Various calendars of ancient India

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Various calendars of ancient India

Written by Sunil Nair

 

Calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time – typically for days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar (such as years and months) are usually, though not necessarily, is synchronized with the cycles of some astronomical phenomenon, such as the cycle of Sun or Moon. Many civilizations and societies have devised a calendar, usually derived from other calendars on which they model their systems, suited to their particular needs.

Cycles can be synchronized with periodic phenomena:

 

Period appearance in the same place in the sky. This is usually referred to by the name – Sidereal. This sidereal re-occurrence could be either in lunar style or in solar style.

Sidereal Lunar: A sidereal lunar calendar is synchronized to the motion of the Moon against the stellar background. We may expect unique names for each month in such lunar calendars. But even in India, unique names for Lunar months are not known. Lunar days are known by a special name sequence in India, such as –

Nakshatra : Moon's Longitude/27

27 day cycle, since Moon takes 27 and 1/3 days complete a rotation. Asvini, Bharani etc are day names used in this system.

Since the reckoning of the movement of Moon is pegged to the fixed stellar background in this case, such lunar calendars is considered as part Sidereal system.

 

Sidereal Solar: A sidereal solar calendar is synchronized to the motion of the Sun against the stellar background. A Sidereal Solar calendar dates, indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun (or equivalently the apparent position of the sun moving on the celestial sphere) – or in other words the position of the Sun in ecliptic. If the position of the earth is reckoned with respect to the fixed stars, then the dates indicate the zodiacal constellation near which the sun can be found. Usually in all such sidereal solar calendars, unique names for each month would be present. The Indian names used for such sidereal months are Mesha, Vrishabha etc. Like the sidereal solar months, sidereal Nakshatra position of Sun is also given importance by ancient civilizations. For example -

Njattu vela (Njayar Nila, Sun's position in a Nakshatra): Sun's Longitude/27

A year is composed on 27 Njattu Velas (each Njattu vela corresponding to a Nakshatra and known by the Nakshatra name). One Njattu vela period is usually around 13.52 solar days or better till Sun's position in Nakshatra areas spanning 13 deg. 20 min each.

Sidereal calendar is well known and in extensive use in India from Agamic and Vedic past onwards, and is known to have been in use before the period of Hipparchus in ancient Greek as well.

 

Tropical solar calendar: If the position of the earth (or the sun) is reckoned with respect to the equinox, then the dates indicate the season (and so are synchronized to the declination of the sun). Such a calendar is called a tropical solar calendar. That means, a tropical solar calendar is based on perceived seasonal changes synchronized to the apparent motion of the Sun. Usually in all such solar calendars unique names for each month, and day would be present. (Solar months without month names – is usually near to nil). Solar months were named Isha, Urja, Madhu, Madhava, Tapa, Tapasya etc in India. Solar calendars are usually seasonal in nature, and so the year beginnings are clubbed to the equinoxes and solstices. Solar days are known by a special name sequence originated in India, now popular throughout the world such as –

Vara : Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc

7 day cycle, since Earth – represented by Sun moving through ecliptic - takes more than 364 days – actually 365.2425 days – to complete on cycle.

 

Tropical lunar calendar: There is nothing called a tropical lunar calendar, since the seasons are NOT in any way connected to Moon. As every one knows, a lunar calendar is a calendar based on the movement of Moon alone. But when this movement is treated against the fixed sidereal background it is called `Sidereal Lunar calendar' (mentioned above) and not simply lunar calendar. When this movement is treated in connection with the relative position of Sun, (i.e. lunar phases based calendar) then it is no more simply a lunar calendar, but a `Luni-solar calendar' since Sun is also considered. Therefore lunar phases based calendar is discussed under the luni-solar section.

