96 G. A. Grierson— Grant of Qiva-simhd to Vidyapati-thakkura. [No. 1, 
On the genuineness of the Grant of Civa-sintha to Vidyapati-thakkura .— 
By G. A. Grierson, C.I.E., Ph.D., I.C.S. 
[Read May, 1899.] 
Regarding tliis grant, which is dated La-sam 292 (?), Sana 807, 
Sumvata 1455, Cake 1321, see the Indian Antiquary , Yol. XIY, p. 190, 
and the Proceedings of this Society for 1895, Plate iii. The genuineness 
of this plate has been doubted, but no positive proof for or against the 
theory has hitherto been put forward. 
Dr. Kielhorn’s Inscriptions of Northern India , No. 578, shows that 
the last two dates mentioned in it both correspond to Thursday, 10th 
July A.D., 1399; but that this day would fall in the Bengali San 806, 
and in the Hijra San 801 (not 807). Unless therefore there has been 
an error in the calculations of the writer of the deed, neither of these 
two latter eras can be meant by the word sana. There is however 
another era, also entitled san , and which is moreover the era which 
in these modern days , is generally current in the part of Bihar from 
which the inscription comes. It is the Fasti San , an era introduced by 
the Emperor Akbar. Eor information regarding it, see Prinsep’s Useful 
Tables , ed. Thomas, p. 170. The year runs exactly parallel with the 
Vikrama Samvat, the only difference being that, to obtain the Fasti year, 
we must subtract 648 from toe Samvat date. There are no dark and 
light fortnights in the Fasti month, the days running through each 
month from 1 to 30, but with this exception the Fasti day of the month 
and weekday are always the same as the Samvat ones. It is thus a 
very easy calculation to convert a Samvat to a Fasti date, and it will 
be seen that Fasti San 807 does as a matter of fact correspond to 
Y. S. 1455. 
This at once stamps the grant as a very clumsy forgery, for F. S. 
S07 never existed. The first year of the era, as founded by Akbar, 
was, not 1, but was 963. No date purporting to be earlier than F. S. 
963 is possible. It is therefore evident that the dates in this grant 
must have been forged by some modern jyautisa, of whom there are 
hundreds of half educated ones in Tirhut, who knew the simple equa¬ 
tion for converting Samvat dates to Fasti ones, but did not know the 
history of the Fasti era. In his anxiety to make the grant look as 
genuine as possible, he put in all the synchronous dates he knew about, 
and exposed his forgery in so doing. 
