with the number of cases of the use of the Vikrama and Śaka eras and other reckonings: from Northern India the earliest known instance of is A.D. 1169 or 1170, and the later ones number only four. Its years are by nature sidereal solar years, commencing with the Mēsha-saṁkrānti, the entrance of the sun into the Hindu constellation and sign Mēsha, i.e. Aries (for this and other technical details, see above, under the Calendar);[1] 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 Mēshādi civil solar years with solar months, or as Chaitrādi lunar years with lunar months amānta (ending with the new-moon) or pūrṇimānta (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. 1900.[2]
This reckoning is not an historical era, actually running from 3102 B.C. It was devised for astronomical purposes at some time 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 Mēsha. There was not really such a conjunction; nor, apparently, is it even the case that the sun was actually at the first point of Mēsha 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 books, 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 Purāṇas, which, referring the great war between the Pāṇḍavas and the Kurus, which is the topic of the Mahābhārata, to the close of the preceding age, the Dvāpara, placed on the last day of that age the culminating event which ushered in the Kali age; namely, the death of Kṛishṇa (the return to heaven of Vishṇu on the termination of his incarnation as Kṛishṇa), which was followed by the abdication of the Pāṇḍava king Yudhishṭhira, who, having installed his grand-nephew Parikshit as his successor, then set out on his own journey to heaven. Another school, however, placed the Pāṇḍavas and the Kurus 653 years later, in 2449 B.C. A third school places in 3102 B.C. the anointment of Yudhishṭhira to the sovereignty, and treats that event as inaugurating the Kali age; from this point of view, the first 3044 years of the Kaliyuga—the 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 Yudhishṭhira.”
The Vikrama era, which is the earliest of all the Hindu eras
in respect of order of foundation, is the dominant era and the
great historical reckoning of Northern India—that
is, of the territory on the north of the rivers Narbadā
and Mahānadī—to which part of the country its use
The Vikrama Era
of 58 B.C.
has always been practically confined. Like, indeed,
the Kaliyuga and Śaka 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 A.D. 1218, and the
very few later instances that have been obtained, prior to the
15th century A.D., come, along with the instance of A.D. 1218,
from the close neighbourhood of the dividing-line between the
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 Kārtti-kādi,
with pūrṇimānta months (ending with the full-moon).
They now exist in the following three varieties: in Kāṭhiāwār
and Gujarāt, they are chiefly Kārttikādi, with amānta 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 Kāṭhiāwār and that neighbourhood
an Āshāḍhādi variety, commencing with Āshāḍha śukla I,
similarly with amānta months; in the rest of Northern India,
they are Chaitrādi, with pūrṇimānta months. The era has its
initial point in 58 B.C., and its first civil day, Kārttika śukla I,
is 19th September in that year if we determine it with reference
to the Hindu Tulā-saṁkrānti, or 18th October if we determine
it with reference to the tropical equinox. The years of the
three varieties, Chaitrādi, Āshaḍhādi, and Kārttikādi, all
commence in the same year A.D.; and the year 1958 began in
A.D. 1900.
Hindu legend connects the foundation of this era with a king Vikrama or Vikramāditya of Ujjain in Mālwā, Central India: one version is that he began to reign in 58 B.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 Kaṇishka, a foreign invader, who established himself in Northern India and commenced to reign there in B.C. 58.[3] 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 Mālavas, the people from whom the modern territory Mālwā derived its name, who were an important section of the subjects of Kaṇishka and his successors. In consonance with that, records ranging in date from A.D. 473 to 879 style it “the reckoning of the Mālavas, the years of the Mālava lords, the Mālava time or era.” Prior to that, it had no specific name; the years of it were simply cited, in ordinary Hindu fashion, by the term saṁvatsara, “the year (of such-and-such a number),” or by its abbreviations saṁvat and saṁ: 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 Saṁvat era.” The idea of a king Vikrama in connexion with it appears to date from only the 9th or 10th century A.D.
The Śaka era, though it actually had its origin in the south-west
corner of Northern India, is the dominant era and the
great historical reckoning of Southern India; that
is, of the territory below the rivers Narbadā and
Mahānadī. It is also the subsidiary astronomical
The Śaka Era of
A.D. 78.
reckoning, largely used, from the 6th century A.D.
onwards, in the Karaṇas, 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. And it is now used more or less freely,
and is cited in almanacs everywhere. Its years are usually
lunar, Chaitrādi, and its months are pūrṇimānta (ending with
the full-moon) in Northern India, and amānta (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 Mēsh di
civil solar years and solar months in those parts of India where
that form of the solar calendar prevails. It has its initial point
in A.D. 78; and its first civil day, Chaitra śukla 1, is 3rd March
- ↑ It is always to be borne in mind that, as already explained, while the Hindu Mēsha answers to our Aries, it does not coincide with either the sign or the constellation Aries.
- ↑ We select A.D. 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 Śaka 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.
- ↑ It may be remarked that there are about twelve different views regarding the date of Kaṇishka and the origin of the Vikrama era. Some writers hold that Kaṇishka began to reign in A.D. 78, and founded the so-called Śaka era beginning in that year; one writer would place his initial date about A.D. 123, others would place it in A.D. 278. The view maintained by the present writer was held at one time by Sir A. Cunningham: and, as some others have already begun to recognize, evidence is now steadily accumulating in support of the correctness of it.
