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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
THE KṚITA ERA To sum up, the evidence points to the almost irresistible conclusion that the Vikrama Saṁvat
was originally an era started by an astronomer or astronomers of Mālwā which was afterwards
accepted by the people. Another instance of an era invented by the astronomers and foisted
upon the people is what is called the Śrī-Harsha era by Al Bērūni. It is exactly four hundred
years prior to the era of Vikramāditya. Surely no king of the name of Harsha is known to have
lived about 457 B.C. “His era” says he, “is used in Mathurā and the country of Kanōj. Between Śrī Harsha and Vikramāditya there is an interval of 400 years, as I have been told by
some of the inhabitants of that region. However, in the Kashmirian calendar I have read that
Śrī Harsha was 664 years later than Vikramāditya.”1 The Arab historian ends this description
by saying: “In face of this discrepancy I am in perfect uncertainty, which to the present moment has not yet been cleared up by any trustworthy information.” The uncertainty, however,
disappears the moment this Harsha is taken to be Harsha who was a contemporary of the
Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang, and was living 664 years after Vikrama (=607 A.D.) and
onwards and whose era was invented in his honour by the astronomers of his court by antedating, by the round number of 400 years, the Vikrama Saṁvat, the earliest popular era of that
time. Al Bērūni no doubt says that Śrī Harsha era was used in Mathurā and Kanauj. But not
a single date has so far been verified as a year of this era, whether beginning from 457 B.C. or
from 607 A.D., as has been so well pointed out by D.N. Mookerjee.2 1 Sachau, Alberuni’s India, p. 5.
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