Chapter XIX. Kalpa, Manvantara, Mahāyuga, Yuga

Volume V: Part I pp. 686–718

Chapter XIX. Kalpa, Manvantara, Mahāyuga, Yuga

Kalpa, Manvantara, Mahāyuga, Yuga

After dealing with time measures from _yuga_ ( of five years ) down to weekdays and the day one must now briefly deal with the other measures of time such as Yuga, Mahāyuga, Manvantara and Kalpa The word Kalpa has its germ in the Ṛgveda¹ X. 190 3, where it is said that the Creator created the Sun and the Moon, the heaven, the earth and mid-region as before ' The earliest datable reference to Kalpa is found in Aśoka's edicts e g the 4th Rock edict² at Girnar and Kalsi have ' śva savata kapī ' ( yāvat samvartakalpam ) and 'āva kapam' in the 5th Rock edict at Shahabazgarhi and Mansera This establishes that the theories about the vast extent of Kalpa had been promulgated in India long before the third century B C. The Buddhists also took over the theory of Kalpas as is clear from the Mahāparinibbānasutta III, 53 ' Vouchsafe, Lord, to remain during the Kalpa Live on, O Blessed One, through the Kalpa for the good and happiness of the great multitudes &c.'.

The beliefs that in the dim past there was an ideally perfect society followed by a gradual degeneracy and decline in standards of morals, health and length of life and that the cycle of decline would be followed in the far distant future by a golden age of perfection in morals &c, have been dealt with in H. of Dh. vol. III pp. 885 ff The word 'yuga' has been shown there as having probably several meanings, viz a short period of time ( Rg III. 26 3 ), a cycle of five years and also a long period and a period of thousands of years Prof. Mankad in Poona Orientalist ( vol. VI. pp 211–212 ) assigns as many as ten meanings to the worḍ word One cannot agree with him in all that he sayṣ For example, he appears to be wrong when he says that in Śākuntala IV (yugāntaram ārūḍhaḥ savitā) yuga means 4th of a day; yuga does not, so far as I know, mean 4th anywhere. It means ‘four’ in some caseṣ In Śākuntala ‘yugāntara &c’ should be taken to mean that ‘the sun has come up in the sky as much as the length of a yoke (from the eastern horizon)’. That is the sense of ‘yuga’ in Rg X 60 8, X 101 3 and 4. In the Mahābhārata, in Manu and the Purāṇas the theory of yugas, manvantaras and kalpas has been elaborated at great length. The four yugas are named Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Tisya or Kali and concern only Bhārata-varṣa.³ But it has been shown (at pp 886-890 of the H. of Dh. vol III ) that originally these were the names of certain throws of dice in gambling and that from the 4th century B.C. (if not earlier) they came to be the designations of the ages of maṇ The early Gupta inscriptions refer to Kṛtayuga as a cycle of great virtues ( as in the Bilsad stone pillar Inscription of Kumāragupta in Gupta Samvat 96 in ‘Gupta Inscriptions’ p 44, the Chammak copperplate of Vākāṭaka Pravarasena II in ‘Gupta Inscriptions’ p 237, Pattan plates of Pravarasena II, in E. I, 23 p. 81. The theory of Yugas, Manvantaras and Kalpas is elaborated among ancient works in the Mahābhārata ( Vana-parva, chapters 149, 188 and Śāntiparva, chap 69 and 231-232 ), Manu I 61–74, 79–86, Viṣṇudharmasūtra chap 20. 1–21, Viṣṇu-purāṇa 1 3, 6 3, Brahmapurāṇa 5. 229–232, Matsya 142–145, Vāyu chap 21, 22, 57, 58, 100, Kūrma I. chap 51 and 53, Brahmāṇḍa II, 6 and 31–36, III 1, Mārkaṇḍeya 58 64, 66–70, 71–97 (has the longest account of Manvantaras }, and by astronomical writers and works such as Āryabhaṭa, Sūryasiddhānta, Brahmagupta, Siddhāntaśiromaṇi. None of these works enable us to furnish a satisfactory explanation about the rise of this system of Kalpas, Manvantaras and Yugas Pargiter (in AIHT p 175) thinks that the division into four ages had a historical basiṣ That may or may not be so. But what historical explanation can be offered about manvantaras and kalpas is not stated anywhere. The theory of yugas concerned only Bhāratavarṣa as stated in several Purāṇaṣ All these works contain the same general features but there are many divergences in details As the Manusmṛti contains one of the oldest accounts, a summary of its remarks will be first set out First, seven Manus are enume- rated viz Svāyambhuva, Svārociṣa, Uttama, Tāmasa, Raivata, Cākṣuṣa and Vaivasvata. Then divisions of time from nimṣa are specified (18 nimṣa = Kāṣṭhā, 30 Kāṣṭhās = kāla, 30 Kalās = Muhūrta, 30 Muhūrtas = ahorātra); it is then said that the human month is the day and night of pitṛs, the human year is divine ahorātra. Kṛta-yuga extends over 4000⁴ years, sandhyā (twilight) before it is 400 years, sandhyāmśa after it is 400 yearṣ The three other yugas Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali have respectively 3000, 2000, 1000 years and sandhyās and sandhyā- mśas together of respectively 600, 400 and 200 yearṣ The four yugas thus come to 12000 years (4800 plus 3600 plus 2400 plus 1200 ); this is called the yuga of gods (i e this is the divya measure) and 1000 of these four come to one day of Brahmā and the same is the extent of the night of Brahmā Seventy-one yugas of 12000 divine years each constitute a manvantara and Manu (I 80) winds up by saying that manvantaras are numberless⁵ and so are creations and dissolutions It should be noticed that the word Kalpa does not occur in this long enume- ratioṇ But in other works than the Manusmṛti e g Viṣṇupurāṇa (VI.3, 11–12) fourteen Manvantaras are said to constitute a Kalpa, which is a day of Brahmā. As a day of the gods is equal to a human year, the 12000 years that constitute a divine catur yuga are equal to 4320000 human years⁵ (12000 × 360) i. e. this is the human (mānuṣa ) measure of time.

