Indian national calendar

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The Indian national calendar was drawn up after India's independence and introduced on March 22, 1957.

history

When India gained its independence in 1947, a single federal state had to be created out of the many individual states. Among other things, a uniform calendar should also contribute to this. A calendar reform committee was set up, which analyzed more than 30 different calendars in its report and then worked out the national calendar. The new calendar should:

  • be free from colonial influences.
  • be free from Islamic influence.
  • can be accepted in all states.
  • show Indian origin.

The year

The year count

The years are counted consecutively after the Saka era (AS). This count builds on the old era, which counts completed years and was already used by Indian astronomers with the epoch (1st Chaitra 0 AS) 15 March 78 AD or day 1749621 Julian count.

The beginning of the year

The year begins at the spring equinox with the month of Chaitra.

The circuit

The year has a length of 365 days. However, since the tropical year currently has a length of 365.242177 days, an additional leap day has to be inserted about every four years in order to match the seasons. In the leap year, the month of Chaitra is extended by 1 day to 31 days. The leap years are linked to the leap years of the Gregorian calendar. Add 78 to the Indian year number and apply the switching rules of the Gregorian calendar: Leap years are all years whose year number is divisible by 4 without a remainder, with the exception of full centuries; these are only leap years if the year is divisible by 400 without a remainder. The following table shows which dates in the Indian national calendar are shifted in the leap year compared to the Gregorian calendar:

Common year Leap year
Sanskrit Gregorian Sanskrit Gregorian
१ फाल्गुन 1. Phalguna 20th February १ फाल्गुन 1. Phalguna 20th February
⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮
९ फाल्गुन 9. Phalguna 28. February ९ फाल्गुन 9. Phalguna 28. February
१० फाल्गुन 10. Phalguna 1. March १० फाल्गुन 10. Phalguna 29 February
११ फाल्गुन 11. Phalguna 2. March ११ फाल्गुन 11. Phalguna 1. March
⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮
३० फाल्गुन 30th Phalguna 21st March ३० फाल्गुन 30th Phalguna 20th March
१ चैत्र 1. Chaitra 22nd March १ चैत्र 1. Chaitra 21st March
⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮
३० चैत्र 30th Chaitra 20th April ३० चैत्र 30th Chaitra 19th April
≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡ ३१ चैत्र 31. Chaitra 20th April
१ वैशाख 1. Vaishakha 21st April १ वैशाख 1. Vaishakha 21st April

The precision

With a length of 146097 days in 400 years, the calendar is mathematically 0.123792 days longer than 400 tropical years of length 365.24219052 (beginning of 2000) and would therefore shift by one day in around 3200 years compared to the astronomical beginning of spring.

The month

The beginning of the month

The month begins roughly with the entry of the sun into a new zodiac sign.

The length of the month

Since the orbit of the earth around the sun is an ellipse, the sun needs different lengths of time for the individual signs of the zodiac in its apparent course through the ecliptic. In 1950 the times were as follows:

Zodiac signs Sun 1950
in the zodiac
Sanskrit transcription German Days hours Min
मेष Mesha Aries 30th 11 25.2
वृषभ Vrishabha bull 30th 23 29.6
मिथुन Mithuna Twins 31 08 10.1
कर्कट Karkata cancer 31 10 54.6
सिंह Simha lion 31 06 53.1
कन्या Kanya Virgin 30th 21st 18.7
तुला Tula Libra 30th 08 58.2
वृश्चिक Vrishchika Scorpio 29 21st 14.6
धनू Dhanu Sagittarius 29 13 08.7
मकर Makara Capricorn 29 10 38.6
कुम्भ Kumbha Aquarius 29 14th 18.5
मीन Mina fishes 29 23 18.9

The length of the individual months was derived from these values.

The month names

The names of the months are traditional month names of the lunar calendar. The individual months of the year have the following names and number of days:

month Days
Sanskrit transcription in common year in leap year
चैत्र Chaitra 30th 31
वैशाख Vaishakha 31 31
ज्येष्ठ Jyeshtha 31 31
आषाढ Ashadha 31 31
श्रावण Shravana 31 31
भाद्रपद Bhadrapada 31 31
आश्विन Ashvina 30th 30th
कार्त्तिक Karttika 30th 30th
मार्गशीर्ष Margashirsha 30th 30th
पौष Pausha 30th 30th
माघ Magha 30th 30th
फाल्गुन Phalguna 30th 30th

The days of a month are counted from 1 to 30 or 31.

The week

The week division is of Babylonian-Greek origin. The seven days of the week are called:

Hindi Gregorian
रविवार Ravivar Sunday
सोमवार Somavar Monday
मंगलवार Mangalavar Tuesday
बुधवार Budhavar Wednesday
गुरूवार Guruvar Thursday
शुक्रवार Shukravar Friday
शनिवार Shanivar Saturday

See also

literature

  • Lance Latham: Standard C Date / Time Library. Programming the world's calendars and clocks . R & D Books, Lawrence KS 1998, ISBN 0-87930-496-0 , p. 314 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lance Latham: Standard C Date / Time Library. Programming the world's calendars and clocks . R & D Books, Lawrence KS 1998, ISBN 0-87930-496-0 , p. 314.