavanas or descendants of the Asiatic Greeks, some of the Sakas, the

Scythians, had made their way into KA~hiwar and neighboring parts by about A.D.

100, and that the Sakas incidentally came to acquire prominence in the memory of

the Hindus regarding these occurrences, in such a manner that their name was

selected when the occasion arose to devise an appellation for an era the exact

origin of which had been forgotten. The name of the imaginary king Salivhana

first figures in connection with the era in a record of A.D. 1272, and seems

plainly to have been introduced in. imitation of the couplini of the name

Vikrama, Vikramaditya, with the era of B.C. 58.

That the Saka era, though it had its origin in the south-west corner of Northern

India, is essentially an era of Southern India is proved by its inscriptional

and numismatic history. During thi period before the time when it was taken up

by the astronomers it is found only in the inscriptions of Nahapana, arid in the

similai records and on the coins of the descendants of Chashtana. Aftei that

same time, it figures first in a record of the Chalukya king Kirtivarman I., at

BdSmi in the Bijapur district, Bombay, whirl is dated on the full-moon day of

the month Kflrttika, falling ii All. 578, when there had elapsed five centuries

of the years of thi anointment of the Saka king to the sovereignty. And from

thi:

date onwards the records of a large part of Southern India an mostly dated in

this era, by various expressions all of which includ -ec the j)rere(ling note.

the term Saka or Sgka. In Northern India the case is very different. We have a

record dated in the month Krttika, the Saka year 631 (expired), falling in A.D.

709: it comes from MultSi in the BtUi district, Central Provinces, that is, from

the south of the Narbada; but it belongs to GujarSt (Bombay), and perhaps to the

north, though more probably to the south, of that province. But, setting that

aside, the earliest inscriptional instance of the use of this era in Northern

India, outside Kathiawr and Gujart, is found in a record of A.D. 862 at Deogarh

near Lalitpr, the headquarters town of the Lalitpur district, United Provinces

of Agra and Oude; here, however, the record is primarily dated, with the full

details of the month, &c., in Sarhvat 919, that is, in the Vikrama year 919; it

is only as a subsidiary detail that the Saka year 784 is given in a separate

passage at the end of the record, a sort of postscript. From this date onwards

the era is found in other records of Northern India, but to any appreciable

extent only from AD. 1137, and to only a very small extent in comparison with

the Vikrama and other northern eras; and the cases in which it was used

exclusively there, without being coupled with one or other of the northern

reckonings, are still more conspicuously few. In short, the general position is

that the Saka era has been essentially foreign to Northern India until recent

times; it was used there quite exceptionally and sporadically, and in very few

cases indeed at any appreciable distance from the dividing-line between the

north and the south. That it found its way into Northern India, outside Kl4hiawr

and northern GujarSt at all, is unquestionably due to its use by the

astronomers. It also travelled, across the sea, by the 7th century A.D. to

Cambodia, and somewhat later to Java; to which parts it was doubtless taken in

almanacs, or in invoices, statements of account, &c., by the persons engaged in

the trade between Broach and the far east via Tagara (Ter) and the east coast.

It also found its way in subsequent times to Assam and Ceylon, and more recently

still to Nepal.

III.          OTHER RECKONINGS

We come now to certain reckonings consisting of cycles, and will take first the

cycles of Guru or B~ihaspati, Jupiter. This planet, a very conspicuous object in

eastern skies, requires a period of 4332.6 days,=~5o~4 days ~~Ieso, less than

twelve Julian. years, to make a circuit of the J~jter.

heavens, and has provided the Hindus with two reckonings, each in more than one

variety; a cycle of twelve years, and a cycle of sixty years. The years of

Jupiter, in all their varieties, are usually styled saiizvaisara; and it is

convenient to use this term here, in order to preserve clearly the distinction

between them and the solar ~nd lunar years. The sazvatsaras have no divisions of

their own; the months, days, &c., cited with them are those of the ordinary

solar or lunar calendar, as the case may be.

The older reckoning of Jupiter appears to be that of the 52years cycle, which is

found in two varieties; in both of them the sailvatsaras bear, according to

certain rules which need not be explained here, the same names with the The

12lunar months, Chaitra, Vai~akha, &c. In one variety, ~

each sa~hvatsara runs from one of the planets heliacal risingsthat is, from the

day on which it becomes visible as a morning star on the eastern horizonto the

next such rising; and the length of such a sanjvatsara, according to the Hindu

data, is from 392 to 405 days, with an average of 39,9 days. Inscriptional

instances of the use of this cycle are found in six of the Gupta records of

Northern India, ranging from A.D. 475 to 528.

