Page:Sewell Dikshit The Indian Calendar (1896) proc.djvu/54

To find the year of the Graha-parivṛitti cycle, add 72 to the current Kali-year, 11 to the current Śaka year, or 24 or 23 to the A.D. year, viz., 24 from Mesha to December 31st, and 23 from January 1st to Mesha; divide by 90 and the remainder is the current year of the cycle.

The Oṅko^[1] cycle of 59 luni-solar years is in use in part of the Ganjam district of the Madras Presidency. Its months are pûrṇimânta, but it begins the year on the 12th of Bhâdrapada-śuddha,^[2] calling that day the 12th not the 1st. In other words, the year changes its numerical designation every 12th day of Bhâdrapada-śuddha. It is impossible as yet to say decidedly when the Oṅko reckoning commenced. Some records in the temple of Jagannātha at Purī (perfectly valueless from an historical point of view) show that it commenced with the reign of Subhānideva in 319 A.D., but the absurdity of this is proved by the chronicler's statement that the great Mughal invasion took place in 327 A.D. in the reign of that king's successor.^[3] Some say that the reckoning commenced with the reign of Chōḍagaṅga or Chōrgaṅga, the founder of the Gāṅgavaṁśa, whose date is assigned usually to 1131-32 A.D., while Sutton in his History of Orissa states that it was introduced in 1580 A.D. In the zamindari tracts of Parlakimeḍi, Peddakimeḍi and Chinnakimeḍi the Oṅko Calendar is followed, but the people there also observe each a special style, only differing from the parent style and from one another in that they name their years after their own zamindars. A singular feature common to all these four kinds of regnal years is that, in their notation, the years whose numeral is 6, or whose numerals end with 6 or 0 (except 10), are dropped.^[4] For instance, the years succeeding the 5th and 19th Oṅkos of a prince or zamindar are called the 7th and 21st Oṅkos respectively. It is difficult to account for this mode of reckoning; it may be, as the people themselves allege, that these numerals are avoided because, according to their traditions and śâstras, they forebode evil, or it may possibly be, as some might be inclined to suppose, that the system emanated from a desire to exaggerate the length of each reign. There is also another unique convention according to which the Oṅko years are not counted above 59, but the years succeeding 59 begin with a second series, thus "second 1", "second 2", and so on. It is also important to note that when a prince dies in the middle of an Oṅko year, his successor's 1st Oṅko which commences on his accession to the throne, does not run its full term of a year, but ends on the 12th day of Bhâdrapada-śuddha following; consequently the last regnal year of the one and the first of the other together occupy only one year, and one year is dropped in effect. To find, therefore, the English equivalent of a given Oṅko year, it will be necessary first to ascertain the style to which it relates, i.e., whether it is a Jagannātha Oṅko or a Parlakimeḍi Oṅko, and so on; and secondly to value the given year by excluding the years dropped (namely, the 1st—possibly, the 6th, 16th, 20th, 26th, 30th, 36th, 40th, 46th, 50th, 56th). There are lists of Orissa princes available, but up to 1797 A.D. they would appear to be perfectly inauthentic.^[5] The list from