Calendar

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Namasthe,

 

> (1) Solar calendar: The ayana (6 month) bala is based on this

> (2) Lunar calendar: The paksha (half month) bala is based on this

> (3) Fixed calendar: The varsha, maasa, dina and hora balas are all

> based on this. Here a year of 360 civil days, a month of 30 civil

> days and a dina of 1 civil day are used.

 

First, one should define what they mean by lunar or solar calendar.

For example, Islamic lunar calendar is the only lunar calendar - here

one cycle of moon phase is one month, 12 such cycles by Islamic

definition is one year, period.

 

Solar calendars can be broadly said to be of two types:

 

Sun wrt nakshatra divisions is one - our samvatsara base;

Sun wrt seasons is the other - the varsha calendar.

 

There is also a third Solar calendar rarely used: when earth

gets to the same point on its orbit - the anamolous year.

 

Our panchangam method is not any of these - it is purely

obervational wrt nakshatra divisions, and seasonal change

points (solstices and equinoxes) are noted along the way.

Varsha begins on spring solstice (vasanta vishuvam) by Vedic

era convention (ref. agnyAdAna ceremony). Samvatsara begins

on yugaadi. Chaandra and saura yugaadi-s are close by in

nature, hence no need to get mixed up on this account. maasa

goes by the full moon "nakstatra zone": chitraa, vishaakhaa,

jyestaa, poorva/uttara-aashaada, shrONA, etc. If there is no

fullmoon, that paticular maasa is skipped (laya maasa); if

there are two fullmoons, that particular maasa is repeated

(adhika maasa). This is not made up by sages to "reconcile"

solar and lunar calendars (both don't exist in our scheme) -

it is the the way nature happens.

 

Of course, there is disagreement among panchangam traditions

on this count. Some say if there are two sankraanti-s in a

maasa, it is repeated (adhika maasa), and if no sankraanti,

it is a laya maasa. This does not fit in because, laya/

adhika maasa scheme existed thousands of years before (refer

to Bhishma niryaaNa) the notion of sankraanti was introduced

by Varaahamihira. Instead laya/adhika maasa is based on

paurNami "nakshatra zone" only.

 

We don't know when, but definitely before mahaabhaarata time

our ancestors had visualized the sky into 12 nakshatra zones

(the dvaadashaaditya-s of the Rigveda), each zone with 2-1/4

nakshatra divisions. This later got mixed up with "saura

maasa" appearing in the yajurAraNyaka. Such so-called saura

maasa is an erroneous concept. Since maasa by definition is

cyclical and connected to moon only (maasa = of chandramas),

there is no "saura maasa" that is cyclical. If we want to

rationalize this notion, it must be tied to the moon cycle.

There is no other way. Thus paurNami nakshatra zone is the

key.

 

Thus we see that there is no lunar or solar calendar in our

panchangam, because then we can't have laya/adhika maasa.

But as the ancient method went west, people lost the detail

knowledge of connecting every observation to nakshatra

divisions, and hence, broadly speaking, the "simpler" but

somewhat erroneous solar and lunar calendars sprang up in

Assyria, Mesapotamia, ancient Egypt, China, etc.

 

Gregorian calendar is seasonal calendar - many may think it

is solar but it is not. Pope Gregory tweeked Rome's Caesar

version such that December 21/22 always moves with winter

solstice. Sun's position wrt nakshatra-s on this day moves

by about a degree in every 70/71 years.Where exactly is Sun

or moon is of no consideration in Greg's scheme. Such details

may be found in astronomy websits (such as NASA's).

 

With Wishes,

SHankara.