When and how these huge numbers of years for the yugas were suggested remains somewhat enigmatic. It appears that as early as the Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa people had become familiar with huge figures The Śatapatha⁶ says that there are 10800 muhūrtas in a year ( in one ahorātra 30 × 360 ), that Prajāpati arranged the Ṛgveda in such a way that the number of syllables it contains is equal to 12000 Bṛhatis (each Bṛhati having 36 syllables ) i e. 432000 syllables and it is further stated that the Ṛgveda also contains 10800 paṅktis (each paṅkti having 40 syllables i e the syllables are 10800 × 40=432000. Prajāpati is said to have arranged the other two Vedas also and the three Vedas amounted to ten thousand eight hundred eighties (that is 80 × 10800 = 864000 syllables ), that muhūrta by muhūrta he gained eighty syllables ( as there are 10800 muhūrtas in a sacrificial year of 360 days ). Dr. Jean Filliozat, Professor at the College de France, Paris, puts forward the theory in a recent article (in the Bulletin of L'Ecole Francaise D'Extreme-Orient, Tome XLIV, Faṣ 2, pp. 538-546 ) that the number of years in Kaliyuga ( 432000 ) was suggested by these figures in the Śatapatha, that the high figures in the ancient Indian literature are scientific and not astrological, and that in the opinion of Heraclitus 10800 ordinary human years were equal to one ‘great year’, that Berossus held that a great astronomical period was of 432000 years and that as the Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa is far more ancient than both Heraclitus and Berossus, the borrowing, if it exists, must have been by the Greeks from India. Vide ‘Ancient relations between Indian and foreign astronomical systems’ by Dr J Filliozat in JOR, Madras, vol. XXV (for 1957) pp 1-8; also Prof. Zinner (in ‘Stars above us’ p 59) for theories about the age of the world held by Plato and Berossuṣ One day of Brahmā is equal to a Kalpa i. e 4320000 × 1000 i e 432,000,000,0 In order to find out the human years of the one hundred years of Brahmā’s life we shall have to multiply 432,000,000,0 by 2, then by 360 and then by 100. That is, the day and night of Brahmā come to 8640000000 human years; the year of Brahmā would then be equal to 3110400000000 human years (taking 360 days as a year); one hundred years of Brahmā thus come to 311040000000000 yearṣ Alberuni (Sachau, vol. I p 332 ) also mentions this colossal figure about the life of Brahmā. Some said that the extent of Brahmā’s life was 108 yearṣ Brahmā is said to have already lived 50 years and it is the second half of his life that is running and at present it is the Vārāha⁷ Kalpa and Vaivasvata-manvantara⁹ (7th) that. are going oṇ The past six Manus are Svāyambhuva, Svārociṣa, Uttama, Tāmasa, Raivata, Cākṣuṣa and the present is Vaivasvata, the 7th Manu (Brahmā 5 4–5, Kūrma I. 51. 4–5, Viṣṇu III 1. 6–7) The remaining seven Manus are differently named in several Purāṇas e. g. Viṣṇu (III 2 14 ff) and Narasimhapurāṇa 24 17–35 mention the future Manus as Sāvarṇi, Dakṣa Sāvarṇi, Brahmasāvarṇi, Dharmasāvarṇika, Rudra-sāvarṇi, Ruci and Bhauma; while Brahma (5. 5–6) mentions four of the future seven as Sāvarṇi, Raibhya, Rauçya, Merusāvarṇi Kūrma (I 53 30–31) names the future four in the same way as Viṣṇu ( only substituting Savarna for Savarni wherever it occurs and the last two as Rauçya and Bhautya) All the fourteen Manus are enumerated in Nāradapurāṇa I 40 20–23 Alberuni ( tr by Sachau, vol I chap. XLIV p 387) gives the names of Manvan taras according to the Viṣṇudharmottara, Viṣṇupurāṇa and other sources Sāvarṇya ¹¹ Manu as a great benefactor and leader of some territory occurs in Rg X 62 11 It is said that each Manvantara had a separate set of sages, sons of Manu, gods, kings, smṛtis, Indra and guardians for the proper regulation of dharma and for the protection of the people (Brahma 5 39, Viṣṇupurāṇa III chapters 1–2) In the Viṣṇupurāṇa it is said that some gods remain for four yugas, some for a manvantara and some stay for a kalpa ¹² The Viṣṇudharmasūtra (chap. XX 1–15) has the same account of Manvantaras and Kalpas as Manu’s but it adds one detail viz that the whole age of Brahmā is equal to a day of Puruṣa (Viṣṇu) and the night of Puruṣa is also as long. It is remarkable that the same view is attributed by Alberuni (Sachau vol I. p. 332) to the Pulīśasiddhānta. It is not known whether those European scholars who regard Pulīśa to be Paulus Alexandrinus have shown that this detail occurs in the work of the Greek Astrologer Pauluṣ In the Vanaparva (188 22–29) the same account as in Manu occurs except this that 12000 years are called Yuga¹³ simply and not caturyuga (as in Manu I 71). The Mārkaṇḍeya has a long story about Svārociṣa in chapters 58–65, devotes to Uttama chap 66–70, chapter 71 to Tamasa, chap. 72 to Raivata, chap. 73 to Cākṣuṣa, chap. 74–76 to Vaivasvata, chap 77 to Sāvarṇi, chap 78–90 to Devī, chap 91–95 to Raucyā or Ruci, chap 96–97 to Bhautya. The word ‘Vaivasvata’ (son of Vivasvat, the Sun) is applied to Yama in several passages of the Ṛgveda (X 14 1, X. 58. 1, X 60 10, X 164 2). The Anukramaṇī, however, ascribes Ṛg. VIII. 27–31 to Vaivasvata Manu as the ṛṣi and in one of the Vālakhilya hymns (Ṛg X 52 1) occurs the following verse ‘O Indra! just as you drank the soma extracted in (the sacrifice of) Manu Vivasvat, just as you frequently accept the hymn of praise in (sacrifice of) Tritā, so may you simultaneously delight in (the soma and praise) of Ayu’¹⁵. It may be noted and states that each Manu during his own time (which extended over thousands of years) created the movable and immovable world and protected it, that Manvantaras are numberless (Manusmṛti I 80) and that the Great God (Parameṣṭhin) brought about the creation and destruction of the world during the Manvantaraṣ Some of the Purāṇas such as Matsya (9. 37–39, 142. 40, 144. 97–98), Vāyu (59. 34), Agni (150. 21), Viṣṇu (I. 3 and VI. 3) state¹⁵ that Manu and the seven sages in each Manvantara (i. e. where there is a change of Manu) who are the śiṣṭas that then exist are devoted to dharma, being ordered by Brahmā for the purpose of continuing the worlds, declare the truth and promulgate the Vedaṣ Some modern writers (like Dr. Daftari) think ¹⁵ that in ancient times there was an Indian institution of public functionaries called Manu and the Saptarsis, whose function was to legislate and promulgate the Vedaṣ With great respect to the erudite scholar, I disagree with hiṃ The extant Purāṇa passages are less than 2000 years old, while the present Vaivasvata Manvantara started several millions of years ago and even Kaliyuga in which we are deemed to live started in 3102 B C. Besides, there is a dissolution of the world at each day of Brahmā, if one is to rely on the Paurāṇik accountṣ How could a tradition of the several Manus survive such pralaya ? A rationalistic interpretation requires that all this that is stated in the Purāṇas is mere conjecture and imagination and that one cannot safely build theories about the governance of society in ancient times on the accounts contained in Purāṇaṣ The Manusmṛti (II. 19) appears to assign the function of the regulation of the conduct of all men in the world to the learned brāhmaṇas born in Brahmarsideśa ( i e. Kurukṣetra, the countries of Matsya, Pāñcāla and Śūrasena or Mathurā ) at least after his own code was promulgateḍ

