CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN INDIA. 47 



the present subject. It is by no means necessary to 

 have recourse to this expedient, in order to account 

 for this once prevailing opinion, and I am rather in- 

 ciined to think, that this was not the case. 



The time of his birth is thus ascertained from 

 the Cumdrlca-chanda, a section of the Scanda-purctna^ 

 in which we read, Tatah trishu sahasreshu sate chd-' 

 pyadhiceshu cha ; 'Saca 7iamd bhamshyas'cha yotida^ 

 r'ldra hdraca. " When three thousand and one hun^ 

 dred years of the Cdli-yuga are elapsed, then 'Saga 

 will appear and remove wretchedness and misery 

 from the world." But it is necessary to observe here, 

 that this is the first year of his reign, and that it has 

 nothing to do with the first of his era. In the same 

 manner, the author of that section says, that the 

 first year of Vicrama'ditya's reign answered to 

 the 3021 of the Cali-yicga, which date is equally un- 

 connected with the first year of his era. In the ap- 

 pendix to the Agni-purdn'a, we find that 'Sa'liva'- 

 hana began his reign 312 years after the death 

 of Cha'n'acya, and Chandragupta, which places 

 it also in the first year of our era. It is remarkable 

 however, that in the appendix to the Agni-purdn'a, 

 and the copy from it in the Ayin-Acbcri, the years 

 are computed, or reckoned, from the first of 'Sa'li- 

 va'hana's reign, answering to the first of Christ, 

 but not from the first of the former's era. 



'Sa'liva'hana died in the year of our ei'a 79, and 

 he lived eighty-four years. According to the Vi- 

 crama-charitra, he was in the fifth year of his 

 age, when he manifested himself to the world, and 



Paragraph 43. 



