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DATES OF EARLY INSCRIPTIONS.
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428 expired, is in this reckoning, though the era itself is not mentioned. The date does not admit of exact verification, being simply "Phālguna kṛ. 15," the new-moon day of probably pūrṇimānta Phālguna (amānta Māgha). The reckoning was luni-solar and the A.D. year is 372.

8. The earliest known definite mention of this Mālava era is in the Mandasōr (Mālwā) inscription of Kumāragupta I. of a date falling in December A.D. 436.[1] The month and day are stated in luni-solar reckoning, the months, two in number, being given the old season-names "Sahasya" and "Tapasya" for the more modern Pausha and Phālguna. (List in Indian Calendar, p. 24, § 41.)

9. The earliest known mention of the Kalachuri-Chēdi era, in an inscription undoubtedly genuine, is found in the Pārḍī (Surat) plates of the Mahārāja Dahrasēna which bear a date in the year 207 falling in A.D. 456 or 457. The reckoning is luni-solar.[2]

10. The earliest mention of the Śaka era in a genuine inscription is found in the Bādāmi cave-inscription of the Western Chalukya prince, Raṇavikrānta Maṅgalēśvara, afterwards king, dated in Śaka 500 (expired), or A.D. 578.[3] The day was the full-moon day of Kārttika. The reckoning was luni-solar. In Northern India the earliest mention of this era is found in the Dēōgaḍh (Lalitpur, Central Provinces) Jaina inscription of Śaka 784 (expired), A.D. 862, where it is given as subsidiary to the real date in the Vikrama era.[4] The next known instance of its use in the north, except in Kāṭhiāwār and Gujarāt, is in A.D. 1137–38. On this era see Fleet (J. R. A. S., July, 1910, pp. 818–24.)

11. The Kaliyuga era is not often mentioned in inscriptions. The earliest such date is in the Aihoḷe inscription of Pulakēśin II., the Western Chalukya king, which belongs to A.D. 634–35.[5] The next instance known is of A.D. 770; the next of 866. These are in Southern India. In Northern India the earliest known instance occurs in A.D. 1169 or 1170.[6] On the general subject of this era see Dr. Fleet's articles in J. R. A. S., 1911, pp. 479 ff., 675 ff.

12. With regard to the sixty-year cycle of Jupiter the question as to the earliest known mention is somewhat doubtful. In Kielhorn's "Southern Inscription List," p. 3, No. 5, is noted a pillar-inscription of the W. Chalukya king Maṅgalēśa at Mahākūṭa, near Bādāmi, the date of which is stated as on the full-moon day of Vaiśākha in the fifth year of his reign, pravarttamānē Siddhārthē, which has been translated "in the current Siddhārtha (saṁvatsara)" and "in (the year) Siddhārtha being current," with the effect of placing the record on 12th April, A.D. 602. Dr. Fleet published this inscription in Ind. Ant. XIX., p. 7 ff. Professor Kielhorn, in his last reference to this record, used the words "Siddhārtha, if it is really intended here," implying that he was not perfectly assured on that point (List, quoted, No. 5). But Dr. Fleet has reiterated his opinion (Ind. Ant. 1903, Vol. XXXII., pp. 214–15), and fortifies his argument by pointing out that fifty years earlier the names of all the sixty saṁvatsaras of the Jovian cycle were fully recited by Varāhamihira (viii., vv. 28–52), who died in A.D. 587. The use of the cycle was well established by A.D. 550. If, however, we set aside this record, then the earliest known mention of a year of the cycle occurs in the Alās plates of the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Gōvindarāja II. where the samvatsara "Saumya" is given, with details falling in A.D. 770.[7]

  1. ↑ Kielhorn's Northern List, No. 3. Fleet, Gupta Inscrs., No. 18, p. 79.
  2. ↑ Epig. Ind. Vol. X., p. 51. Kielhorn's List of Inscriptions of Northern India, p. 55, No. 391.
  3. ↑ Kielhorn's Southern List, p. 2, No. 3. As I have explicitly stated in the text the dates here given are the earliest mentioned in the inscriptions known to Prof. Kielhorn. Dr. Fleet (J. R. A. S. for 1910, p. 819) has called attention to the Śaka date 427 (A.D. 505) given in Varāhamihira's Pañchasiddhāntikā as the earliest known certain date up to the time of his article. But Mr. R. Narasimhachar has brought to notice a Sanskrit work entitled Lōkavibhāga which bears date Saka 380 (expired). = A.D. 458–59, and in the twenty-second year of Śiṁhavarman, king of Kāñchī. (See his Annual Report, Mysore, for 1908–9, §§ 35, 112.)
  4. ↑ Kielhorn's Northern List, No. 14, p. 4. Epig. Ind., IV., 310.
  5. ↑ Fleet, Ind. Ant. VIII. 237 ff. J. R. A. S., 1911, p. 689; Kielhorn, Epig. Ind. VI. 1 ff.
  6. ↑ Jour. R. Asiat. Soc., July 1911, p. 689.
  7. ↑ Kielhorn's Southern List, No. 56, p. 10. Epig. Ind., VI., 209
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