Pessimistic and dismal accounts of what will happen in Kaliyuga (which extends according to the Purāṇas over 432000 years and of which only about 5057 years have gone by this time in 1956 ) are set forth in the Vanaparva, chap 188, 190, Śānti- parva 69. 80-97, the Harivamsa ( Bhavisyaparva, chap. 3–5 ff ), Brahmapurāṇa chap 229-230, Vāyu chap. 58 and 99 verses 391-428, Matsya 144 32-47, Kūrma I. 30, Viṣṇupurāṇa VI 1, Bhāgavata XII. 1-2, Brahmāṇḍa II. 31 and in several other purāṇaṣ The description in Vanaparva 188 is summarised in H. of Dh. vol. III pp. 893-895. The names of 33 Kalpas are given in Vāyu, chap 21-23 and Hemādri on Kāla (pp. 670–671 ) sets out from Nāgarakhanḍa the names of 33 Kalpas and the tithis on which they start; Matsya 290 enumerates thirty names of Kalpas; the Brahmāṇḍa II. 31. 119 states that there are 35 Kalpas and neither more nor lesṣ

In the purāṇas pralaya is said to be of four sorts,¹⁶ viz. nitya (the every day deaths of those that are born), naimittika (when a day of Brahmā ends, then there is a dissolution of the world), prākṛtika (when everything dissolves itself into prakṛti, primordial substance) and ātyantika pralaya is Mokṣa (liberation of the soul due to correct knowledge of Reality and absorption into the Supreme Spirit ). Harrowing descriptions of the naimittika and prākṛtika pralayas are given in several purāṇas A lengthy description of the naimittika dissolution is contained in Kūrma II, 45. 11-59 of which a brief summary is given here. When the one thousand Caturyugas end, there is the absence of rain for a hundred years; the result is that living beings perish and are reduced to earth; the sun's rays become unbearable, and even the ocean is dried up; the earth is burnt by the fierce heat of the sun together with its mountains, forests and continents As the sun's rays fall burning up everything, the whole world presents the appearance of one huge fire. Fire burns everything whether mobile or immoveable. The animals in the big seas come out and are reduced to ashes Then the samvartaka fire growing by the force of the wind burns the whole earth and its flames rise up to a height of thousands of yojanas and the flames burn up gandharvas, goblins, yakṣas, serpents and rākṣasas and not only the earth but the worlds called 'bhuvaḥ' and 'mahaḥ' are burnt; then huge samvartaka clouds resembling herds of elephants, lit up by lightning, rise in the sky, some looking like blue lotuses, some yellowish, some having the colour of smoke, some like sealing wax and fill the whole sky and then extinguish the fires by sending down heavy showers When the fires are extinguished, the clouds of destruction cover the whole world with floods, mountains are concealed and the earth is plunged in waters and all becomes one ocean of water and then god Brahmā resorts to Yogic sleep Vanaparva (chap. 272 32-48 ) also contains a brief description of naimittika pralaya

The Kūrma I. 46 and Viṣṇu VI 4 12-49 furnish a descrip-tion of the prākṛtika pralaya which takes Sāṅkhya terminology for granted, ¹⁸ and is briefly as followṣ When all the worlds including all the nether regions are destroyed by absence of rains and all effects from mahat onwards are destroyed, waters first absorb the gandha (the special quality of the earth) and when gandha-tanmātra is destroyed, the earth is reduced to water; the special quality of waters, viz. rasa-tanmātra is destroyed and nothing but fire remains and the whole world is filled with flames, then Vāyu absorbs fire and rūpa-tanmātra vanishes; Vāyu shakes all the ten quarters; ākāśa absorbs the sparśa-guṇa of Vāyu and only ākāśa remains as a void and śabda-tanmātra is gone and in this way the seven prakṛtis including mahat and ahaṅkāra are absorbed in order; even Prakṛti and Purusa are dissolved in Paramātman (named Viṣṇu). The day of Viṣṇu is said to be two Parārdhas of human yearṣ

Some works like the Harivamśa (Bhavisyaparva chap. 10. 12-68) provide that at the end of Kalpa the sage Mārkandeya alone remains and lies at the time of the pralaya ( or kalpa) in the side of Lord Viṣṇu and then comes out of His mouth. The Brahma-purāṇa (52. 14-19 and 53 55) says that Mārkandeya sees a vaṭa tree at the end of Kalpa and a jewelled bed on which he sees a boy lying down (i. e. Viṣṇu himself) and then he enters the side of that boy and later comes out. Vide also Matsya 167 (14-66) for the same story in almost the same wordṣ The Bhagavadgītā (VIII 18-19) speaks of the recurrent absorption of all beings at the advent of the night of Brahmā and reappearance of beings when the day of Brahmā startṣ

The theory of yugas, manvantaras and kalpas with their fabulous numbers of years and harrowing descriptions of pralaya, appears unreal, bizarre and called up by sheer fancy. But under- lying it there is the idea of the timelessness of the universe, though from time to time it evolves, gradually declines and perishes, only to reappear in perfection after a cosmic night. There is also the hankering after Reality and pursuit of different idealṣ It enshrines the ideas that humanity embarks on a certain goal, pursues it with great efforts and, after achieving some success, gives up that goal and the way that was thought to lead to it and pursues some other goal for aeons in the hope that at some distant date it will be able to evolve and construct a perfect society. These ideas are at the bottom of what Manu²⁰ and others say 'Tapas was the highest goal (deemed to yield great results) in Kṛtayuga, knowledge (of the self) was the highest in Tretā, yajña (sacrifices to God) in Dvāpara, charity alone in Kali'. This further implies that there are different impelling motives in different ages and modern men should not assess the actions and ideals of past ages by the same yardstick that is applied to contemporary actions and idealṣ It is implicit in the words of Manu (XI. 301) that the four ages are not water-tight specific periods of time, but that the Ruler or Government can produce conditions of Kṛta age in what is popularly called Kali by appropriate conduct or measures and Medhātithi expressly says so.²¹ Prof. Mankad has a novel theory in a paper on the manvantaras in I H Q. vol XVIII, pp. 208-230, where he states that the Caturayuga formula took 40 years for a ruling unit and not for one king's regnal period and that the manvantara was the regular method of calculating regnal periods of different kings in a dynasty (p. 227). Hardly any scholar has accepted this theory and for reasons of space and relevance, it is not possible to discuss it here.

In the details about the theory of yugas, manvantaras and kalpas there are some divergenceṣ A few may be pointed out Āryabhaṭa appears to hold that the extent of each of the four yugas was the same and not in the traditional proportion of 4, 3, 2, 1, when he says that he was twenty-three years old when three yugapādas and 3600 years had elapsed (vide Kālakriyāpāda 10 quoted in note 995 above) Brahmagupta (I. 9) says²² that, though Āryabhaṭa declared that the four pādas of yugas, viz. Kṛta and the others, were equal, not one of them was equal to what the smṛtis declare them to be. There is another discrepancy also. Āryabhaṭa in his Daśagītikā verse 3 states that Manu is a period of 72 yugas, while all the smṛtis and purāṇas declare that a manvantara is equal to 71 yugaṣ Āryabhata appears to have held that the day of Brahmā is equal to 1008 caturyugas and Brahmagupta (I 12) refers to this view. The celebrated scientific astronomer Bhāskarācārya²³ (born in śaka 1036, 1114 A D ) impatiently says ‘some say that half of the life of Brahmā (1 e 50 years) has passed away, while others say that half plus eight years has passed away’. Whatever the true tradition may be, it is of no use, since planetary positions are to be established from the days that have passed in the current day of Brahmā'.

