Page:Sewell Dikshit The Indian Calendar (1896) proc.djvu/55

that date forwards is reliable, and below are given the names of those after whom the later Oṅko years have been numbered, with the English dates corresponding to the commencement of the 2nd Oṅkos of their respective reigns.

65. General remarks. Different eras have, from remote antiquity, been in use in different parts of India, having their years luni-solar or solar, commencing according to varying practice with a given month or day; and in the case of luni-solar years, having the months calculated variously according to the amânta and pûrṇimânta system of pakshas. (Art. 12 above). The origin of some eras is well known, but that of others has fallen into obscurity. It should never be forgotten, as explaining at once the differences of practice we observe, that when considering "Indian" science we are considering the science of a number of different tribes or nationalities, not of one empire or of the inhabitants generally of one continent.

66. If a number of persons belonging to one of these nationalities, who have been in the habit for many years of using a certain era with all its peculiarities, leave their original country and settle in another, it is natural that they should continue to use their own era, notwithstanding that another era may be in use in the country of their adoption; or perhaps, while adopting the new era, that they should apply to it the peculiarities of their own. And vice versâ it is only natural that the inhabitants of the country adopted should, when considering the peculiarities of the imported era, treat it from their own stand-point.

67. And thus we actually find in the pañchâṅgs of some provinces a number of other eras embodied, side by side with the era in ordinary use there, while the calendar-makers have treated them by mistake in the same or nearly the same manner as that of their own reckoning. For instance, there are extant solar pañchâṅgs of the Tamil country in which the year of the Vikrama era is represented as a solar Meshâdi year. And so again Śaka years are solar in Bengal and in the Tamil country, and luni-solar in other parts of the country. So also we sometimes find that the framers of important documents have mentioned therein the years of several eras, but have made mistakes regarding them. In such a case we might depend on the dates in the document if we knew exactly the nationality of the authors, but very often this cannot be discovered, and then it is obviously unsafe to rely on it in any sense as a guide. This point should never be lost sight of.

68. Another point to be always borne in mind is that, for the sake of convenience in calculation a year of an era is sometimes treated differently by different authors in the same province, or indeed even by the same author. Thus, Gaṇeśa Daivajña makes Śaka years begin