Hindu calendar

Hindu calendar

Panchang is considered the most accurate and precise set of documents. The calendar gives us all the Hindu festivals spanning across this diverse India. And it can also depict the time and date of the eclipse.

Our Vedic principles devised a sophisticated time-keeping structure which is known as panchang. The basis is the planetary movement majorly the sun and moon. 

But as it is based on planetary movement so it can also depict the time of the eclipse. The high scholars used to record the movements of the sun and moon and predict the future dates as well as specific festivals.

Those educated fellows had intense knowledge about the movement of almost all planets and the time they take to revolve around the sun to the precise seconds and milliseconds. Through this, they created records that are relevant even today. You might have seen some jpeg image stating that the panchang is right to the precise time of the eclipse and Nasa with its humongous and expensive equipment can not state the time of the eclipse.

Structure of Panchang

The Shaka calendar is the most widely used panchang and its structure can be seen to understand every other panchang because the principle is the same. Also, we can see that the Gregorian calendar came after panchang and they just changed the names and we in India are also using the same calendar to run our country. The names of the months as per the Shaka Calendar are as follows:

1.  Chaitra

2.  Vaishakha

3.  Jyeshtha

4.  Ashadha

5.  Shravana

6.  Bhadra

7.  Ashwin

8.  Kartika

9.  Agrahayana

10.  Pausha

11.  Magha

12.  Phalguna

We can also see that the dates of the Hindu festivals might change every year but the date of the Gregorian calendar stays the same.

 

Uses

As stated Panjang can be used to specify the date and timing of the eclipse. And as the eclipse is considered somewhat unholy in Sanatan Dharma so it is of great importance that we know when it's gonna happen. Panchanga is also used to predict Shubh mahurat it or auspicious interval of time for any marriage ceremony, pooja path, and several things. Panchanga is also used for astrology to predict the upcoming events in a human's life. 

Origin 

The origin is somewhat blurry for panchang as our most famous universities and libraries were burnt down by Muslim invaders. They had the wish to completely trample Sanatan Dharma. So we have lost a major part of our literature and our vast knowledge. But before the destruction, many scholars from the world came to India and have written about Sanatan culture so all is not lost. Yukio Ohashi states in his records that the Vedanga field developed from actual astronomical studies in the ancient Vedic period. The texts of Vedic Jyotisha sciences were translated into Chinese in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, and the Rigvedic passages on astronomy are found in the works of Zhu Jiangyan and Zhi Qian.  According to Subhash Kak, the beginning of the Hindu calendar was much earlier. He cites Greek historians describing Maurya kings as referring to a calendar that originated in 6676 BCE known as the Saptarsi calendar.

Length of year in various Sanskrit scriptures is mentioned. Such as in Surya Siddhanta the year is of 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, 36.56 seconds. The Paulica Siddhantastates that 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 36 seconds is the length of a year. The Paracara Siddhanta gives about 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 31.50 seconds for the year. And the Arya Siddhanta says 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, 30.84 seconds is how much a year is. The Laghu Arya Siddhanta gives about 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, 30 seconds, and the Siddhanta Shiromani says a year is of 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 9 seconds.

 

Types of Calendars

There are three types of Calendars affiliated in India:

●  The Solar Calendars: The motion of the sun yearly forms the fundamental of calculating the dates. 

●  The Lunar Calendars: Based on the monthly phases of the Moon and its cycle and isn’t related to the motion of the Sun.

●  The Lunisolar Calendar: It functions on the yearly motion of the Sun and monthly phases of the Moon. 

How do we fall?

Indian Calendar was officially adopted in 1957 by Calendar Reform Committee. The need for a unified calendar was voiced by none other than the first prime minister of India, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. He said as quoted,

They (different calendars) represent past political divisions in the country…. Now that we have attained Independence, it is obviously desirable that there should be a certain uniformity in the calendar for our civic, social, and other purposes, and this should be done on a scientific approach to this problem.

And we are still living under the same crown. The divide started by our “Greatest” PM was the cultural harmony and we cannot bring it back to how it was. This is a disgrace.

Damage caused due to appeasing and dirty politics has degraded this country. We have lost our roots, and we are rebels without a cause. To be human, we need to go back to our roots. The obsession with consumption is the obsession with English. The education system and the law system it's all the same as it was at the time of the Britishers. They wanted to rule us. The purpose of democracy should be liberating(not in the liberal sense).

He needs to take pride in our culture and our language because that's who we are. A simple example is that every country or every self-respecting country has its administrative language as its native language. Whether it's Chinese, Japanese, French, or German, you name it. But we have the mentality of following the West let's see how far this takes us. And we should take a look at their present form. Almost everybody has health issues, they are mannerless. They don't know what thing about respect, well I can keep on going. 

We need to celebrate our festivals with pride and take pride in who we are.

By-

Akhilesh Semwal