In the other variety of the 12-years cycle, which is mentioned in astronomical

works from the time of Aryabha~a onwardf (b. A.D. 476), the saihvatsaras are

regulated by Jupiters course with reference to his mean. motion. and mean

longitude: a sathvatsara of this variety commences when Jupiter thus enters a

sign of the zodiac, and lasts for the time occupied by him ir traversing that

sign from the same point of view; and the period taken by him to do thatthat is,

the duration of such a sctk vatsarais slightly in excess, according to the Hindu

data, o~ 36I~o2 days, which amount is very close to the actual fact 361 ~O5

days. Inscriptional instances of the use of this cycle arc perhaps found in two

records of Southern India of the Kadambr series, belonging to about A.D. 575.

The 12-years mean-sign cycle seems to be still used in somc parts. And the

heliacal risings of Jupiter, as also, indeed, thos of the other planets, are

shown in almanacs for astrologica purposes. In either variety, however, the I

2-years cycle is nov chiefly of antiquarian interest.

The cycle of Jupiter now in general use is a cycle of sixty years, the

saivatsaras of which bear certain special names, The 60 Prabhava, Vibhava,

Sukla, Pramoda, &c., again in accordance with certain rules which we need not

explain here. This cycle exists in three varieties.

According to the original constitution of this cycle, the sathvatsaras are

determined as in the second or mean-sign variety of the 12-years cycle: each

sai~nvatsara commences when Jupiter enters a sign of the zodiac with reference

to his mean motion and longitude; and it lasts for slightly more than 361.02

days. This variety is traced back in inscriptional records to AD. 602, and is

still used in Northern India.

Now, the sa2izvatsaras are calculated by means of the astrononiical solar year

commencing with the Mesha-sarhkrnti, the entrance of the sun into the sign Mesha

(Aries). The process gives the number of the saihvatsara last expired before any

particular Msha-sathkrnti, with a remainder denoting the portion of the current

saivatsara elapsed up to the same time; and the remainder, reduced to months,

&c., gives the moment of the commencement of the current sathvatsara, by

reckoning back from the Mesha-sathkranti. As the result, apparently, of

unwillingness to take the trouble to work out the full details, at some time

about AD. 800 a practice arose, in some quarters, according to which that

su~hva1sara of the 60-years cycle which was current at any particular

M~sha-sathkrgnti was taken as coinciding with the astronomical solar year

beginning at that sa,iikrdnti, and with the Chaitrdli lunar year belonging to

that same solar year. And this practice set up a lunisolar variety of the cycle,

in connection with which we have to notice the following point. While the

duration of a mean-sign sa?hvatsara is closely about 361 02 days, the length of

the Hindu astronomical solar year is closely about 365.258 days. It consequently

happens, after every 85 or 86 years, that a mean-sign sa,hvatsara begins and

ends between two successive Msha-sa1iikrntis. In the mean-sign cycle, such a

sa~invatsara retains its existence unaffected; and the names Prabhava, Vibhava,

&c., run on without any interruption. According to the lunisolar system,

however, the position is different; the sa,iivatsara beginning and ending

between the two Meshasarhkrantis is expunged or suppressed, in the sense that

its name is omitted and is replaced by the next name on the list. The second

variety of the 60-years cycle, thus started, ran on alongside of the mean-sign

variety, and, being eventually transferred, with that variety, to Northern

India, is now known as the northern lunisolar variety. It preserves a connection

between the sailsvatsaras and the movements of Jupiter: but the connection is an

imperfect one; and both in this variety, and still more markedly in the

remaining one still to be described, the saslivatsaras practically became mere

appellations for the solar and lunar years.

Meanwhile, just after AD. 900, another development occurred, and there was

started a third variety, which is now known as the southern lunisolar variety.