As incidental to the colossal figures of the years of Kalpas and Yugas, a few words on numerals, their antiquity and the methods of writing numerals would not be out of place. In the Ṛgveda numerals from 1 to 10 are frequently useḍ ‘Sahasra’ (thousand) and ‘ayuta’ (ten thousand) occur in Ṛg. IV. 26. 7, VIII 1 5, VIII 21 18. One of these says²⁴ 'O wielder of thunderbolt! O immensely rich ( Indra )! I shall not give thee away even for a big price, not for a thousand, not for ten thousand, nor for hundreds'. In Ṛg VIII 46. 22 a poet says 'I secured 60000 and several tens of thousands of horses, 20 hundreds of camels, one thousand dark-coloured mares and ten thousands of cows bright in three parts of their bodies'. In Ṛg I 53 9 Indra is said to have struck down sixty thousand and 99 enemieṣ Vide Ṛg. I. 126 3 (for sixty thousand cows), VIII 4. 20 and VIII 46 29 for 60000 and VI. 63 10 for one hundred thousand horseṣ In some of these the larger numbers are mentioned first and the smaller ones next ( as in Ṛg I 53 9, VIII 46 22 ); in others it is the reverse. No conclusion can therefore be drawn that the smaller numbers come first in the Ṛgvedic timeṣ In Tai. S IV 4 11 3-4 reference is made to bricks in numbers from one, one hundred, thousand, ayuta (ten thousand), niyuta, prayuta, arbuda, nyarbuda, samudra, madhya, anta and parardha, while in Tai S VII 2 11-19 various numbers from one to one tions of man There is a good deal of literature on this subject which is passed over here as not material for our purpose One of the latest works on this system is ‘From Zero to Infinity’ by Constance Reid (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1956). Zero is the first of ten symbols with which one can represent an infinitude of numbers and it is also the first of the numberṣ This work says that the zero escaped even the greatest Greeks, Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes (p 4) The Egyptians²⁵ had a decimal system of numerals but no zero and therefore no positional notation, which even the Greeks did not know, ancient Babylonians also had no definite symbol for zero and there is no example of zero signs at the end of numbers even in their latest astronomical writings It is difficult to say when exactly a symbol or word for zero was employed in India But it must have been several centuries before the beginning of the Christian era Pingala’s work on metres is a tedūnga Pingala’s sūtra on metres makes use of zero (śūnya) in VIII 28-31. Even the Śatapatha Br. (XL 4 3 20) seems to be aware of Vedāngaṣ But it may be argued that there is nothing to show that Pingala’s work was known to it It is most probably mentioned as Chandoviciti in the Āpastamba-dharmasūtra ²⁶ Śabara ²⁷ (about 200 A. D. and not later than 400 A. D.) speaks of Pingala’s work as on the same level with Pāṇini’s sūtra. It is unnecessary to offer further proofs of the antiquity of Pingala’s sūtra.

There were several methods of writing numeralṣ One was the place value notation, in which the same numeral has different values according to the place it occupies; for example, the figure two may have the value of only two or twenty or two hundred and so on according as it occupies the units place or tens place or hundreds place. Another way is that of employing words to denote complete numberṣ This was a very reliable method when in astronomy huge figures had to be employed and works were not printed but only copied by hanḍ In ancient times, the writers of msṣ might often omit zeros or other figures, but if words with a fixed meaning in relation to numbers were used, they would not be so easily dropped and as many works were metrical, the omission of a word, if any, might have been far more easily detecteḍ It is difficult to say when this system was introduceḍ But its beginnings are ancient. For example, the word _kṛta_ is used in the Taittirīya ²⁸ Brāhmaṇa in the sense of ‘four’. Varāhamihira (beginning of the 6th century A. D.) employs these word numerals but in the place value system (vide H. of Dh. vol. III p. 897 ṇ 1763.). The following is a list of some of the very usual numbers with the corresponding words employed to indicate theṃ It should be noted that the list is not exhaus- tive. Any number of synonyms ²⁹ may be employed to indicate the same number. Vide the lists in Alberuni (Sachau, vol. I. pp. 174–179.) and Buhler’s ‘Indian Paleography’ (I. A. vol. 33; appendix pp. 83–86 ) Zero—śūnya, kha, ambara (sky), gagana, abhra, ākāśa, bindu, pūrṇa.³¹ One—eka, bhūmi (earth), indu (the moon), rūpa, ādi, Viṣṇu. Two—dvi, akṣi or locana (eye), pakṣa, Aśvin, dasra, dos or dosan (arm), bhuja, yama or yamala (twins) Three—tri, krama (from three steps of Viṣṇu in Rg. I. 22. 18 I. 155. 5 ), grāma (in music), Rāma, pura (cities burnt by Rudra), loka (earth, heaven and hell), guṇa (sattva, rajas, tamas), agni (gārhapatya, āhavanīya and dakṣiṇāgni ). Four—Catur, abdhi (ocean), kṛta, yuga, veda, śruti, varṇa (brāhmaṇa etc.) Five—pañcan, iṣu or śara (arrows of Madana), vāyu (prāṇa, apāna &c ), bhūta (pṛthvī, waters, tejas, air, ākāśa ), akṣa (sense organ), indriya, Pāṇḍava or Pāṇḍu-suta. Six—Ṣaṭ, rasa (sweet, acid, salt &c ), aṅga (the six auxiliary sciences of the Veda), ṛtu (seasons), tarka (logical categories from dravya to samavāya), darśana (six systems of philosophy) Seven—Saptan, ṛṣi or muni (the seven sages ), svara (niṣāda, ṛṣabha &c. in music), aśva (seven horses of the Sun, who is called ‘saptāśva’ in Rg. V 45 9), giri, parvata (Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya &c ), dhātu (elements of the body, viz. skin, blood &c ). Eight—aṣṭan, vast, sarpa (vide note 321 for eight nāgas), maṅgala, matanga ja (elephants of eight quarters), siddhi (animā, laghimā &c in yoga). Nine—navan, sankhyā (from 1 to 9), Nanda (nine Nanda kings), randhra or chidra, nidhi ( treasure, mahāpadma, sankha, makara &c ), anka ( numerals one to nine), go or graha or nabhaścara ( planets) Ten—daśan, pankti, ūrṇa³² or diśā ( directions including ūrdhma and adhara), avatāra, Rāvaṇa-śiraṣ Eleven—Ekādaśan, Maheśvara, Rudra. Twelve—dvādaśan, āditya, arka sūrya, māsa Thirteen—trayodaśan, Viśve ( viśve-devāh ). Fourteen—caturdaśan, Manu, Indra, bhuvana ( worlds, bhūh &c. seven, and seven pātālas ). Fifteen—pañcadaśan, tithi Sixteen—ṣoḍaśan, kāla ( digits of the Moon ), nṛpa or rājan³³ ( kings ), asti. Seventeen—saptadaśan, atyasti. Eighteen—aṣṭādaśan, dhṛti Nineteen—ekonavimśati, atidhṛti Twenty—vimśati, krti, nakta ( nails), anguli ( fingers of the hands and feet together ). Twentyone—ekavimśati, prakṛti, mūrchanā ( in music ) Twentytwo—dvāvimśati, jāti, ākṛti Twentyfour—caturvimśati, Jina or siddha (24 Jain tīrthankaras). Twentyfive—pañcavimśati, tattva ( 25 Sāṅkhya principles, vide note 1092 ) Twentyseven—saptavimśati, bha, nakṣatra Thirtytwo—dvātrimśat, dasana or dvija ( both mean 'teeth' ). Thirtythree—trayastrimśat, sura ( gods ). Fortynine—ekonapañcāśat, tāna ( notes in music )