A luni-solar calendar is based on a combination of both solar and lunar reckonings. The lunar phases based calendar should be treated as a luni-solar calendar and not as simply lunar alone. A calendar that tries to adjust its luni solar months with pure solar months and year also should be treated as a luni-solar calendar itself. Thus a luni-solar calendar could be of two type –

A lunar phases based calendar A calendar that tries to adjust its luni solar months with pure solar months or with solar tropical year.

Usually in all such luni-solar calendars unique names for each month would be present. In India the luni-solar months are known by the names such as Chaitra, Vaisakha etc. Luni-solar months may or may not be seasonal in nature. Actually in case of luni-solar months a special effort of `adjusting the year' with solar tropical year, is required to make the luni-solar year seasonal (since by nature luni-solar months are more connected to lunar phases and not with solar seasons). This is how the concept of `Adimasa (extra month) comes into play. In Luni-solar calendars months of moon are fitted in with sidereal or tropical solar year and seasons. And thus the concept of adhi masa (extra month) and khaya masa (deducted month) etc comes into play. These `adjustments' help us to connect lunar months corrected to Sun's movement and seasons. Hence we cannot say no more that `Lunar phases based year is perfectly lunar. Perfect lunar months or year could be seen only in Islam (actually not even in Islam) as they consider only visible phenomena.

Luni-solar day reckoning is another unique concept associated with this type of calendars. Luni-solar days are knows by two name sequences in India such as -

 

Tithi : (Moon's longitude – Sun's longitude) / 30

30 day cycle, since the Moon takes 29 and 1/5 days to complete its waxing and waning phases. The 30 days are divided into two phases such as Sukla paksha (waxing phase) and Krishna paksha (waning phase) having 15 days each. Each day is named such as Prathama (1nd), Dwiteeeya (2nd), Triteeya (3rd) etc upto 15th. The 15th day is termed Paurnami (Full Moon) or Amavasi (No Moon or New Moon) as per Indian system.

 

Nityayoga : (Moon's longitude – Sun's longitude) / 27

27 day cycle, since Moon takes 27 and 1/3 days complete a rotation. The 27 days are named Vishkambha etc.

 

There are some other calendars that appear to be synchronized to the motion of Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, some special stars such as Sirius etc.

Venus: Synchronization to Venus appears to occur primarily in civilizations near the Equator. As far as I know - It is not used by Indians; but Mayans and Egyptians had Venus based calendar. Jupiter: Indians had a Jupiter based calendar – in which 12 years makes a cycle; but no specific year, month or day naming convention is known to have been in use with this system. Saturn: As far as I know - no Saturn only calendar system was known to have been in use in India. Jupiter-Saturn: A Jupiter-Saturn based year reckoning system in which a 60 year cycle with unique names for each year provides another calendar which was very popular in India. In this system also even though unique names such as Prabhava, Vibhava etc is available for years, no unique name for months, day etc is available. Sirius etc: Such stellar based calendars are known to have been in use by some ancient civilizations such as Egypt. Many scholars tried to associate such phenomenon with Indian calendars and festivals as well.

In India, even such calendars are synchronized with the Sidereal stellar (Rasi or Nakshatra) background as in the case of Jupiterian year and calendar. Or in case of Panchavarsheeya yuga system mentioned in Vedanga Jyotisha.

 

Arithmetic and astronomical calendars: Most of the calendars used by ancient civilization needs arithmetic and same time based on astronomical phenomenon with a definite set of rules, this approach gives high degree of perfection. Examples of such calendars would be the long count or short count dates used by Mayans or the Ahargana system (based on Kali era) used by ancient Indians.

 

The advantage of such calendars is the ease of calculating when a particular date occurs. The disadvantage is imperfect accuracy over a long period of time. Furthermore, even if the calendar is very accurate, its accuracy diminishes slowly over time, owing to changes in Earth's rotation. This limits the lifetime of an accurate arithmetic calendar to a few thousand years. After then, the rules would need to be modified from observations made since the invention of the calendar. Actually all this happens as said by great astronomical treatise Surya Sidhanta, which states – "time is limitless and formless and we are trying to limit the time to some form for taking a calculation at a given moment required by us". So whether the approach is scientific, arithmetic, astronomical or seasonal - it is bound to cause errors in long run, if not corrected in due course and then it is festival for those who see fault in everything.

