The Lakshmana Era (or the Lakshmana Sena Era) is year-numbering system that was established by

Lakshmana Sena Lokkhon Sen or Lakshmana Sena () was the ruler from the Sena dynasty of the Bengal region on the Indian subcontinent. His rule lasted for 28 years, in which his empire reached at its peak possessing the territories of Gauda, Kamrupa, Kalinga, ...

, a ruler of eastern India from 1178 to 1206. While there is some debate among historians about the start of the era, most currently agree that it is 1118-1119 AD. The start of the era is sixty years before the start of Lakshmana Sena's reign. Scholars do not agree on why that year was chosen; it is likely to have been Lakshmana Sena's birth year. Scholars have used

Abul Fazl Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (14 January 1551 – 22 August 1602), also known as Abul Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami, was an Indian writer, historian, and politician who served as the grand vizier of the Mughal Empire from his appointment ...

Akbarnama The ''Akbarnama (; )'', is the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (), commissioned by Akbar himself and written by his court historian and biographer, Abul Fazl. It was written in Persian, which was the literary l ...

, dates mentioned in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and Maithili manuscripts, and copper-plate inscriptions to deduce the start of the era. In the

, Abul Fazl mentions that "in the country of Bang (Bengal) dates are calculated from the beginning of the reign of Lacchman Sen". He includes several other eras in use at the time, including the

Salivahana Shalivahana (IAST: Śālivāhana) was a legendary emperor of ancient India, who is said to have ruled from Pratishthana (present-day Paithan, Maharashtra). He is believed to be based on a Satavahana king (or kings). There are several contrad ...

and the

Vikramaditya Vikramaditya (Sanskrit: विक्रमादित्य IAST: ') was a legendary king as mentioned in ancient Indian literature, featuring in traditional stories including those in ''Baital Pachisi, Vetala Panchavimshati'' and ''Singhasan ...

eras, and correspondences between all of them while discussing Akbar's introduction of his new era in 1584, the ''Tarikh-e-Ilahi'' (Divine Era). (The ''Tarikh-e-Ilahi'' would later serve as the basis of the Bangladeshi calendar.) Maithili-speaking scholars have used

Vidyapati Vidyapati ( – 1448), also known by the sobriquet ''Maithil Kavi Kokil'' (the poet cuckoo of Maithili), was a Maithili and Sanskrit polymath-poet-saint, playwright, composer, biographer, philosopher, law-theorist, writer, courtier and ...

's work, where he states dates in both the Lakshmana Era and the

Shaka Era The Shaka era (IAST: Śaka, Śāka) is a historical Hindu calendar era (year numbering), the epoch (its year zero) of which corresponds to Julian year (calendar), Julian year 78. The era has been widely used in different regions of the Indian ...

. The era was used in many manuscripts produced in Bengal and Bihar for at least the next 400 years. Most events in medieval

Mithila Mithila may refer to: Places * Mithilā, a synonym for the ancient Videha state ** Mithilā (ancient city), the ancient capital city of Videha * Mithila (region), a cultural region (historical and contemporary), now divided between India and Nepa ...

were dated using this era.

References

{{reflist Calendar eras Sena dynasty