The above method of employing particular significant words to denote certain numbers even in decimal place value system is largely employed by Varāhamihira in his Pañcasiddhāntikā (e. g I. 8 in note 1091 above, VIII. 1 ) and in Bṛhat-saṃhitā 8. 20 and by all later astronomical writers ³⁴ The particular matter to be noted is that the first word in a group (denoting a number) is to be assigned to the units place, the next to its left in the tens place, so that a word like ‘saptāśvi-veda-saṅkhyam’ becomes 427 (by the rule ‘aṅkānām vāmato gatih’)

Another method for expressing numbers is elaborated by Āryabhata in his Daśagītikāpāda ³⁵ (verse 3) where the letters from k (kā also) to m have the values of 1 to 25, while yu, ra, la, va, śa, ṣa, sa and ha stand for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 and so on towards more complicated matters

The fourth aṅga in a pañcāṅga is called Yoga. There is no direct astronomical phenomena corresponding to it. It is calculated from the sum of the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon (or it is the time during which the sun and the moon together accomplish 13 degrees and 20 minutes of space). When this amounts to degrees 13 20 the first Yoga called Viṣkambha ends; when it amounts to 26. 40 the 2nd Yoga Prīti ends and so oṇ The yogas are 27 (that thus make 360 degrees) as stated in the Ratnamālā IV. 1–3 and are as follows —

Name Deity 1. Viṣkambha—Yama 2. Prīti—Viṣṇu 3. Āyuṣmat—Candra. 4. Saubhāgya—Brahmā 5. Śobhana—Bṛhaspati 6. Atigaṇḍa—Candra 7. Sukarmaṇ—Indra 8. Dhṛti—Apaḥ 9. Śūla—Sarpa 10. Gaṇḍa—Agni 11. Vṛddhi—Sūrya 12. Dhruva—Pṛthvī 13. Vyāghāta—Pāvana 14. Harṣaṇa—Rudra 15. Vajra—Varuṇa 16. Siddhi—Gaṇeśa 17. Vyatīpāta—Śiva. 18. Varīyas—Kubera 19. Parigha—Viśvakarmaṇ 20. Śiva—Mitra 21. Siddha—Kārtikeya 22. Sādhya—Sāvitrī 23. Śubha—Kamalā 24. Śukla—Gaurī 25. Brahman—Aśvinau 26. Aindra—Pitṛs 27. Vaidhṛti—Aditi These are nitya (ever-recurring) Yogaṣ The Ratnamālā states that they yield good or bad results in keeping with their nameṣ The Muhūrtadarśana³⁶ states that among these 27 yogas nine are condemned, viz. Parigha, Vyatīpāta, Vajra, Vyāghāta, Vaidhṛti, Viskambha, Śūla, Gaṇḍa³⁷ and Atigaṇḍa. The Ratnamālā provides that Vyatīpāta and Vaidhṛti are wholly inauspicious, the first half of Parigha is so and only the first quarter of those Yogas the names of which are odious; and that one should avoid in all auspicious rites the first three ghaṭikās in Viskambha and Vajra, nine ghaṭis in Vyāghāta, five in Śūla, six in Gaṇḍa and Atigaṇḍa. The Agnipurāṇa³⁸ (127. 1–2) has similar verseṣ The Kālanirṇaya-kārikā³⁹ provides that when a Yoga spreads over two days, fasts and the like are to be observed on the first of the two days provided that Yoga exists at sunset on that day, and vratas and religious gifts are to be performed on the latter (of two days) provided the Yoga exists for three muhūrtas (i. e. six ghaṭis) after sunrise and for śrāddha the day on which the Yoga extends over the time required for the śrāddha rite should be accepteḍ

The system of Yogas must be held to be ancient. The Yajña-valkya smṛti (I. 218) when specifying the times for the perfor-mance of śrāddhas includes Vyatīpāta among theṃ In the Harsacarita of Bāṇa it is said (Ucchvāsa IV) that Harsa was born on a day free from the taint of all defects such as Vyatīpāta (vyatīpātādi-sarvadoṣābhisanga-rahiteṣaṇī) There would gene-rally be 13 vyatīpātas in a year (sometimes 14) and, among the 96 śrāddhas, śrāddhas on these thirteen vyatīpātas are included (vide H. of Dh. vol. IV pp. 382-383 and note 861 ). Besides these 27 Yogas, there are others that occur when there are special conjunctions of weekdays with certain tithis and naksatras or when certain planets occupy certain rāśis on certain tithis and naksatraṣ For Kapilāsasthiyoga and Ardho- daya, vide above pp 279 and 261. Vyatīpāta itself has two technical senses apart from being 17th out of the 27 Yogas mentioned above viz. (1) When amāvasyā ⁴⁰ occurs on a Sunday and the moon is in the first quarter on any one of the naksatras Śravana, Aśvinī, Dhanisṭhā, Ārdrā and Aślesā that is Vyatīpāta; (2) When on the 12th of the bright half Jupiter and Mars are in the sign Lion, the Sun is in Ram and when that tithi has Hasta naksatra on it, it is Vyatīpāta ⁴¹ Yoga. These two are sometimes called Mahāvyatīpāta. Gifts made on these conjunc- tions are very much commended, ⁴² 'gifts on amāvasyā yield one hundred-fold merit, on the suppression of a tithi a thousand-fold, on Visuva day ten thousand-fold, but on Vyatīpāta endless (merit). By gifts of cows, land, gold and clothes made on this the donor becomes free from sin and secures godhead, the position of Indra, health, the rulership of meṇ' ⁴³ The Suryasiddhānta (XI. 1–2) gives an explanation of Vyatīpāta and Vaidhṛta ⁴⁴ (or Vaidhṛti)- when the sun and the moon are on the same side of either solstice and when the sum of their longitudes being a circle they are of equal declination it is styled Vaidhṛti. When the moon and the sun are on opposite sides of either solstice and their minutes of declination are the same, it is Vyatīpāta, the sum of their longitudes being a half circle Why the times mentioned should be looked upon as specially inauspicious or unfortunate is not at all clear and no plausible reason has been assigned The 27th Yoga called Vaidhrți was just like Vyatipāta in all respectṣ Bharadvāja says that the merit of gifts made on Vyatipāta and Vaidhrți is endlesṣ

In the pañcāngas several Yogas (that have nothing to do with the 27 yogas) like Amrtasiddhi, Yamaghanta, Dagdhayoga, Mrtyuyoga, Ghabada are mentioned; they are purely astrological and all of them except three are passed over here for reasons of space. When on Sunday there is Hasta, on Monday Mrgasirsa, on Tuesday Asvinī, on Wednesday Anuradhā, on Thursday Tisya (i. e. Pusya), on Friday Revati and on Saturday Rohini, all these are Amrtasiddhiyogas (fortunate ones⁴⁵). Avoid Anuradha on Sunday, Uttarāsādhā on Monday, Satataraka on Tuesday, Asvinī on Wednesday, Mrgasirsa on Thursday, Aslesa on Friday and Hasta on Saturday--these are seven Mrtyuyogas (inauspicious). If the weekdays from Sunday to Saturday occur on the tithis, 12th, 11th, 10th, 3rd, 6th, 2nd, 7th respectively, these are Dagdhayogas (inauspicious yogas).

