750 PHILOSOPHICAI. TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1790. 



institution are involved in obscurity, and I do not find that even a conjecture on 

 the subject has yet been offered to the world. It is admitted however to have 

 been imposed by the Mahometan conquerors, and is therefore of no very remote 

 antiquity. The most obvious consideration that presents itself, in examining 

 the date of this era, is its proximity to the year of the Hejera; the Bengal year 

 1196 complete ending on the 10th April, 1790, and the Hejera year 1204 on 

 the 10th September following. The difference has plainly arisen from the ine- 

 quality of the solar and lunar reckonings, and its accumulation since a certain 

 period when they must of necessity have coincided; and it is no improbable sup- 

 position, that the time of such coincidence was also that of introducing the 

 mode of computation which has since prevailed. By ascertaining the amount of 

 this difference, and the number of years required to produce it, we may expect 

 to arrive at a knowledge of the period in question, or to approximate it at least. 

 As the Hindoos compute from the elapsed year, and the Mahometans by the 

 current, the difference between the two dates should be 6 years and 7 months; 

 but as this correction of 1 year may be presumed equally applicable at the sup- 

 posed time of the coincidence, and therefore unnecessary in this instance, it 

 will follow that the real difference should be found by a simple subtraction of 

 one date from the other, and consequently be 7 years and 7 months. The an- 

 nual excess of the Hindoo or sydereal year above the Mahometan or lunar being 

 10^ 214^^, an interval of 254 years is required to produce this difference, or 220 

 years, to produce that of 6 years and 7 months. The former number being de- 

 ducted from 1790,, carries us back to the year 1536, in the reign of the Mogul 

 emperor Humaioon, and the latter to 1570, in that of Akbar. About one or 

 other of these periods we should seek for some record of the institution, but 

 the histories we possess throw no light on the subject. Several gentlemen, con- 

 versant in the affairs of Bengal, to whom I have referred it, confirm the general 

 idea as above given, but disagree as to the political circumstances. By one, the 

 regulation is ascribed to Sheer Shah, who wrested the empire from Humaioon, 

 and governed it for some years with wisdom and energy, when his death, and 

 the distractions that ensued, restored it to the former possessor ; and, by another 

 authority, to Akbar, deservedly named the Great, who was next in succession. 



The most obvious way of accounting for the peculiar mixture of Hindoo 

 and Mahometan observances in this reckoning, appears to be, that the zeal of 

 the monarch for establishing the era of his prophet had effected only a partial or 

 temporary innovation ; and that his new subjects, who were constrained to adopt 

 as an epoch that year of the Hejera in which the royal edict bore date, could not 

 ultimately he forced to change their accustomed solar year for one that rapidly in- 

 verted the order of the seasons. But this attempt must be referred to a period 

 spmewhat earlier than the reigns of these particular princes, which were dis- 



