In 1957, after struggling to deal with dozens or even hundreds of localized calendars and calendar systems in use in India, the Indian government approved an official standard created by its Calendar Reform Committee. This new system, called the Indian Civil Calendar, is a lunisolar calendar modeled after the common Gregorian Calendar.
Epoch
This calendar's epoch is the beginning of the Saka Era, which is used in many traditional Indian calendars. Being the epoch, this date equates to Caitra 1st of the year 1 (see list of months below). The Gregorian equivalent to this era is the equinox of March 22, 79 AD. The adoption date of the Indian Civil Calendar in its own system was on Caitra 1st, 1879 (March 22, 1957).
Years
A normal year in the Indian Civil Calendar is based on the Earth's rotation around the sun, and is therefore 365 days. A leap year is 366 days with the day being added to the end of the month of Caitra. To determine if a year is a leap year, first add 78 to the Saka year. Using this total, you can then determine if it is a leap year using the same system used in the Gregorian Calendar (see leap year).
Months
The months in this calendar system are named after the traditional months in use for centuries, however, in the civil calendar they have been aligned with accurate, though averaged, astronomical measurements. A solar month is defined as the interval required for the sun's apparent longitude to increase by 30°. Since the sun travels on an elliptical orbit, it moves at differing speeds throughout the year. It is for this reason that in the Indian Calendar, five (six in a leap year) of the months in the beginning of the year have 31 days (when the sun is moving it's slowest), and the rest have 30.
Month Name Days In Month Gregorian Equivalent
Caitra 30* Caitra 1 = March 22*
Vaisakha 31 Vaisakha 1 = April 21
Jyaistha 31 Jyaistha 1 = May 22
Asadha 31 Asadha 1 = June 22
Sravana 31 Sravana 1 = July 23
Bhadra 31 Bhadra 1 = August 23
Asvina 30 Asvina 1 = September 23
Kartika 30 Kartika 1 = October 23
Agrahayana 30 Agrahayana 1 = November 22
Pausa 30 Pausa 1 = December 22
Magha 30 Magha 1 = January 21
Phalguna 30 Phalguna 1 = February 20
*
In a leap year, Caitra has 31 days and Caitra 1 coincides with March 21.
Weeks/Days
The Indian Civil Calendar uses a seven day per week system like most of the world.
Day of Week Equivalent
Raviãra Sunday
Somavãra Monday
Mañgalvã Tuesday
Budhavãra Wednesday
Guruvã Thursday
Sukravãra Friday
Sanivãra Saturday
Holidays and Lunar Cycles
While this calendar uses the sun for its accuracy, most of India's holidays are based on lunar cycles and/or positions of both the sun and the moon. For this reason, the Indian Calendar Reform Committee also delegated the India Meteorological Department to annually publish proper dates of holidays in The Indian Astronomical Ephemeris. While an excellent resource, many local calendar makers still use formulas that have been passed down for more than a millennium.
Lunar months are based on the new moon, and are named for the solar month in which the new moon occurred. While a rarity, when two new moons occur in the same solar month, both lunar months are given the same name, though the first occurrence is prefixed with "adhika" (intercalary). Even more rare is when no new moon occurs in a solar month. In this case, there is no month named for the equivalent solar month. However, every few decades when this occurs, there is guaranteed to be two new moons either on the preceding or following month, so one of the adhika months simply takes its place.
Submitted for the Everything Quests - Discover India
References
- http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/calendar/indian.shtml
- http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/
- http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-indian.html