The precise year in which this happened depends on the particular authority that

we follow. If we take the elements adopted in the Surya-Siddhanta as the proper

data for that time and for the localityWestern India below the Narbadto which

the early history of the cycle belongs, the position was as follows. At the

Mesha-sathkrgnti in AD. 908 there was current, by the mean-sign system, the

sailivatsara No. 2, Vibhava: but No. 4, PramOda, was current by the same system

at the Mesha-sakrgnti in AD. 909; and No. 3, ~ukla, began and ended between the

two Mesha-sathkr~ntis. Accordingly, No. 2, Vibhava, was the lunisolar

sathvatsara for the Meshadi solar year and the Chaitradi lunar year commencing

in AD. 908; and by the strict lunisolar system, which was adhered to by some

people and is now known as the northern lunisolar system, it was followed in

A.D. 909 by No. 4, PramOda, the name of the intermediate sailivatsara, No. ~,

~ukla, being passed over. On the other hand, whether through oversight, or

whatever the reason may have been, by other people the name of No. 3, ~ukla, was

not passed over, but that sailivatsara was taken as the lunisolar sailivatsara

for the Meshadi solar year and the Chaitrdi lunar year beginning in AD. 909, and

No. 4, Pramoda, followed it in AD. olo. On subsequent similar occasions, also,

there was, in the same quarters, no passing over of the name of any sathva~sara.

And this practice established itself, in SOuthern India, to the exclusion there

of the mean-sign and the northern lunisolar varieties; the discrepancy between

the last-mentioned variety and the variety thus set up continuing, of course, to

increase by one sathvatsara after every 85 or 86 years. In this variety, the

southern lunisolar variety, all connection between the sathvatsaras and the

movements of Jupiter has now been lost.

The present position of the 60-years cycle in its three varieties may be

illustrated thus. In Northern India, by the mean-sign system the sailivatsara

No. 46, Paridhtivin, began, according to different authorities, in August,

September or October, A.D. i899. Consequently, by the northern or expunging

lunisolar system, that same sarnvatsara, No. 46, Paridhavin, coincided with the

Mshdi civil solar year beginning with or just after 12th April, and with the

Chaitrdi lunar year beginning with 31st March, AD. 1900. But by the southern or

non-expunging lunisolar system those same solar and lunar years were No. 34,

Sarvarin.

The treatment of the cycles of Jupiter in the Sanskrit books shows that it was

primarily from the astrological point of view that they appealed to the Hindus;

it was only as a secondary consideration that they acquired anything of a

chronological nature. For the practical application of any of them to historical

purposes, it is, of course, necessary that, along with the mention of a

sailwatsara, there should always be given the year of some known era, or some

other specific guide to the exact period to which that sailivatsara is to be

referred. But it is fortunately the case that the sarhvatsaras have been but

~rarely cited in the inscriptional records without such a guide, of some kind or

another.

The Saptarshi reckoning is used in KashmIr, and in the Kiipgfa district and some

of the Hill states on the south-east of Kashmir; some nine centuries ago it was

also in use in the Punjab, The Sap. and apparently in Sind. In addition to being

cited by tars hi such expressions as Saptarshi-sarhvat, the year (so- reckon.

and-so) of the Saptarshis, and Sgstra-saihvatsara, ing.

the year (so-and-so) of the scriptures, it is found mentioned as Lokakflla, the

time or era of the people, and by other terms which mark it as a vulgar

reckoning. And it appears that modern popular names for it are PaharI-sathvat

and Kachchg-sathvat, which we may render by the Hill era and the crude era. The

years of this reckoning are lunar, Chaitradi; and the months are purs.nimanta

(ending with the full-moon). As matters stand now, the reckoning has a

theoretical initial point in 3077 B.C.; and the year 4976, more usually called

simply 76, began in A.D. 1900; but there are some indications that the

initial~oint was originally placed one year earlier.

The idea at the bottom of this reckoning is a belief that the Saptarshis, the

Seven Rishis or Saints, Marichi and others, were translated to heaven, and

became the stars of the constellation Ursa Major, in 3076 s.c. (or 3077); and

that these stars possessan independent movement of their own, which, referred to

the ecliptic, carries them round at the rate of ioo years for each nakshatra or

twenty-seventh division of the circle. Theoretically, therefore, the Saptarshi

reckoning consists of cycles of 2700 years; and the numbering of the years

should run from I to 2700, and then commence afresh. In practice, however, it

has been treated quite differently. According to the general custom, which has

distinctly prevailed in Kashmir from the earliest use of the reckoning for

chronological purposes, and is illustrated by Kalha9a in his history of Kashmir,

the Rajatararngini, written in AD. 1148-1150, the numeration of the years has

been centennial; whenever a century has been completed, the numbering has not

run on 101, 102, 103, &c., but has begun again with I, 2, 3, &c. Almanacs,

indeed, show both the figures of the century and the full figures of the entire

reckoning, which is treated as running from 3076 ii C., not from 376 B.C. as the

commei~ceme1it of a new cycle, the second; thus, an almanac for the year

beginning in A.D. 1793 describes that year as the year 4869 according tothe

course of the Seven I~ishis, and similarly the year 69. And elsewhere sometimes

the full figures are found, sometimes the abbreviated ones; thus, whmlea.

manuscript written in AD. 1648 is dated in the year 24 (for 4724), another,

written in A.D. 1224 is dated in the year 4300.

