748 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anno I79O. 



respect to our year, in 1786 as in 1790; in 1775 and 1787, 6 hours later; in 

 1781 and 1785, 6 hours sooner; and in 1784 and 1788, being leap years, 18 

 hours sooner than in 1787- The civil year begins at the sunrise immediately 

 preceding the calculated commencement of the astronomical, when that happens 

 during the day; but if in the night-time, it begins at the sunrise following, and 

 will consist of 366 days as often as the excess of the astronomical year above 305 

 amounts to a whole day. 



The next era that presents itself and the first that has pretensions to be con- 

 sidered as historical, is that of Bikramajit. This prince, whose paternal king- 

 dom was Malva, and his capital Ougeim, waged war against Saka king of Dehli, 

 probably his lord paramount, and having overcome and slain him, ascended in 

 his stead the principal throne of India. Authorities differ widely as to the length 

 of his reign; but he likewise is said to have fallen in battle, fighting with a king 

 who invaded him from the southern provinces. He appears, from this account, 

 in no other light than that of an unfortunate usurper, yet his fame in the me- 

 mory of the Hindoos has eclipsed that of his predecessors, his adventures are a 

 favourite subject of romance, and an era has been distinguished by his name. 

 It is doubted whether we ought to consider his accession, or his death, as consti- 

 tuting the proper epoch ; but with regard to the time from which the reckoning 

 dates there is no uncertainty, and the nature of the event is not essentially con- 

 nected with our present object. It is placed in the year 56 before Christ, or in 

 the 4657 th of the Julian period, and corresponds with the 3045th year of the 

 grand era. 



Mr. M. remarked, when treating of the Hejera, that this Mahometan era 

 was computed, not from the day of the prophet's flight, as generally supposed, 

 but from the ordinary commencement of that year in which the flight happened; 

 and thus we find, on comparing the Hindoo eras, that though some of them are 

 professed to be counted from the deaths of their kings or other historical events, 

 they yet all begin from the same point of the sun's annual course through the 

 zodiac. The numerical reckoning of the years can well be conceived more liable 

 to arbitrary change, as being less interesting to the bulk of the people, than the 

 observance of a particular day, whose periodical return is every where marked 

 with popular ceremonies and superstitions. 



The era to which Salaban has given name dates" from the 78th year of Christ, 

 or 4791st of the Julian period, commencing with the 3179th year of the grand 

 era. As this is no less than 134 years later than that of Bikramajit, it seems a 

 bold anachronism to make them cotemporaries, or to suppose, what is commonly 

 asserted, that the one prince was the conqueror of the other. Fortunately for 

 the present investigation, it is history rather than chronology which suffers from 

 this want of accuracy or discrimination in the annalists of India, or their Persian 



