Nor have the other Orientalists been more lenient; especially those
who, perchance under the inspiration of early sympathies for biblical
chronology, prefer in matters connected with Indian dates to give head
to their own emotional but unscientific intuitions. Some would have us
believe that the Samvat era "is not demonstrable for times anteceding
the Christian era at all." Kern makes efforts to prove that the Indian
astronomers began to employ this era "only after the year of grace
1000." Prof. Weber, referring sarcastically to General Cunningham,
observes that "others, on the contrary, have no hesitation in at once
referring, wherever possible, every Samvat or Samvatsare-dated
inscription to the Samvat era." Thus, e.g., Cunningham (in his "Arch.
Survey of India," iii. 31, 39) directly assigns an inscription dated
Samvat 5 to the year "B.C. 52," &c., and winds up the statement with the
following plaint: "For the present, therefore, unfortunately, where
there is nothing else (but that unknown era) to guide us, it must
generally remain an open question, which era we have to do with in a
particular inscription, and what date consequently the inscription
bears.
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