The fifth item in a pañcānga is Karana. Half of a tithi is Karana and thus there are two Karanas in a tithi and 60 Karanas in a lunar month. Karanas are of two kinds, viz. cara (moving) and sthira (immoveable). The seven cara karanas with their presiding deities according to Brhatsamhita, chap 99. 1-2 are: 1. Bava-Indra; 2. Balava-Brahma; 3 Kaulava-Mitra, 4. Taitila-Aryaman, 5. Gara (or Garaja)-Earth; 6 Vanija-Sri, 7. Visti-Yama. The four sthira karanas with their deities are: 1 Sakuni-Kālī; 2. Catuspada-Vrṣa; 3. Nāga-snake; 4. Kimstughna-Vayu Some works transpose the two, Catuspada and Nāga. This division of a tithi into two halves resembles the division of a rāsi into two horas (Brhajataka I 9) It is likely that one was suggested by the other The difficulty is to decide which was the earlier. I believe it likely that the division of tithis into two karanas is the earlier of the two. The sthira karanas occur only once in a month i e, on the latter half of 14th tithi of dark half occurs Śakuni: Catuspada and Nāga occupy the two halves of amāvāsyā and Kimstughna occurs on the first half of Pratipad i. e if the 30 tithis of an amānta month are divided into 60 halves, Śakuni, Catuspada and Nāga occupy the 58th, 59th and 60th parts and Kimstughna occupies the first half of the pratipad of the next month. Bava occupies the second half of śukla pratipad and the others follow one after another and as they are only seven they are repeated eight times in a month from the 2nd half of pratipad to the first half of the 14th tithi of a dark half, which would be 57th of the sixty halves of the tithis of the month and would be occupied by Visti. In the pañcāngas, two karaṇas should properly be shown under each tithi, but in pañcāngas only that Karaṇa is shown against a tithi whose ending moment is 30 ghatikās or less from sunrise. The ending times of Karaṇas which are assigned to the 2nd halves of tithis coincide with those of the tithis themselves and therefore there is no need for their calculatioṇ The ending times of the first halves of tithis which correspond to certain Karaṇas are got in the manner described by Pillai in his ‘Indian Ephemeris', vol. I, part 1 p 37, paragraphs 106-107

The word Karaṇa is derived from the root ‘kr’ (to do) and is said to have been so named because it divides a tithi in two partṣ⁴⁶ The names of most of the Karaṇas are somewhat strange and inexplicable. The word ‘Taitila-kadrū’ occurs in Pāṇini VI. 2. 42 (with regard to accent) but the Kāśikā ex- plains that Taitila means ‘ a descendant or pupil or Titilin’. If a mere conjecture were to be offered, the Karaṇa Taitila might have been first named after a man so called The Karaṇas are only of astrological use and must have been named many centuries before 400 A. D. The Nāradapurāṇa⁴⁷ mentions both kinds of Karaṇaṣ The Bṛhat-saṃhitā lays down what should be done or not done on the several Karaṇas⁴⁸ as follows: one should perform on Bava all auspicious ( religious ) rites, all acts that bring about physical health. on Balava religious acts and beneficial to brāhmaṇas, on Kaulava acts leading to good relations and friendship and choosing a bride; on Taitila acts with people, to securing the patronage ( of some important person ) and building a house. on Gara actions pertaining to ploughing, sowing seeds and those that arise in houses; on Vaṇija, acts of a permanent nature, trading, and meeting with people; whatever is done on Viṣṭi does not bring about fortunate results; but actions as regards destruction of enemies, poisoning and incendiarism become successful on it; on Śakuni one should do what leads to physical health and medication, planting roots and eating them and becoming suc- cessful in mantras, on Catuṣpada actions relating to cows ( i. e. gifts of them and rearing them ), actions regarding brāhmaṇas and one's ancestors and king's business should be done; on Nāga, acts relating to immoveable property, cruel acts, depriv- ing ( a man of his wealth or wife ) and acts that lead to hatred among people; on Kiṃstughna, auspicious ( religious ) acts, Vedic sacrifices ( called iṣṭis ) and acts leading to physical prosperity and maṅgala acts ( marriage &c. ) and other acts that bring success in these matterṣ

One very noticeable feature is that the 7th mobile Karana called Viṣṭi appears to have inspired great terror in the minds of medieval writers on Dharmaśāstra It will be noticed that dividing the lunar month into 60 halves of tithis, and beginning Bava on the second half of the pratipad of an amānta month, the Karana Viṣṭi will occur eight times in one month as the following diagram of the sixty halves will show:

Bava 2 9 16 23 30 37 44 51 Balava 3 10 17 24 31 38 45 52 Kaulava 4 11 18 25 32 39 46 53 Taitila 5 12 19 26 33 40 47 54 Gara 6 13 20 27 34 41 48 55 Vaṇija 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 Visti 8 15 22 29 36 43 50 57

The fixed Karanas will be Śakuni 58, 59 Catuspada, 60 Nāga, 1 ( pratipad first half of next month ) Kimstughna. In the dark half, ⁴⁹ Viṣṭi will occur in the latter half of the third and 10th tithis and in the first half of the 7th and 14th tithis; in the bright half Viṣṭi will occur in the latter half of the 4th and 11th tithis and the first half of the 8th and 15th (i. e. Paurnamāsī) tithiṣ The Rājamārtaṇḍa ⁵⁰ states ‘Some regard Viṣṭi as having the form of a cobra and as terrible; there is danger in the mouth of a snake but not in its tail. The mouth, neck, chest, navel region, waist and tail of Viṣṭi are respectively of five, one, eleven, four, six and three ghaṭikāṣ Great sages declare that it (Viṣṭi) does not confer fortunate results, therefore a good man should avoid these except the tail’ (on last three ghaṭikās of Viṣṭi auspicious acts may be performed). Viṣṭi is also euphemistically called Bhadrā or Kalyāṇī (it is really abhadra). The terrible nature of Viṣṭi is described in two verses of Bhīma-parākrama quoted in Bhujabala-nibandha p 30 (vide pp. 95-96 of my paper on ‘Bhoja and his works &c ‘ in Journal of Oriental Research, Madras, vol XXIII for 1953-54) which also occur in Rājamārtaṇḍa, verses 1021-22.

