Vol. X, No. 6.] Numismatic Supplement No. XXIII. 253 



[N.8.] 



28th of Jamadussany, 1206 a.h. 



1st of Rubbany, year Zuburjud, 1219 a.m. 

 22nd February, 1792 a.d. 



Mr. Swamikannu Pillai finds that of the three dates thus given 

 =is equivalent, the first and third correspond, but the second, 

 which was the one recorded by Tipii himself, was really 23rd 

 February, 1792. The 22nd February was amavafya or new- 

 inoon day, the tithi ending about 3 a.m., i.e. before sunrise on 

 23rd February, while 1st Kabani commenced at sunrise on 23rd 

 February and ran until sunrise on 24th February. Mr. Swami- 

 kannu Pillai added that Tipu from his well-known superstitious 

 views and belief in Hindu astrology, would be unlikely to sign 

 the articles on amavcteya day, which was inauspicious for such 

 a transaction, and that he probably signed after 3 a.m. on 

 23rd February. He wrote subsequently to say that his suppo- 

 sition was confirmed, for in Major Dirom's Narrative of the 

 Campaign in India which terminated the War with Tippoo 

 Sultan in 1792 (1793), p. 226, the following statement 

 occurs: — "These were the terms, which after different con- 

 ferences with the vakeeJs, were dictated by Earl Cornwallis 

 to Tippoo Sultan, and to which he found it necessary to 

 submit. They were sent to him on the 22nd, and returned by 

 him, signed and sealed, the night of the 23rd February." 

 An examination of these dates shows conclusively that the 

 Mauludi year 1219 corresponds to 1791-92 a.d., and not to 



a year In the 



1790-91 , as has so often been assumed. 



While „ _ 



Christian reckoning all the earlier coins with Mauludi" dates, 

 yet in referring to the Nagar paim dated 1227, the only coin 

 known to have been struck by i'lpu in the last year of his 

 reign, he records the year correctly. With reference to this 

 coin he states (Numismata Onentana, part II, p. 724) :— "This 

 is probably the latest specimen of his coinage that has been 

 preserved, and must have been struck within about a month 

 of his death; the year 1227 of his era having begun on the 

 6th of April 1799, and the storming of Serintiapatam, on which 

 occasion he fell, having happened on the 4th of May of that 

 year, being the anniversary of his accession." So firmly, 

 however, had the other dites been established, that the late 

 Major Tufnell, in his Catalogue of Mysore Coins tn the Collec- 

 tion of the Government Museum, Bangahre (1839), actually 

 corrects Marsden in regard to the Nagar coin, and points out 

 that the year should 'be 1798 and not 1799. It will be seen 

 that the acceptance of the latter date affords the only satis- 

 factory explanation of the fact that, whereas in the year 

 1226 a.m., coining was in full operation at Seringapatam and 

 two other mints, in 1227 a.m., which commenced less than 

 a month before Tlnu's death, only a single type of coin was 



