Indian calendar

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.