The whole scheme of Karaṇas is itself fanciful. But to draw a lurid picture of one of them, Viṣṭi (which occurs eight times in a month), and say that it is like a cobra or an ogress is the height of imagination dominated by astrological considerationṣ

Having described at some length the five angas in a pañcāṅga, a few words must be said about Hindu calendars, though it has been already declared above that purely astronomical matters will not be elaborated in this work. In the In the continent of India there are numerous pañcāngas in vogue and there is something like anarchy in this sphere. Hardly any two pañcāngas agree completely. Many educated Indians have been demanding that such matters as eclipses, the times of which can be noted by anyone, should be accurately predicted by the almanacs and that our ancient methods of calculating the motions of heavenly bodies should be brought in line with modern accurate calculations based upon observationṣ This is just what scientific astronomers like Varāhamihira would have done if they were living in modern timeṣ At the end of his two works Varāha makes a very candid but solemn request¹¹²⁶ 'whatever in this work comes to be unscientific while it is being used or on account of defects in the mss, or whatever may have been badly executed by me or insufficiently done or not done at all, that should be corrected by learned men, leaving aside all passion (jealousy), and after acquiring (knowledge) from the lips of well-read men'. Some almanac-makers follow the Nautical Almanac tables as to eclipses and the like and set out other matters according to the old tableṣ As already stated there are three main schools of astronomers in India, (1) the school that follows the Sūrya-siddhānta (and is called Saurapaksa ), (2) the second follows the Brahma-siddhānta (and is called Brāhmapaksa ), (3) the third follows the Āryasiddhānta (and is styled Āryapaksa ). There are two main points of difference between these, viz (1) the length of the year, (2) the number of revolutions of the sun, the moon and the planets in a certain period such as a mahāyuga. The difference in the length of the year among the siddhāntas is very small viz a few vipalas (a upala being 1/5th part of a pala, which again is 1/5th of a ghaṭikā that is equal to 24 minutes ). The length of the year according to the Sūryasiddhānta is 365 days 15 ghatis, 31 523 palas, while the interval in time between two successive returns of the sun to the vernal equinox (called the tropical year) is only 365 days, 14 ghatis and 31 972 palas and the correct sideral (nākṣatra ) year is 365 days, 15 ghatis, 22 palas and 53 vipalas (vide C. R. C. Report p. 240 in hours, minutes and seconds and Dikshit's History ed of 1931 pp. 159, 440 ). The result is that if one follows the Sūryasiddhānta, the starting point of Hindu astronomers is at present more than 23 degrees to the east of the correct vernal equinox point. This difference is called the ayanāṁśa. As the longitudes of heavenly bodies reckoned from the equinox include these ayanāṁśas they are called sāyana (sa + ayana). The places of heavenly bodies obtained by the Sūryasiddhānta and mediæval Sanskrit works are distinguished by being called nirayana (devoid of taking into account precession). At present according to most almanacs that employ the Sūryasiddhānta values Makarasankrānti (Sun’s entrance into Capricorn) falls generally on 14th January, but according to the most accurate modern calculations, it should fall on 21st December, even in calendars that pride themselves on being śuddha the Makarasankrānti falls on 9th January i. e. our Makarasankrānti is celebrated ⁵¹ about 23 or 18 days later than it should be and the same happens to the autumnal equinox and the summer solstice and many other observances Aśvinī is still reckoned as the first nakṣatra (in which the vernal equinox is deemed to have occurred about śaka 444), although the vernal equinox point has receded to the Uttarā-bhādrapadā group of stars (which should now be treated as the first nakṣatra). Efforts have been made by those familiar with the modern accurate calculations (such as the late Kero L. Chatre) to introduce modern calculations in our almanacs; but they have met with little response. The late Lokamānya Tilak (who was a great Vedic scholar and mathematician) held several conferences of Indian astronomers and other interested people at Bombay (1904), Poona (1917) and at Sangli (1919). At the last conference several resolutions were passed without making a total break with the past were calculated to reform our calendar and to prevent furthur deterioration It is un-necessary to set out all the resolutions, but the most impor-tant were that the length of the year should be that of the Sūryasiddhānta but subject to necessary corrections, the rate of precession should be accepted at 50 2/5 vikalas a year (as determined by modern astronomical observations), that the Yogatārā ⁵² of Revatī (corresponding to Zeta Piscium of modern astronomers) should be deemed to be the beginning of the Zodiacal belt (rāśicakrārambhasthāna) and that the ayanāṁśas calculated from the starting point by actual observation should be accepted for the purpose of a new Karaṇa (astronomical manual ) to be compiled according to 'the resolutionṣ Unfortunately the resolutions did not state where exactly the star Zeta Piscium was in a particular śaka year. Dr. K. L. Daftari prepared Karaṇa-grantha called Karanakalpalatā in Sanskrit which was published in 1924. Almanacs based on its data have been published and are sometimes known as 'Tilak Pañcāṅga'. But it must be confessed that our people in general are so much custom-ridden that the popular response to the reformed calendar is poor. People still follow the pañcāṅgas based on the old siddhāntas. According to the śāstras every religious festival is to be celebrated at the proper time i.e. in the right season and on the proper tithi. The tithi depends upon the correct calculation of the movements of the moon, which are most difficult to reduce to rules that will give accurate resultṣ Many people will not observe the ekādaśī fast if the eleventh tithi is mixed up with the 10th tithi even for a few ghaṭikās. But what guarantee is there that the 10th tithi has been accurately calculated? The ending moments of tithis do not agree with those given by the Nautical Almanac which are based on modern formula and are verified by actual observatioṇ If tithis be calculated according to different, Sanskrit, astronomical treatises the moment of a particular tithi may differ by as much as five hours and the same festival (such as Kṛṣṇajanmāṣṭamī or Dusserā) may be celebrated on two successive days in the same city.

Besides, it must not be forgotten that a pañcāṅga prepared on the basis of the latitude and longitude of Poona or Bombay will be slightly wrong even at a distance of 30 or 40 miles to the west or east or north. It would be a great mistake from the religious point of view to employ a pañcāṅga prepared on the basis of the longitude and latitude of Poona or Bombay in a place several hundred miles away ( such as in Hyderabad or Aurangabad). From the religious point of view if accuracy is to be preserved there must be a separate pañcāṅga for every town or every place, not more than 10 or 15 miles from places like Bombay or Poona where pañcāṅgas are at present prepareḍ

In November 1952 the Government of India appointed a committee called the Calendar Reform Committee presided over by Dr. Meghanad Saha to examine all existing calendars being followed at present in India and to submit proposals for an accurate and uniform calendar for the whole of India. That committee submitted a very exhaustive and valuable report in November 1955. The final recommendations of the Committee for a civil calendar and for a religious calendar are set out on pp. 6-8 of the report. They are deserving of the most serious consideration by all who feel that religious observances must be done at the proper time and that now at least in independent India there should not only be one uniform civil calendar, but also one uniform Hindu religious calendar.⁵³ It appears that unless Government makes great efforts for the introduction of a correct calendar even for religious purposes, it would be futile to assume that common people will spontaneously adopt a correct pañcāṅga.

