This Is Why Indian New Year Is So Unique!
As we are ushering in the Indian New year today, let’s know more details about the Indian calendar system. In India, Tribal Art like everything else, every region/ state has their own variations of the calendar. However, the underline themes remain the same which is based on the Moon & Sun positions. It has 12 months and every month is generally 30 days.
The names of Hindu months (with corresponding English months) are as follows: Chaitr (March-April), Vaisakh (April-May), Jyaisth/Jeth (May-June), Asadh (June-July), Shravan (July-August), Bhadra / Bhadw (August-September), Ashvin (September-October), Kartik (October-November), Agrahayana/Margsheersh (November-December), Paush (December-January), Magh (January-February), Phalgun (February-March).
Although most of the variations have Chaitra as their first month, however, some regions have slight variation. Thus based on the new year month a calendar follows, Hindu calendars can be further classified as Chaitradi (beginning with Chaitra month), Ashadadi (beginning with Ashad), and Karthikadi (beginning with Karthik).
LuniSolar & Solar Calendar
In the Indian New Year, since ancient times, both lunisolar, as well as a solar calendars, is in use in India. Lunar calendar months strictly follow the lunar cycle of two lunar fortnights (Shukla paksha- Waxing moon & Krishna paksha – waning Moon). Interestingly, the lunisolar calendar is basically a lunar calendar that has some intercalation rules to synchronize it with the solar year. Leap months (adhik maasa) and occasionally, skipped months (kshaya maasa) are introduced to achieve this. In a solar calendar the months are aligned with rashi or zodiac (Nakshtras). Each month begins with sankranti (entry of sun into zodiac). Malayalam calendar, Bengali calendar and Tamil calendar are examples of Indian solar calendars.
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