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Hindu Calendar
Hindu Calendar
Hindu Calendar
Hindu calendar is a collective name for most of the lunisidereal calendars and sidereal calendars used in India
since ancient times. It has undergone many changes in
the process of regionalization, and today there are several
regional Hindu calendars. It has also been standardized
as the Indian national calendar. Some of the more prominent regional Hindu calendars include the Nepali calendar, Assamese calendar, Bengali calendar, Malayalam
calendar, Tamil calendar, Telugu calendar and Kannada
calendar.[1][2] The common feature of all regional Hindu
calendars is that the names of the twelve months are the
same (because the names are based in Sanskrit) though
the spelling and pronunciation have come to vary slightly
from region to region over thousands of years. The month
which starts the year also varies from region to region.
The Buddhist calendar and the traditional lunisolar calendars of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and
Thailand are also based on an older version of the Hindu
calendar.
Most of the Hindu calendars are inherited from a system
rst enunciated in Vedga Jyotia of Lagadha, a late
BC adjunct to the Vedas, standardized in the Srya Siddhnta (3rd century) and subsequently reformed by astronomers such as ryabhaa (AD 499), Varhamihira
(6th century) and Bhskara II (12th century). Dierences
and regional variations abound in these computations, but
the following is a general overview of the Hindu lunisolar
calendar.
1 Day
In the Hindu calendar, the day starts with the sunrise. It
is allotted ve "properties" or "limbs", called agas. They
are:
1. the Tithi (one of 30 divisions of a synodic month)
active at sunrise
2. the Vsara (ancient nomeclature), vra (modern
nomeclature), like in ravi-vra, som-vra, etc. or
weekday
3. the Nakatra (one of 27 divisions of the celestial
ecliptic) in which the moon resides at sunrise
4. the Yoga (one of 27 divisions based on the ecliptic
longitude of the sun and moon) active at sunrise time
A page from the Hindu calendar 1871-72.
1 DAY
Together 5 limbs or properties are labelled under as the of that object. The longitude of the sun and the longitude
pacgas (Sanskrit: paca = ve). An explanation of of the moon are added, and normalized to a value rangthe terms follows.
ing between 0 to 360 (if greater than 360, one subtracts
360). This sum is divided into 27 parts. Each part will
now equal 800' (where ' is the symbol of the arcminute
1.1 Vsara
which means 1/60 of a degree). These parts are called
the yogas. They are labeled:
Vsara refers to the weekdays and the names of the week
in many western cultures bear striking similarities with Again, minor variations may exist. The yoga that is active
during sunrise of a day is the prevailing yoga for the day.
the Vsara:
The term -vsara is often realized as vra or vaar in
Sanskrit-derived and inuenced languages. There are 1.4 Karaa
many variations of the names in the regional languages,
mostly using alternate names of the celestial bodies in- A karaa is half of a tithi. To be precise, a karaa is the
volved.
time required for the angular distance between the sun
and the moon to increase in steps of 6 starting from 0.
(Compare with the denition of a tithi.)
1.2
Nakatra
The ecliptic is divided into 27 Nakatras, which are variously called lunar houses or asterisms. These reect
the moons cycle against the xed stars, 27 days and 7
hours, the fractional part being compensated by an intercalary 28th nakatra titled Abhijit. Nakatras computation appears to have been well known at the time of the The 4 xed karaas are:
igveda (2nd1st millennium BC).
1. akuni ()
The ecliptic is divided into the nakatras eastwards starting from a reference point which is traditionally a point on
2. Catupda ()
the ecliptic directly opposite the star Spica called Citr in
Sanskrit. (Other slightly dierent denitions exist.) It is
3. Nga ()
called Medi - start of Aries"; this is when the equinox
4. Kistughna()
where the ecliptic meets the equator was in Aries
(today it is in Pisces, 28 degrees before Aries starts).
The dierence between Medi and the present equinox The 7 repeating karaas are:
is known as Ayana - denoting by how much of a
fraction of degrees & minutes the ecliptic has progressed
1. Vava or Bava ()
from its xed (sidereal) position. Given the 25,800 year
cycle for the precession of the equinoxes, the equinox was
2. Valava or Blava ()
directly opposite Spica in AD 285, around the date of the
3. Kaulava ()
Srya Siddhnta.[3][4]
The nakatras with their corresponding regions of sky
are given below, following Basham.[5] As always, there
are many versions with minor dierences. The names on
the right-hand column give roughly the correspondence of
the nakatras to modern names of stars. Note that nakatras are (in this context) not just single stars but are segments on the ecliptic characterised by one or more stars.
Hence more than one star is mentioned for each nakatra.
4. Taitila or Taitula ()
1.3
Yoga
The Sanskrit word Yoga means union, but in astronomical calculations it is used in the sense of alignment.
First one computes the angular distance along the ecliptic
of each object, taking the ecliptic to start at Mea or Aries
(Medi, as dened above): this is called the longitude
5. Gara or Garaja ()
6. Vaija ()
7. Vii (Bhadra) ()
Now the rst half of the 1st tithi (of ukla Paka) is
always Kitughna karaa. Hence this karaa' is
xed.
