Opinion | Why Vikram Samvat Did Not Become India’s National Calendar

Recently, Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, colloquially called Varsh Pratipada, which marks the beginning of the “Hindu New Year” fell on March 22. Varsh Pratipada coincides with no particular date on Gregorian calendar, but oscillates in a pendulum-like motion between March 15 and April 13. This is because while a regular year in lunisolar calendar comprises 354 days, the leap year, which falls every third year, comprises 378 days due to the intercalation of a whole month called adhimasa. The intercalary month balances the lunar year against the solar year to keep abreast of the seasonal cycle. While it is formally called Vikram Samvat in the context of North India, the expression is inadequate, if not misleading. It refers only to the era, not the nature of the calendar. India might have followed lunisolar calendars for ages prior to the proclamation of Vikram Samvat in 57 BC. Several other eras like Srishtiyabde (Creation era), Saptarshi era (era of seven astral sages), Kali-Samvat (era started at the beginning of Kali era), Yuddhisthir Samvat (era founded by Yudhisthir), Buddha Samvat and Mahavira Samvat had been prevalent earlier.

Even now, while the New Year began in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on the same day, they follow a different era viz. Salivahana Saka Samvat. Thus, while the calendar in Northern India turned 2080, in lower India, it is now 1945. In Gujarat, which follows Vikram Samvat, it is still 2079. It will enter 2080 on the Kartik Shukla Pratipada, on the morrow of Diwali.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted best wishes on Vikram Samvat, 2080 in addition to Gudi Padwa (Marathi New Year), Ugadi/Yugadi (Telugu and Kannada New Year) and Sabju Nongma Panba (Manipuri New Year). However, there was no mention of Rashtriya Panchang or India’s official New Year that customarily begins on March 22. The Rashtriya Panchang, which is published in all major Indian languages since 1957 by the Positional Astronomy Centre (Indian Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences) forms the basis of the government calendar published by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. Besides, its dates are used in all gazette notifications and Parliamentary publications. The Rashtriya Panchang is a tropical solar calendar, which begins on the morrow of Vernal Equinox, uses the Saka era, and lately also the Kali era.

Why despite all the hype surrounding Vikram Samvat, the same was never adopted as the official calendar of India? In 1943, coinciding with Vikram Era 2000, the Hindu Mahasabha decided to put its political weight behind the legendary Maharaja Vikramaditya. This was despite the absence of any consensus (even amongst the nationalist historians) on the historicity of Vikramaditya. However, this gave Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in his presidential speech at Muslim League’s annual session in Karachi (1943), an opportunity to allege that the Congress (a term he equated with Hindu Mahasabha) was contemplating reviving a form of government and culture as in the historic period of Vikramaditya, under which no fair-minded person could expect any space for the Muslims (Indian Annual Register, July to December, 1943, P.291). Historian Radhakumud Mookerji, an active member of Hindu Mahasabha, informs he presided over a central celebration on Vikramaditya in Amritsar in December 1943 that was inaugurated by a minister of Punjab government viz. Sir Manohar Lal. No further details of the celebration are known. In a related development, the princely state of Gwalior had also planned a grand celebration to mark the third millennium of the Vikrama era, though it never went through. However, a number of academic papers received for the occasion were published belatedly by the Scindia Oriental Institute at Ujjain as “Vikrama Volume” (1949) under the general editorship of Radha Kumud Mookerji.

The essays of “Vikrama Volume” did not lend credence to the historicity of Vikramaditya. Two leading historians, A.S. Altekar and Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar tried to dissociate the Vikram era from the person of Vikramaditya on the ground that inscriptions which refer to Vikram Samvat by name were not of older vintage than the 8^th century AD. Previously, it was referred to as Krita Samvat and Malava Samvat but even then, the earliest such evidence was no older than the 3^rd century of the era. However, in 1951, Raj Bali Pandey, in his book ‘Vikramaditya of Ujjayini: The Founder of Vikrama Era’ tried to explain these facts, and salvage the historicity of the legendary ruler. Dr. R.C. Majumdar wrote the Foreword to Pandey’s book.

However, it was not its contested history, which prevented Vikram Samvat from being adopted as the official calendar of India. There was no demand as well. What undermined its prospects was its astronomical basis. A lunisolar calendar is ill-suited to serve the needs of a modern state. When the Constitution of India was adopted on November 26, 1949, the date was recorded only in Gregorian format. There was no official calendar for India, analogous to the official language in the Constitution. However, soon a need was felt for a national or official calendar. The Nehru government took cognizance of it.

In the interconnected world of the 20^th century, it was no longer possible for India to turn back on the Gregorian calendar. It was understood that the official calendar of India would play largely a ceremonial role. However, even such a ceremonial calendar must a) be acceptable to the entire India and b) be based on sound astronomical principles. Vikram Samvat, with its attendant merits and defects, was not the only candidate for the position. India had around 30 calendars, distinguished by methods of reckoning, assumed length of the solar year, starting point of the year and the era employed.

