JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
Part I.—HISTORY, LITERATURE, 
No. I.—1888. 
The Era of Lachhman Sen.—By H. Beveridge, Esq., C. S. 
The object of this paper is to draw attention to the facts that the 
era of Lachhman Sen is mentioned by Abu-1-Eazl in the Akbarnama, 
and that according to him it began in 1119 A. D. 
The era has been discussed by more than one scholar, but it 
appears that its date, or even the event denoted by it, has not yet been 
positively ascertained. 
According to Dr. Mitra the era began in 1106-7 and dates from the 
accession of Lachhman Sen I, the grandfather of the Lachhman who 
was dethroned by Bakhtiyar ETiilji. According to General Cunningham 
the era began with the death of Lachhman Sen I, and the first year of 
it is 1108 or 1109. 
The first European scholar who mentions the date is, according to 
Cunningham, Colebrooke wbo alluded to it in 1796. Afterwards it was 
referred to by Mr. Prinsep in 1836. But none of these writers refer to 
the Abkarnama. Apparently it was thought that the only mention of 
the chronology of Bengal was to be found in the Ain-i-Akbari, that 
being the only work of Abu-1-Fazl which had been translated into 
English. There is indeed a reference to Abu-l-Fazl’s mention of the 
Lachhman era in a note on the last page of Price’s History of the 
Muhammadans, but the date given to it is wrong by a thousand years, 
and the era is wrongly called that of Lachhman Singh. 
The way in which the era comes to be mentioned by Abu-1-Fazl 
is as follows : Akbar, as is well known, invented a new era which he 
called the Tarikh Ilahi or the Divine Era. It is usually stated that it 
began with his accession, but this is not quite correct. Akbar ascended 
the throne at Kalanor on 2 Rabin-s-sani, 963 A. H., corresponding to 
A 
