1904.] ' Facers. 3 



2. The method of preparijig Calendars and fixing festival dates hy 

 the Hindus. — By Gerindranath Dutt, Superintendent, Raj Hativd. 



( Abstract.) 



This note lias been prepared in response to a circular letter from 

 Jkfr. E. A. Gait, Superintendent of Ethnography in Bengal, asking for 

 information regarding the rules by which astrologers of all classes pre- 

 pare calendars and fix the dates of festivals. The author explains the 

 well-known differences between Siddhantas and Karanas, between the 

 ptirnimanta system of JSTorthern India and the amanta system of South- 

 ern India, and between the luni-solar year by which religious festivals 

 are calculated and the solar year which is the Bengali civil year. He 

 gives formulae according to the Karanas or practical works in use. He 

 defines the principal Hindu festivals as reckoned by the lunar months. 

 He contends that in the early Vedic age the new year was calculated 

 from the sun's entering the Pleiades, and that the vernal equinox was at 

 the Pleiades about B.C. 2500. 



3. Further notes on the Bhojpurl dialects spoken in Saran and o?i the 

 origin of Kaythi characters. — By Gerindranath Dutt, Superintendent, 

 Raj Hatwa, 



(Abstract.) 



The author considers that the present Bojpuri dialect is an ad- 

 mixture of the Kanaujiya dialect and the Magadhi dialect, the latter 

 being the predominant element. He contrasts the Gandak and the 

 Gogra valleys physically and linguistically. The Gogra valley is fertile 

 and busy ; men speak quickly and their words get clipped and short- 

 ened. The Gandak valley is sandy, unhealthy and backward. The 

 population is dull and stagnant, and dialectical changes are fewer and 

 slower. 



The author would derive the Kaythi character mainly from Asoka's 

 Pali character, so that in modern Kaythi we have in a veiled form the 

 most ancient characters of India. 



4. The Khurda copper plate grant of Madhava, king of Kalinga. By 

 Ganga Mohan Laskar, M.A., Government Research Scholar. Goinmuni- 

 cated by Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Shastri. 



(Abstract.) 



This set of three copper plates comes from Khurda in Orissa and 

 forms the second record ever discovered of king Madhava and of the 

 S'ailodhhava dynasty from which he is sprung ; the only other known 

 record of this dynasty is a copper plate charter of the same king 