The primary practical use of a calendar is to identify days: to be informed about and/or to agree on a future event and to record an event that has happened. Days may be significant for civil, religious or social reasons. For example, a calendar provides a way to determine which days are religious or civil holidays, which days mark the beginning and end of business accounting periods, and which days have legal significance, such as the day taxes are due or a contract expires. Also a calendar may, by identifying a day, provide other useful information about the day such as its season.

 

Calendars are also used to help people manage their personal schedules, time and activities, particularly when individuals have numerous work, school, and family commitments. People frequently use multiple systems, and may keep both a business and family calendar to help prevent them from over committing their time.

 

Calendars are also used as part of a complete timekeeping system: date and time of day together specify a moment in time. Agricultural calendar is developed over 1000s of year observation and experience of farming communities and I would boldly say that agriculture is the mother of all calendars. Njattu vela calendars (still used in state of Kerala) is best example and this author got testimony from many farmers that it works marvelously.

 

Some more info

Now I will go through various calendar concepts used by ancients and its uses in day to day life without going much detail about its uses.

 

Saura year, Savana year both are solar based calendars (Or better, Saura year is tropical solar year, and Savana year is Sidereal solar year) Chaandra year and Naaksatra year both are moon based calendars. (Or better, Chandra year is luni-solar calendar and Naakshatra year is sidereal lunar year) Barhaspathya Year: Calendar based on rotation of Jupiter. The planet guru in one sign (Rasi: sidereal 30 degree area) is considered as a year. This is used in religious functions of mass participation or gather of scholars etc [Ancient Kerala festival Maha-Magha or mamangam is an example. This festival later turned into a repeating war between various rulers for supremacy as chakravarhty (king of kings )]

It is said that the Aryabhata, a Kerala Jain, presented his system of Parahita Sidhantha in presence of such a crowd of scholars in one such Maha-Makha and got it accepted. The same is true with Parameshwara Acharya who developed Drigganita Sidhanta later.

There is reference about Saptarshi calendars in various Puranas and treatises. But scholars are divided over its application. It is used to record major events after happening or recording dynasties and coronation or uprising of new kingdoms. The Saptarshi Calendar is based on movements of stars called Saptarshis (7 sages) or Sapta-Rkshas (7 stars). Those Saptarshi are named:

1. Visvamitra:

Dubhe (Dubb, Ak): Bear, Alpha Ursæ Majoris.

2. Jamadagni

Merak (Mirak): Loins, Beta Ursæ Majoris.

3. Bharadvaja

Phad (Phecda; Phekda; Phegda; Phekha; Phacd): Thigh, Gamma Ursæ Majoris.

4. Gautama

Megrez (Kaffa): Insertion-point (of the bear's tail), Delta Ursæ Majoris.

5. Atri

Alioth (Aliath): Goat, Epsilon Ursæ Majoris.

6. Vasistha

Mizar (Mizat; Mirza): Wrapping (Loincloth), Zeta Ursæ Majoris.

7. Kasyapa

Alkaid (Benetnash, Benetnasch, Elkeid): Chief Daughter of the Bier, Eta Ursæ Majoris.

 

Saptarshi- or The Seven Great Sages gets its name in the Indian Mythology after the sages mentioned above. These sages are supposed to be revolving around Dhruva, the Pole Star. This means that Saptarshis are positioned near to the pole star in the North. They move from east to west around pole star in clockwise direction. Sage Vriddha Garga renounced Rishi and astronomer refers to the stay of Sapta Rishis in 67th yr at the time of transition of Dwarapara - Kaliyugas. There are various references about various events in several Sapta Rishi eras.