2.2
Seasons
3
8. Krtika [(Tul-Vcika),(Libra-Scorpio)]
9. Agrahyaa
or,
Mrgara
Dhanur),(Scorpio-Sagitarius)]
[(Vcika-
2.2 Seasons
If the transits of the Sun through various constellations
of the zodiac (Ri) are used, then we get Solar months,
which do not shift with reference to the Gregorian calendar. The Solar months along with the corresponding
Hindu seasons and Gregorian months are:
2.1
Month names
4
2.2.1
3
Extra months (Adhika Msa)
The astronomical basis of the Hindu lunar months. Also illustrates Adhika Masa (Year 2-Bhadrapada) repeats twice; the rst
time the Sun moves entirely within Simha Rashi thus rendering it
an Ashika Masa
5
ing to Chaitra, the aforementioned religious rules apply
giving rise to the following results:
If an adhika Chaitra is followed by a nija Chaitra,
the new year starts with the nija Chaitra.
If an adhika Chaitra is followed by a ChaitraVaishkha kshaya, the new year starts with the adhika Chaitra.
If a Chaitra-Vaikha Kaya occurs with no adhika Chaitra before it, then it starts the new year.
will start with the rst sunrise after the new moon,
and end with the new moon.
The adhika month will therefore get sandwiched
between the 2 pakas of the nija months. For example, a rvaa Adhika Msa will be inserted as
follows:
1. nija rvaa Ka-Paka
2. adhika rvaa ukla-Paka
3. adhika rvaa Ka-Paka and
There is another kind of lunisolar calendar which differs from the former in the way the months are named.
When a full moon (instead of new moon) occurs before sunrise on a day, that day is said to be the rst day
of the lunar month. In this case, the end of the lunar
month will coincide with a full moon. This is called the
primnta mna - full-moon-ending reckoning, as
against the amnta mna - new-moon-ending reckoning used before.
This denition leads to a lot of complications:
The rst paka of the month will fall on KaPaka whilst the second will be ukla-Paka in
Primnta system.
The new year is still on the rst day of the Chaitra
ukla-Paka. The subsequent Pakas will, for example, be:
Note:
HISTORY
solar calendar year, so the exact year will not begin on the
same day every year.
7 Year names
Apart from the numbering system outlined above, there
is also a cycle of 60 calendar year names, called
Samvatsaras, which started at the rst year (at elapsed
years zero) and runs continuously:
8 Eras
9 History
The Hindu Calendar descends from the Vedic times.
There are many references to calendrics in the Vedas.
The (6) Vedgas (auto Veda) called Jyotia (literally, celestial body study) prescribed all the aspects
10.2
Samvat calendars
10.1
Most holidays in India are based on the rst two calendars. A few are based on the solar cycle, Sankranti (solar
sidereal) and Baisakhi (solar tropical).
10.3
11
13 Variations
In Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and many northern region of India months are Purnimanta (means
month ends on Purnima or Full Moon). In Gujarat, Maharashtra, and other parts of many south
Indian region, months are Amanta (months end on
Amavasya).
In inscriptions, the years may be gata (past) or current.
Month (lunar)
2 pakshas in a month, shukla (waxing) and krishna
(waning)
12
Date conversion
As an indicator of this variation, Whitakers Almanac re Chaitradi Vikram (past) : Chaitra-Pausha: subtract ports that the Gregorian year AD 2000 corresponds, re57; Pausha-Phalguna: subtract 56.
spectively with:
9
1. Year 5102 in the Kaliyuga calendar; (3102 BC)
2. Year 2544 in the Buddha Nirvana calendar; (544
BC)
16
See also
18 Further reading
Reingold and Dershowitz, Calendrical Calculations,
Millennium Edition, Cambridge University Press,
latest 2nd edition 3rd printing released November
2004. ISBN 0-521-77752-6
S. Balachandra Rao, Indian Astronomy: An Introduction, Universities Press, Hyderabad, 2000.
Rai Bahadur Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha,
The Paleography of India, 2 ed., Ajmer, 1918,
reprinted Manshuram Manoharlal publishers, 1993.
Mughal, Muhammad Aurang Zeb.
(2012).
Temporal rhythm of change in Village Jhokwala,
Pakistan: Ethnographic insights from calendars.
Giovanni Bennardo (ed.), Cultural Models of Nature
and the Environment: Self, Space, and Causality
Workshop. ESE Working Paper No. 1. DeKalb, IL:
Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy, Northern Illinois University,
pp. 6165.
Hindu astrology
Hindu chronology
Hindu units of measurement
List of Hindu festivals
Panchangam
Panjika
19 External links
Pambu Panchangam
Britannica
17
References
Brill
[3] Chatterjee, S.K. (1998). Indian Calendric System. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
[4] Chia Daphne and Helmer Aslaksen (April 2001). Indian
Calendars: Comparing the Surya Siddhanta and the Astronomical Ephemeris (PDF). Retrieved 2004-04-04.
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20.2
Images
20.3
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