But, as in the Rajatarathgini, so also in inscriptions, which range from A.D.

1204 onwards, only the abbreviated figures have hitherto been found.

Essentially, therefore, the Saptarshi reckoning is a centennial reckoning, by

suppressed or omitted hundreds, with its earlier centuries commencing in 3076,

2976 s.c., and so on, and its later centuries commencing in A.D. 25, 125, 225,

&c.; on precisely the same lines with those according to which we may use, e.g.

98 to mean A.D. 1798, and 57 to mean A.~. 1857, and 9 to mean A.D. 1909. And the

practical difficulties attending the use of such a system for chronological

purposes are obvious; isolated dates recorded in such a fashion cannot be

allocated without some explicit clue to the centuries to which they belong.

Fortunately, however, as regards Kashmir, we have the necessary guide in the

facts that Kaihana recorded his own date in the ~aka era as well as in this

reckoning, and gave full historical details which enable us to determine

unmistakably the equivalent of the first date in this reckoning cited by him,

and to arrange with certainty the chronology presented by him from that time.

The belief underlying this reckoning according to the course of the Seven

l~ishis is traced back in India, as an astrological detail, to at least the 6th

century AD. But the reckoning was first adopted for chronological purposes in

Kashmir and at some time about A.D. 800; the first recorded date in it is one of

the year 89, meaning 3889, = A.D. 8 13814, given by Kalha~a. It was introduced

into India between AD. 925 and 1025.

The Grahaparivl-itti is a reckoning which is used in the southernmost parts of

Madras, particularly in the Madura district. It consists of cycles of 90 Mflshdi

solar The Grab- years, and is said, in conformity with its name, which ape

rivritt means the revolution of planets, to be made up by the sum of the days in

I revolution of the sun, 22 of Mercury, 5 of Venus, 15 of Mars, It of Jupiter,

and 29 of Saturn. The first cycle is held to have commenced in 24 B.C., the

second in A.D. 67, and so on; and, in accordance with that view, the year 34,

which began in AD. 1900, was the 34th year of the 22nd cycle.

No inscriptional use of this cycle has come to notice. There seems no

substantial reason for believing that the reckoning was really started in 24

B.C. The alleged constitution of the cycle, which appears to be correct within

about twelve days, and might possibly be made apparently exact, suggests an

astrological origin. And, if a guess may be hazarded, we would conjecture that

the reckoning is an offshoot of the southern lunisolar variety of the 60-years

cycle of Jupiter, and had its real origin in some year in which a Prabhava

samvatsara of that variety commenced, and to which the first year of a

Grahaparivritti cycle can be referred: that was the case in AD. 967 and at each

subsequent i8oth year.

In part of the Gajm district, Madras, there is a reckoning, known as the Oflko

or Aflka, i.e. literally the number or Th ~ ~k numbers, consisting of lunar

years, each commencing ~ with Bhadrapada Sukla 12, which run theoretically in

cycles of 59 years. But the reckoning has the peculiarity that, whether the

explanation is to be found in a superstition about certain numbers or in some

other reason, the year 6, and any year the number of which ends with 6 or 0

(except the year 10), is omitted from the numbering; so that, for instai~ce, the

year 7 follows next after the year 5. The origin of the reckoning is not known.

But the use of it seems to be traceable in records of the Ganga kings who

reigned in that part of the country and in Orissa in the 12th and following

centuries. And the initial day, Bhadrapada ~ukla 12, which figures again in the

Vilayati and Amli reckoning of Orissa (see farther on), is perhaps to be

accounted for on the view that this day was the day of the anointment, in the

7th century, of the first Ganga king, Rajasithha-Indravarman I.

In the Chittagong district, Bengal, there is a solar reckoning, known by the

name Maghi, of which the year 1262 either began - or ended in A.D. 1900; 50 that

it has an initial point The Maghi in AD. 639 or 638. It appears that Chittagong

was conquered by the king of Arakan in the gth century, and remained usually in

the possession of the Maghs the Arakanese or a class of themtill A.D. 1666, when

it was finally annexed to the Mogul empire. In these circumstances it is plain

that the Magh reckoning took its name from the Maghs; its year, which is Mshadi,

from Bengal; and its numbering from the Sakkaraj, the ordinary era of Arakan and

Burma, which has its initial point in AD. 638.

