verification of date

[yanom at ksuvx0.kyoto-su.ac.jp]

H. Isaacson put a question:

>I wonder if one of the knowledgeable people on the list could help
>this astronomical dunce in verifying a date given in Saptar.si
>(Laukika) era, without the century. My struggles with Sewell's tables
>have thus far only succeeded in addling my brains yet further. The
>date is given as sa.m 64 bhaa (i.e. Bhaadra(pada)) "su (i.e.
>"suklapak.se) di (i.e. divase) .sa.s.thyaa.m bhaume. I would
>guess, on other grounds, that the date might be one in the late
>nineteenth century.

to which I would like to answer.

Saptar.si (Laukina) sa.m 64 can be
Saka 1711 (current) or
Saka 1710 (expired) or
Saka 1811 (current) or
Saka 1810 (expired)

since we should add 47 to get the corresponding <current> Saka year.
(See Sewell-Dikshit, page 41).

The result my program is
=====================================================================
 Saka 1711   Bhadrapada Suklapaksa  6  |  AD 1789  8 27    Thursday
=====================================================================
 Saka 1710   Bhadrapada Suklapaksa  6  |  AD 1788  9  6    Saturday
=====================================================================
 Saka 1811   Bhadrapada Suklapaksa  6  |  AD 1889  9  1    Sunday
======================================================================
 Saka 1810   Bhadrapada Suklapaksa  6  |  AD 1888  9 12    Wednesday
======================================================================
which are not good.  But when we try the other way round, I got for
the last date:

==========================================================================
 1888  9 11 Tue | Saka 1810        Bhadrapada Suklapaksa  6 (0.28) Visakha
==========================================================================
Since my conversion promgram from Western to Indian is more reliable
than that from Indian to Wetern, I think that the possibily of the
last one is very high.

I hope this helps.

Michio YANO