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Lunar
Calendar
This
is the most widely followed calendar in India. It is based on the
Moon’s transit. There are two types of lunar calendars. One starts
with the Kartika month and counted from Poornima or the full moon.
Hence it is called the Kartikadi system. The other starts with the
month Chaitra and counted from Amavasya or the new moon. The names of
the months are the same.
The
lunar months are counted by Tithis or the phases of the moon. Every 12
degree difference between the sun and the moon forms a Tithi. The
lunar Tithi or day is taken from Sun rise, i.e., the Tithi prevailing
at the time of sunrise is the day’s Tithi. New moon to full moon to
new moon completes a lunar month. As the motion of the moon is not
uniform, a Tithi may be longer than a day or shorter than a day. A
lunar fortnight, or Paksha, can vary from 13 to 15 days because of
this. As the moon takes about 29.53 days to complete one round of the
earth, the 12 lunar months amount to 354 days approximately. As it is
less by 11 days as compared to the solar year, every year 11 days are
added to one of the months. This is called Adkika Masa.
There
are several systems of calculating the years or era. The Vikrama Era
or Vikrama Samavat is the most popular one. It started with the
coronation of the great king Vikramadtya of Ujjain. It is 57 years
ahead of the western calendar year. Kaliyuga era is another popular
one, counted from the start of kaliyuga - February 17/18 midnight 3102
BC. The following shows the various era years as compared to the
western (Gregorian or Julian) calendar.
| Era |
Western |
Vikrama |
Kaliyuga |
Saka |
Kollam |
Bengali |
| Year |
1.1.2000 |
2057 |
5101 |
1922 |
1176 |
1407 |
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