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CHRONOLOGIES AND CALENDARS.

the second (Treta Yuga), only three-fourths; in the third (Duapar Yuga), about half; and in the fourth only one part was good.' And no one wonders after this that many of the books of the Brahmins on astronomy are now condemned as false. They have been proved to be antedated.[1] The famous Kalpa[2] was claimed by them as being equal to four and one-third billions of years. The Samvat era, dating from 57 B.C., is not, however, affected by the refutation of the Brahmin's claims.[3]

15. In the Persian (ancient) Empire, Ewald[4] holds that 'a weekly circle of seven days' was kept. But the subsequent discovery that the regions around Thibet have possessed a week or circle of five days only, seems to militate against the argument as to the universality of any weekly circle east or west of ancient Persia. The ruling reckoning is now the Moslem Calendar, in modern Persia.

16. Coming now to the eras of Greece, one finds that there were several. The years were lunar, with seven intercalculated months extra during nineteen years, like the Jewish style. The greatest and most enduring era is that of the Olympiads. This was initiated as from the year 776 B.C., or twenty-three years before A.U.C.[5] It contains four years, being the period which elapsed between the national games. It was not in general use till the third century B.C. There was also the Metonic Cycle[6] and the Callippic Cycle,[7] which are explained in later sections. Regarding the earlier chronology of Greece, Clinton, in his Fasti Hellenice, points out that

  1. Pouchet, p. 431.
  2. One Brahmin day.
  3. See chapter x.
  4. Antiquities of Israel.
  5. See section 17 infra.
  6. See section 57 infra.
  7. See section 51 infra.