^*4 Mr. Marsden on the 
difference, (hould be found by a fimple fubtraSion of one date 
from the other, and confequently be feven years and feven 
months. The annual excels of the Hindoo or fydereal year 
above the Mahometan or lunar being iod. 21 f h., an interval 
of 254 years is required to produce this difference, or 220 
years, to produce that of fix years and leven months. The 
former number being deduced from 1790, carries us back to 
the year 1536, in the reign of the Mogul emperor Humaioon , 
and the latter to 1570, in that of Akbar. About one or other 
of thefe periods we fhould feek for fome record of the inffitu- 
tion, but the hiftories we poffefs throw no light upon the fub- 
je£t. Several gentlemen, converfant in the affairs of Bengal, 
to whom I have referred it, confirm the general idea as above 
given, but difagree as to the political circumffances. By one, 
the regulation is afcribed to Sheer Shah , who wrefted the em- 
pire from Humaioon , and governed it for fome years with wif- 
dom and energy, when his death, and the diftra&ions that 
enfued, reftored it to the former pofleflor ; and, by another 
authority, to Akbar , defervedly named the Great, who was 
next in fucceffion. 
The moft obvious way of accounting for the peculiar mix- 
ture of Hindoo and Mahometan obfervances in this reckoning, 
appears to be, that the zeal of the monarch for effablifffing 
the era of his prophet had effected only a partial or temporary 
innovation ; and that his new fubjefts, who were conftrained 
to adopt as an epoch that year of the Hejera in which the 
royal edkff bore date, could not ultimately be forced to change 
their accuftomed folar year for one that rapidly inverted the 
order bf the feafons. But this attempt muff: be referred to a 
period fomewhat earlier than the reigns of thefe particular 
princes, which were diftinguifhed by a liberal policy ; and the 
gentlemen 
