82 Wilford's erroneous Samvat epoch — 



in his speculations on Hindu chronology only alluded to the Kali yuga. 

 Davis, in his account of the native method of eclipse calculations, 

 used the Saca only ; but he frequently alluded to the Kali yuga, the 

 first year of which he correctly placed in 3101 B. C. 



Whence then can the now common, nay almost universal, applica- 

 tion of the subtrahend 56 have proceeded ? Simply from Wilford's 

 having placed the Kali yuga epoch in 3100, instead of 3101 B. C, in 

 his essay expressly written to settle the eras of Vikramaditya and 

 Salivahana, to which too much confidence has been given by subse- 

 quent writers. Having every where assumed this erroneous datum, it 

 followed, that the Samvat epoch, which he rightly placed 3044 after 

 Yudhisthira, would concur with 3100 — 3044—56 B. C* But whence 

 did he get his erroneous epoch of the Kali yuga ? This also we may 

 conjecture, having already seen him convicted , on another count , of blind- 

 ly adopting Sir W. Jones' data. Sir William, in his Essay on Hindu 

 Chronology, (As. Res. ii. 126,) says, " 4888 years of the Kali yuga are 

 passed up to the present time ;" and his table of comparative epochs is 

 calculated from 1788 A. D. leaving an obvious difference of 4888 — 

 1788 — 3100 B. C. which Wilford seems to have adopted. Had 

 he however looked to the heading of the article, he would have found 

 the date "January, 1788," consequently the K. Y. year commencing 

 in April, 1787, had not yet expired : the true difference therefore was 

 4888 — 1787—3101, or more exactly 3100f years ; or for the Samvat, 

 — 56f, in nearest round terms 57f. (See page 25.) 



Wilford is not the only author who was thus led to adopt the wrong 

 equation. Colebrooke and Wilson always use 56. Jervis's Chronolo- 

 gical Tables have the same interval ; and ColonelToD employs it through- 

 out his voluminous chronicles of the Rajputs ; thereby throwing all his 

 events forward one year, excepting such as fall in the months Pausha, 

 Mdgha, Phdlgun, and half of Chaitra, subsequent to A. D. 1752. He 

 himself notices here and there a discrepancy of one year with the 

 Musalman historians, which is geuerally attributable to this cause 

 alone. 



Capt. Fell always uses the correct formula, having had access to 



* In a previous part of the very same volume, p. 47, Wilford had used 57. In 

 some places he makes the epoch of the Kali yuga 3001 instead of 3101. 



f There is another advantage in adhering to the difference 57 in general terms 

 rather than the now correcter number 56#, namely, that before the year 1752 it 

 was customary, in England and most parts of Europe, to commence the year in 

 the month of March, or on the Easter moon ; so that for all dates anterior to 

 that period the European year may be accounted to have agreed with the Hindu 

 luni-solar reckoning precisely. 