The National Calendar Reform Committee, which was set up in November 1952 under the chairmanship of Dr. Meghnad Saha, received 60 Panchangas in various languages from across India in response to its questionnaire. These could be reduced to 30 categories based on the aforesaid indices. While calendars in West Bengal, Assam, Orissa (now Odisha), Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab etc used a sidereal solar calendar, other regions like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh used lunar (lunisolar) calendars.

Vikram Samvat was excluded from reckoning by the Calendar Reform Committee very early in its proceedings. In the first meeting of the committee, which took place on February 21, 1953, and continued till February 23, the Chairman pointed out the Vikram era was never used by the astronomers in India who always employed the Saka era. Besides, there were different beginnings of the Vikram era in different states (he perhaps meant north Indian states and Gujarat). Dr. K.L. Daftari favoured the adoption of the Kali or Kalpa era. At last, the Committee decided upon the usage of the Saka era.

The Saka era uses sidereal solar reckoning. Its months are based on the apparent transit of the Sun into various rashis, or zodiac signs. No intercalary month was required. As stated above, certain lunisolar calendars in India, such as in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, also adopted the Saka era. Several states in India like Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Kerala used the sidereal solar calendar, though each had its own era.

While solar reckoning might appear more convenient and modern in outlook than lunisolar reckoning, it was not without its tragic flaw that affected both variants equally. India has no tropical solar calendar of its own, which could have resulted in catastrophe had the Gregorian calendar not been introduced by the British in the 18^th century. The length of the sidereal year – whose modern value is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds- is nearly 20 minutes longer than the tropical year which is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. It means that a calendar based on sidereal year would overshoot the natural year those many superfluous minutes, pushing the Vernal Equinox back. It implies that a sidereal calendar would estrange from the seasons at a rate twice that of the erstwhile Julian calendar did, before the reforms carried out by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 AD.

While the tropical year factors into the effect of axial precession (formerly called precession of equinoxes), the sidereal year does not. This led to slow retrogression of the Mahavishuva or Vernal Equinox (March 21) from the Mesha Sankranti or the Sun’s transit into Aries (April 14 or 15) over the period of a millennium and a half. The most demonstrative effect of this phenomenon is the retrogression of true Uttarayana or Winter Solstice (December 22) from the Makar Sankranti, or Sun’s transit into Capricorn (January 14 or 15). Since the end of the 19^th century, there had been a clamour for Indian calendars to shift over to Sayana (tropical) reckoning from Niryana (sidereal) reckoning. This has been dealt with lucidly by Sankara Balakrishna Dixit, in his landmark book on the history of Indian astronomy ‘Bharatiya Jyotish Sastracha Prachain ani Archavin Itihas’ (1896) originally written in Marathi. Dikshit also favoured the switch over from sidereal to tropical reckoning, by shedding excess 22 days accumulated over a long period.

The Calendar Reform Committee, which did not have the benefit of Dikshit’s book, since it was not translated into English by Prof. R. V. Vadiya in 1981, veered around a similar solution though it was highly radical. Dr. Meghnad Saha was convinced that originally, according to Surya Siddhanta, the Indian year was tropical and began on Vernal Equinox. However, partly due to error in observation, not infrequent in those days, and failure to recognize the precession of equinoxes, the tropical year virtually got converted into a sidereal year. Since the Indian almanac makers (unlike the European astronomers who persistently corrected the length of the year) continued to use the defective year-length of 365.258756 days (instead of modern value 365.242196 days) mentioned in Surya Siddhanta, the Indian solar year, instead of starting on Vernal Equinox as prescribed in the text, began on April 13 or April 14 (Report of the Calendar Reform Committee, 1955, P.viii).

This made the Calendar Reform Committee reset the clock to start the Indian New Year on March 22 or the morrow of the Vernal Equinox while using the Saka era. However, even as tropical solar calendar, it did not exclude the use of lunar tithis, since they were essential for the determination of religious occasions. Since 1957, the Rashtriya Panchang is being published by Position Astronomy Centre, Kolkata (under Ministry of Earth Sciences) in various Indian languages. However, almost no almanac maker in India has shifted over to the tropical reckoning system. The Rashtriya Panchang, therefore, has become official instead of the national calendar.

Calendars are based on astronomical principles. However, an argument about them often turns to cultural and religious beliefs in India. While European astronomers had challenged the astronomical notions of their predecessors, which they thought was necessary, nothing of that sort happened in India until the 19^th century. The old ideas, at times, retired under the intensity of modern European knowledge, without being decided either way in Indian astronomy. One of its examples is the geocentric model of the universe, which indigenous Indian astronomers like Chandrashekar Samanta continued to hold fast, until the end of the 19^th century. Then it disappeared completely under the impact of Copernicus-Galileo’s knowledge system. The issue of calendar is more pernicious. While almanac makers continue to tread upon the diversion, rest of the India does not care, since they already have the Gregorian calendar. While India now has a reformed calendar, the almanacs themselves are not fully reformed as they hold on to the wrong length of the year.

The writer is author of the book ‘The Microphone Men: How Orators Created a Modern India’ (2019) and an independent researcher based in New Delhi. The views expressed herein are his personal.

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