History & Precision Of The Indian CalendarReferences from Vedic literature show that Indian chronology in its primary stages existed thousands of years before the Christian Era. The earliest traces of Indian chronology (science of Time) and chronometry (scientific measurement of Time) belong to the Vedic period. Knowledge of planetary motions, constellations, eclipses, solstices, seasons, etc. has existed since the beginning of the Vedic Age.A method of distributing time into various periods such as days, fortnights, months and years was adopted for the purposes of civic life, these divisions being intimately connected with the affairs of the people. And because of the very fact that the Indian calendar was devised to serve the affairs of day-to-day living, it was allowed the freedom of being both lunar and solar. Notes Shivanath Zarakhandi in his study of Indian astrology, Bharatiya Jyotisha, "From the period of the Rig Veda, months were lunar, but years luni-solar."This means that there was a constant correlation between the solar year and its monthly lunar divisions.A lunar month (or synodic month since it is also relative to the sun) is precisely 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 seconds long. Twelve such months constitute a lunar year of 354 days 8 hours 48 minutes and 36 seconds. To help the lunar months coincide with the solar year, the practice arose of inserting intercalary (extra) months. In general, 60 solar months = 62 lunar months. And so an extra month, called the Adhik Mas, is inserted every 30 months, approximately every 2 years. Such a practice was prevalent even in Vedic times. An intercalary month mentioned in the Rig Veda Vedamãso dhrutavrato dvãdasha prajãvatah; vedã ya upajãyate. (I/25:8) proves that the month was added to preserve the correspondence between a whole solar year and the 12 lunations.Such adjustments assure that the seasons, festivals, etc. retain their general position to the solar year. That is why, for example, Diwali always falls between late October and early November. In stark comparison is the Islamic calendar. It, too, is a lunar-based calendar. But the omission of such intercalary adjustments mean that Islamic festivals such as Eid, Ramadan, etc. fall at different times of the year every year.Lunar days in the Indian calendar are called tithis. They, too, are calculated very scientifically using the difference of the longitudinal angle between the position of the sun and the moon. Because of this, tithis are allowed to vary in length. Consequently, the tithi may or may not have changed by the time the day has changed, at sunrise. And that is why we find at certain times a tithi being 'omitted', and at certain times, two consecutive days sharing the same tithi.All this, together with the fact that ancient Indian astronomers had terms for measurements of time as minute as 34,000th a second, proves the Indian system of dating to be unarguably precise and above all, scientific.So accurate and practical is the Indian calendar system that it also became popular in Nepal, Tibet, Thailand and Java, as well as the Islamic West and other regions of south-east Asia. Several Indian texts on Astronomy are known to have been translated into Chinese, especially during the Sui and Thang Dynasties (581-907CE). While Indian astronomers and mathematicians travelled widely to spread their knowledge, foreign astrologers and astronomers were also attracted to India from as far afield as Arabia and Persia. David Pingree notes this positive influence in his extensive study of the history of Indian literature. He writes in Jyotishastra - Astral and Mathematics Literature, Volume IV, "The basic traditions of Indian astronomy imposed on these external [Babylonian, Greek and Islamic] systems its peculiar stamp, and transformed the science of Mesopotamia, Greece and Iran to something unique to India."
Marathi Kalnirnay 2011 With Tithi
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