252 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1914. 



Several writers puzzled by the difference of fourteen years 

 between the two systems at the time the new one was 

 introduced, have supposed that the term Mauludf was used in 

 a figurative sense, and that the era originated in the commence- 

 ment of Muhammad's mission, or had reference to the time 

 when he first announced himself as the Messenger of God. 

 The true explanation was, however furnished by Marsden 

 {Numismata Orientalia, Part II, p. 701, 1825) who pointed out, 

 that if the year of the Prophet's birth in the Christian 

 reckoning be subtracted from the Christian year in which the 

 innovation was introduced, the result is 1215. * For this purpose 

 Marsden takes tha date of Muhammad's birth as 571 a.o., 

 and the first year of the new era as 1786 a.d. (1786 — 571 = 1215) ; 

 but as we shall see, Tipu Sultan, for some unexplained reason, 

 appears to have assumed that Muhammad was born in 572 a d., 

 as the first year of the new era certainly commenced in 1787 

 a.d. The correct formula is, therefore, 1787—572 =1215. 



All writers on the subject since the time of Marsden have, 

 so far as I know, without a single exception, assumed, not 

 unnaturally 5 that because the fourth regnal year terminated 

 in 1786 ad., the year 1215 a.m. also commenced in the same 

 year, but this, as I shall proceed to show, is an error, and the 

 year 1215 really commenced in 1787. In certain of Tipu's 

 letters referred to in Kirkpitrick's Select Letters of Tippoo 

 Sultan (1811), Beatson's View of the Origin and Conduct of 

 the War with Tippoo Sultan (1800), and Wood's Review of 

 the War in Mysore (1800), the complete MauludI date, and 

 the corresponding Hijrl one, were both noted at the time the 

 letter was written. At my insiance these dates have been 

 examined by the Hon'ble Diwan Bahadur L. D. Swamikannu 

 Pillai, MA., LL.B., author of Indian Chronology (Madras, 

 1911) and a well-k own authority on the subject. He reports 

 that_ they completely establish the facts that the months of 

 Tipu's new system were Indian lunar months, that the days 

 of the month were simply lithis continuously numbered from 

 one to thirty, the fortnights being omitted "and further that 

 Tipu's extra months were without a single exception the 

 Indian adhika months. Mr. Swamikannu Pillai finds that the 

 MauludI year began regularly at the same time as the Indian 

 luni-solar year, i.e. on Chaitra Sukla pratipadd, or the first titht 

 of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, and that the serial numbers 

 of Tipu's cyclic years, recorded on many of his gold and silver 

 coins, are exactly the same as those of the South Indian 

 cyclic years. 



To take an illustration which is of more than ordinary 

 interest, the date on which Tipu Sultan signed the preliminary 

 articles of the treaty framed after the capture of Seringapatam 

 by Lord Cornwallis, is recorded by Kirkpatrick (appendix p. ") 



as follows : 



