Page:Chronologies and calendars (IA chronologiescale00macdrich).pdf/75



T this point it will be convenient to consider the various chronologies which prevail in Hindustan, Ceylon, Burmah, and Further India. The ruling calendars to-day are the Bengali, Fusli, Moslem, Samvat, and Christian. Of the last, it will suffice to say that it is usually used in the postal, telegraph, and Government services. In regard to the Moslem, it is only necessary to refer the reader to section 59, and to add that there are fifty-seven millions of Mohammedans in India alone. Of the other reckonings, a little history will help our enquiries.

. In the district of Bhopal-Ujjain are the ruins of Vikramaditya. It marks in nomenculture a most important Hindoo era, the Samvat. The first year thereof corresponds to B.C. 57, and as the basis of this calendar was like the Julian year, one can always find the Samvat year by adding fifty-seven to the year of grace. Accordingly, 1896 A.D.=Samvat 1953. Now, in Samvat 1612 (i.e., 1555 A.D.), the Emperor Abkar signalized his reign by inventing the Fusli era, deriving the term from the Indian word 'fas,' which meant crops, so that a year in this era is sometimes also called the Harvest Year. Abkar resolved to make the