 

Soura varsha (tropical solar year) = 365.2425 solar days

Savana year (Sidereal year) = 360 degree = 365.25 solar days

Naakshtra year (Sidereal lunar year) = 324 Nakshtra days (27 x 12 = 324)

Chaandra year (luni-solar year) = 354 solar days (29.5 x 12 = 254) = 360 Tithi

Briahspathy year (Jupiterian year) = 361 solar days

 

What ever be the year reckoning system we may use - 1/12th of an year is taken as one month and 1/30th is taken as a day. It is clear that - for ascertaining all this knowledge the abstract concept of zodiac and knowledge of degrees and signs are required.

 

 

Savana Dina is calculated from Sunrise to Sunrise which is approximately 60 ghaties. (24 hours). Saura Masa (solar month) is suns movement in one Sign or Masa (30 degree span in zodiac), i.e. time taken for Sun's entry and exist. Chandra Dina is based on Tithi and month is from one Amavasya to another Amavasya. There was also a system of calculating month from one Paurnami to another Paurnami.

Luni -solar calendar is used for all kinds of religious festivals. Vrata (fasting), Seemantham (a special ceremony when a lady is pregnant), pumsavanam (another ceremony when a lady is pregnant. It is said that during this ceremony the use of some special Ayurvedic herbs can even change the sex of foetus especially for getting male kids. Now the technique is lost with time and simple ceremony is conducted). All these festivals are supposed to do following Savana calendar. Choulam (Cutting hair for the first time for the baby), Upanayanam (Initiation), rajyabhisekham (crowning of king; coronation), marriages, karnadedham, sastra bandhanam (first acceptance of sword from a guru or a king), go-danam (donating cow to others), wearing of new ornaments or dresses etc are mainly based on Solar calendar and Nakshatra calendar. Coming sidereal Nakshatra considerations - For go-danam (donating cow) janma nakshtra is avoided; for first union of couples (if they are taking a muhurta) Janma nakshtra of both is avoided; for marriage, the Nakshatra of bride groom should be avoided and ultimate importance is given to brides star and further considerations; for anna-prasha (first food giving ceremony for the baby) and treating of diseases or giving medicines etc moon is important and its power is also considered along with other factors; for all kind of religious celebrations luni - solar calendar is used as months considered are usually luni-solar [As contributing factors, luni-solar months such as Chaitra, Vaisakha etc or sidereal solar such as Mesha, Vrishabha etc and Nakshtras which themselves are sidereal in nature, Tithi which is luni-solar in nature are all considered] Jupiterian calendars are used for festivals which happen after certain number of years especially which repeats after every 12 yrs (one Vyazhavatta, 1 Jupiterian period). Ancient Kerala festival of scholars known as Maha-magha (Jupiter in Leo in Magha Nakshatra) could be the primary example. Kumbha mela and maha kumbha melas is another example. The Kumbha-mela at the period of Harsha vardhana is recorded by Chinese traveler hu-ang –tsang. In some temples (especially maha kshetras, i.e. big temples) some festivals or some remedial measures such as Deva prasna (temple Prasna) is conducted once in every 12 yrs unless some serious emergency happens. Deva pratishta (Installation of idols of deities) and agrayanam, Upanayanam (initiation), go-danam (donating cow), kalasam (a special temple tantric act done to increase the power of deity) or rajya bishekham (crowning of king) etc are said to b when sun is in Uttarayana. Except Deva Pratishta (Installation of idols of deities), all the above activities can be usually done only on bright half of moon in case of emergency . All good events including things related to deities (daiva karyas) are done in Uttarayana and Sukla paksha. Things related to forefathers (Pitru karyas) are conducted in Dakhsinayana and Krishna paksha (black half of moon phase).

 

I hope this elaboration will serve as a base to elaborate your understanding about the various calendars in use in ancient India, their purpose, use and importance – both from the time keeper's (Panchangakaras) perspective and also from the astrological perspective.