Indian Calendar

The Indian or Hindu Calendar, which is also known as Panchanga, is a lunisolar calendar that is used extensively across the subcontinent of India and further afield in countries which have a historical tradition of Hinduism. It is a lunisolar calendar in so far as it falls somewhere between a lunar calendar, which typically amounts to about 354 days and is based on observations of moon cycles, and a solar calendar which more accurately calculates the length of a year as being 365.242 days, the length of time the Earth takes to rotate around the Sun. The Hindu Calendar does this by effectively being a lunar calendar comprised of twelve months of 29 or 30 days, but adding an extra month every 32–33 months to make up the difference between the lunar and solar calendar. The Indian Calendar is in widespread usage in India and other majority Hindu countries today, primarily for religious reasons.

Indian calendar historical contextIndian calendar historical context

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A modern depiction of King Vikramaditya

The Indian or Hindu Calendar is one of the oldest calendars still in use today. Indeed it is so old that the exact origins of it are unclear, with some accounts suggesting it was devised thousands of years ago. The earliest confirmed accounts of such time-keeping in Hindu tradition come from the Vedas, a set of Hindu religious texts dating back to 1200 BCE. This earlier origin aside, the Hindu Calendar technically dates time from the Vikram Era of King Vikram of Ujjain or Vikramaditya, a semi-legendary king who appears in much of ancient Indian literature. His reign was believed to be in the first century BCE and so the Hindu Calendar begins in 57–56 BCE.

The calendar established itself as intrinsic to Hinduism, in so far as it is used to determine the right time in the year when vratas or ‘vows’ should be performed by observant Hindus. It continued to be used across much of India for centuries to come, although the prevalence of it varied as different parts of the sub-continent fell under foreign rule. For instance, in the late medieval and early modern periods, much of northern and north-western India were ruled by the Muslim Mughal Empire and the Muslim Calendar became dominant here. This was not the case, though, elsewhere and as modern India has developed as a Hindu nation, the Indian Calendar has re-emerged in a preponderant manner for religious life across the subcontinent.

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Details of the Indian calendarDetails of the Indian calendar

The Indian Calendar is a lunisolar calendar that, quite unusually, comprises elements of a lunar and a solar calendar. Lunar and solar calendars operate differently in so far as a lunar calendar operates according to a year of 354 days and is calculated by observing the movements of the Earth’s moon, but a solar calendar is calculated according to the Earth’s orbit around the sun and takes 365.242 days, the time which we equate to a calendar year today. Most ancient calendars either functioned as a lunar calendar or a solar calendar. The Indian Calendar combined the two by effectively operating as a lunar calendar for the most part, i.e. the year is typically divided into twelve months of 29.5 days, however, it makes up the difference in days between the lunar calendar and the solar calendar, by adding an extra month every 32–33 months. This is known as the ādhika māsa or ‘additional month’. The additional month is treated as a particularly auspicious religious month when extra penance and benevolence are deemed to receive extra blessings. Certain events such as weddings are generally not held during the ādhika māsa.

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The Golden Temple of Amritsar during Diwali

The Indian Calendar is divided into twelve months, generally speaking, but these do not have uniform names everywhere that the calendar is in use for religious purposes. This is owing to the linguistic variety which is present across India and adjoining regions. Thus, Mina, the first month in the Hindu Calendar, which generally falls in March and April in the Gregorian Calendar, is known as Mina in Vikrami, Söt in Assamese, Choitrô in Bengali, Mīnaṃ in Malayalam and Paṅguṉi in Tamil. Certain Hindu festivals tend to fall in specific months. For instance, Diwali, the famous Hindu festival of lights, usually occurs in late October or November in the month of Kartika.

Relevance of the Indian calendar in modern timesRelevance of the Indian calendar in modern times

The Indian Calendar is generally not employed in any civil capacities in the world today, not even in Hindu countries. For instance, India itself primarily operates government and business according to the Gregorian Calendar developed in Europe in the sixteenth century. However, the Hindu Calendar is used within some Hindu and religious groups in the subcontinent of India and other parts of Southeast Asia almost exclusively for religious purposes. As such, it is still in use today thousands of years after it was first developed and presents one of the more unusual historic calendars. In some instances, though, it has been superseded by what is termed the Indian Reformed Calendar, a calendar based on the Hindu Calendar, but one with several reforms introduced into it in the middle of the twentieth century to standardize the Hindu Calendar and account for various local traditions in using it across the vast parts of India.

Explore more about the Indian calendarExplore more about the Indian calendar

• Understanding Historical Dates and Calendars for Historical Research by James Tanner, article on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
• Understanding Dates: Five Common Mistakes to Avoid on the MyHeritage Blog

References

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