The Hijra (Hegira) era, the reckoning from the flight of Mahomet, which dates

from the 16th of July, A.D. 662, is, of Hlndulzed course, used by the

Mahommedans in India, and is offshoots customarily shown, with the details of

its calendar, of the in the Hindu almanacs. An account of it does not IfIjra

fall within the scope of this article. But we have era, to mention it because we

come now to certain Hinduized reckonings which are hybrid offshoots of it. We

need only say, however, in explanation of some of the following figures, that

the years of the Hijra era are purely lunar, consisting of twelve lunar months

and no more; with the result that the initial day of the year is always

travelling backwards through the Julian year, and makes a complete circuit in

thirty-four years. The reckonings derived from it, which we have to describe,

have apparent initial points in A.D. 591, 593, 594, and 600. They had their real

oiigin, however, in the ,4th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

The emperor Akbar succeeded to the throne in February, AD. 1556, in the Hijra

year 963, which ran from 16th November 1555 to 3rd November 1556. Amongst the

reforms aimed at by him and his officials, one was to abolish, or at least

minimize, by introducing uniformity of numbering, the confusion due to the

existence of various reckonings, both Mahommedan and Hindu. And one step taken

in that direction was to assign to the Hindu year the same number with the Hijra

year. It is believed that this was first done by the Persian clerks of the

revenue and financial offices at an early time in Akbars reign, and that it

received authoritative sanction in the Hijra year 971 (21st August 1563 to 8th

August 1564). At any rate, the innovation was certainly first made in Upper

India; and the numbering started there was introduced into Bengal and those

parts as Akbar extended his dominions, but without interfering with local

customs as to the commencement of the Hindu year. The result is that we now have

the following reckonings, the years of which are used as revenue years: In the

United Provinces and the Punjab, there is an Aivingdi lunar reckoning, known as

the Fasli, according to which the year I308 began in A.D. f900; so that the

reckoning has an apparent initial point in A.D. 593. The name of this e Fast!

reckoning is derived from fa$l, a harvest, of which reckoning there are two; the

fa~l-i-ral or spring harvest, of Upper commencing in February,and thefasl

ยท        i-khar~f , or autumn fl ia.

harvest commencing in October. The years of this reckoning begin with the

pr~1imdnta Mvina krishna I, which now falls in September. A peculiar feature of

it is that, though the months are lunar, they are not divided into fortnights,

and the numbering of the days runs on, as in the Mahommedan month, from the

first to the end of the month without being affected by any expunction and

repetition of tithis; and, for this and other reasons, it seems that in this

case a new form of Hindu year was devised, of such a kind as to enable the

agriculturists to realize their produce and pay their assessments comfortably

within the year. The Hijra era has, of course, now drawn somewhat widely away

from this and the other reckonings derived from it; the Hijra ~ear commencing in

A.D. 1900 was 1318, ten year.s in advance of the Fasli year.

In Orissa and some other parts of Bengal, there is a reckoning, or two almost

identical reckonings, the facts of which are not quite clear. According to one

account, the term Amli-san, the official year, is only another name of the

Vilgyati- The Vilesan, the year received from the vitayat or province Y~~~ii of

Hindustgn. But we are also told that the Vilyati- an Awl!. san is a Kanyadi

solar year, whereas the Amli-san, ~issa though it too has solar months, changes

its number on the lunar day Bhadrapada iukla 12 (mentioned above in connection

with the Onko cycle of Orissa), which comes sometimes in Kanya, but sometimes in

the preceding month, Sirhha. Elsewhere, again, it is the Vilayati-san which is

shown as changing its number or. Bhdrapada fukla 12. In either case, the year

1308 of this reckoning, also, began in AD. 1900; and so, like the Fasli of Upper

India, this reckoning, too, has an apparent initial point in AD. 593. The day

Bhadrapada iukla 12 now usually falls in September, but may come during the last

three days of August. The first day of the solar month Kanyff now falls on 15th

or 16th September.

In Bengal there is in more general use a Mshdi solar reckoning, known as the

Bengali-san or Bengal year, according Tb B

to which the year 1307 began in AD. 1900; so that this e enrecko

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