Some of the important recommendations of the Committee may be set out here for the information of readerṣ

Recommendations for civil calendar (1) The Śaka era should be used in the unified national calendar. The Śaka year 1876 corresponds to 1954-55 A. D (2) The year should start from the day following the vernal equinox day. (3) Normal year is to consist of 365 days, while a leap year would have 366 days After adding 78 to the Śaka era year, if the sum is divisible by 4, then it would be a leap year. But when the sum becomes a multiple of 100, it would be a leap year only when it is divisible by 400; otherwise it would be a common year. (4) Caitra (or Chaitra as often written) should be the first month of the year and the lengths of the different months should be fixed as follows :— Caitra—30 days (31 days in a leap year). Vaiśākha—31 dayṣ Jyeṣṭha—31 dayṣ Āṣāḍha—31 days Śrāvaṇa—31 days Bhādrapada—31 dayṣ Āśvina—30 dayṣ Kārtika—30 dayṣ Mārgaśīrṣa—30 dayṣ Pauṣa—30 dayṣ Māgha—30 dayṣ Phālguna—30 dayṣ The dates of the reformed Indian calendar would thus have a permanent correspondence with the Gregorian⁵⁴ calendar. The corresponding dates would be :

Hindu Gregorian Caitra 1 — March 22 in a common year and 21 in a leap year. Vaiśākha 1 — April 21. Jyeṣṭha 1 — May 22. Āṣāḍha 1 — June 22. Śrāvana 1 — July 23. Bhādrapada 1 — August 23. Āśvina 1 — September 23. Kārtika 1 — October 23. Mārgaśīrṣa 1 — November 22. Pauṣa 1 — December 22. Māgha 1 — January 21. Phālguna 1 — February 20.

The Indian seasons would thus be permanently fixed with respect to the reformed Calendar as follows :

Seasons : Grisma — Vaiśākha and Hemanta — Kārtika and (summer) Jyeṣṭha. (late autumn) Mārgaśīrṣa. Varsā — Āṣāḍha and Śiśira — Pauṣa and Māgha. (rains) Śrāvana (winter) Śarad — Bhādrapada and Vasanta — Phālguna and (Autumn) Āśvina. (Spring) Caitra.

The States now having the solar calendars for civil and partly religious purposes which start the year from Vaiśākha (April 14th) will have to begin the year 23 days earlier, but the first month will be Caitra. The effect of this will be that in Bengal, Orissa and Assam solar months start approximately seven days later than now, and in Tamil-nad solar months start approximately 23 days earlier than now, for the month called Vaiśākha (14th April to 14th May) in Bengal and Orissa is called Ciṭṭurā (or caitra) in Tamil-naḍ Those who use the lunar calendar beginning with Caitra also for civil purposes would experience no great difficulty in adopting this unified calendar as they have at present the beginning of their year on various dates from 15th March to 13th April and the first month is Caitra.

Recommendations for religious calendar.

(5) The calculation for Saura (solar) months necessary for determining the lunar months of the same name will start 23 degrees and 15 minutes (fixed ayanāmśa) ahead of the vernal equinox point. This tallies with the present practice of most almanac-makerṣ

The months would thus commence at the moments when the tropical longitude of the sun attains the following values; viz. Saura Vaiśākha commences when the sun has the longitude of 23° 15', Saura Jyeṣṭha and the other Saura months upto Caitra will commence when the sun has respectively the longitude of 53° 15', 83° 15', 113° 15', 143° 15', 173° 15', 203° 15', 233° 15', 263° 15', 293° 15', 323° 15', 353° 15'.

This recommendation is to be regarded only as a measure of compromise, so that a violent break with the established practice would be avoideḍ But this compromise would not make our present seasons in the several months as they were in the days of Kālidāsa and Varāhamihira. It is hoped that at not a distant date, further reforms for locating the lunar and solar festivals in the seasons in which they were originally observed will be adopteḍ

(6) As usual the lunar months for religious purposes would commence from the moment of new moon and would be named after the saura month in which the new moon fallṣ If there be two new moons during the period of a Saura month, the lunar month beginning from the first new moon is the adhika or male māsa and the lunar month beginning from the moment of the second new moon is the śuddha or nija māsa as usual.

(7) The moment of the moon's exit from a nakṣatra division of 13° 20' each or sun's entry into it would be calculat- ed with a variable ayanāmśa (i e. on the supposition that they are fixed with respect to the stars) The value of this ayanāmśa would amount to 23° 15' 0'' on 21 March 1956. Thereafter it would gradually increases' with the annual rate, the mean value of which is about 50.27".

These arrangements would ensure that the religious obser- vances determined by the sun such as the Viṣuva-saṅkrānti, Uttarāyaṇa-saṅkrānti and Dakṣināyaṇa-saṅkrānti would follow astronomically correct seasons, but those determined by the lunar calendar would continue to be observed in times conform- ing to the present practice and the correction introduced by this report in the length of the year would prevent their further shift in relation to the seasonṣ

The dates of festivals have already shifted by twenty-three days from the seasons in which they were observed about 1400 years ago as a result of our almanac-makers having ignored the precession of the equinoxeṣ Although it might appear to some desirable that the entire amount of shifting be wiped out at once, the authors of the Report consider it expedient to maintain this as constant difference and to stop its further increase. As a result there would at present be no deviation from the prevail- ing custom in the observance of religious festivalṣ

In the calculation of nakṣatras, however, the Report has adopted a variable ayanāṁśa, so that at the time of a particular nakṣatra the moon may be seen in the sky in the star or star- group of that name. This practice has been followed in our country from Vedic times and is perfectly scientific.

(8) The day should be reckoned from midnight to mid- night of the central station ( 82¼ degrees E Longitude and 23° 11' North Latitude ) for civil purposes but for religious purposes the local sunrise system may be followeḍ

(9) For the purpose of all calculations, the longitudes of the sun and the moon should be obtained by applying the most upto-date and complete equations of their motions, so that they may tally with their actually observed values

(10) Steps should be taken to compile an ‘Indian Ephe- merit and Nautical Almanac’ by the Government of India, showing in advance the positions of the sun, the moon, the planets and other heavenly bodieṣ The Indian calendar, both civil and religious, prepared according to the above recommenda- tions should be included in that publication every year

One can only express the hope that the above mentioned recommendations of the Committee of distinguished astronomers and Sanskrit scholars will receive a wide and hearty response from the Hindu people and that the present confusion and anarchy in the matter of religious observances in our country will come to an end as soon as possible. The Government of India accepted the principal recommendations of the Committee . by issuing a Press Note on 23rd October 1956 which decided that the Uniform National Calendar should be adopted with effect from March 22, 1957 corresponding to ( Solar ) Chaitra 1, 1879, Śaka Era, for certain official purposes in conjunction with the Gregorian Calendar and laid down the steps to be taken by the Central Government and the States Governments for imple menting the decisioṇ To avoid misunderstandings and to encon rage the use by the mass of the people of this Solar Calendar, Government has decided to make use of both the Gregorian Calendar and the New Indian Solar Calendar together in some Government business, such as publishing the Indian Government Gazette with both dates, the All India Radio Broadcasting news every day announcing both dates at the beginning. But Government is not going to give up as far as possible the practice of declaring public holidays on religious festivals according to the old Calendarṣ The Government will publish translations of the Calendar Reform Committee's Report in the principal languages of India. It must be said however that this Calendar does not remove all the defects of the Gregorian Calendar.⁵⁵ The years will still commence on different week days and the number of days in each month still varieṣ It is feared that this will add only one more calendar to the existing oneṣ