How to Measure TIME?

Have you ever wondered why not all the moths in a calendar year have same number of days?

Why February has the least number of days instead of December or January??

Well! We all have studied in the school that it takes 365.25 days approximately to complete one rotation around the sun for earth. Thus we have 365 days in an year and every 4 years an extra day is added to reconcile 0.25 days from 365.25. When we divide 365 by 12 we get additional 5-6 days thus some months get their 31st day. That is all correct!!

However current Gregorian Calendar is inspired from Roman Calendar that had only 10 months starting from March to December prior to 450 BC. Remaining 59 days were called as "Unnamed Winter"  Later a Roman King decided to create 2 more new months January with 31days and February with remaining 28 days. Yet, new year began on March 1st and yearend was celebrated on February 28th. Later another king decided to start the new year from January 1st and hence February the second month in current calendar has got the honors to be the shortest month. This calendar has eventually become the modern calendar we follow currently.

We all would have noticed that only Sankrani( Lohri/Pongal) is the only Indian festival that is celebrated approximately on the same day (Jan 14th) as per English Calendar. Remaining festivals like Ugadi , Dasara etc fall on different days every year. Let us take look at the days on which the grand Indian festival Diwali was celebrated in last 4 years:

2018 - Nov 7th        2017 -  Oct 19th    2016- Oct 30th      2015 - Nov 11th 

We all knew that Diwali is celebrated in Kartika Masa , Krishna Paksha Amavasya that can be called as the Last Day of 7th Month as per Indian Lunar Calendar every year. This brings up curiosity to me to understand, how the Lunar Calendar is designed and how is it different from English Calendar, we follow on daily basis

Here is my brief understanding of the Lunar Calendar or Chandramana Samvatsara :

1. When we observe from the earth :" Angle between the MOON and the SUN is measured"

2. When this angle between Moon and Sun clicks Multiple of 12 degrees ( i.e. 12, 24,36..), current day ends and the new day begins. Day is referred as "TITHI" 

3. As the Moon is rotating around Earth and this eco system (Moon & earth in motion) is rotating around the SUN, it doesn't take exact same time to hit the multiple of 12 degree change 

4. Typically time in each Tithi/Day varies from 19 - 26 hours based on time needed for 12 degree

5. Thirty such 12 degree moves make up , one Month /Masa in the Lunar Calendar.

6. 12 such months/masa make up One Lunar Year or 360 Lunar days 

7. Since each day varies from 19 - 26 hours, One Lunar Year of 360 days is equivalent to approximately 354 Solar/English Calendar days 

8. Thus every year it creates a variance of 10.87 Lunar days to catch up with Solar year ( Time taken by Earth to complete one rotation around the Sun).

9. It triggers an additional Lunar Month ( similar to Leap year concept) , called as Adhika Masa/Additional Month in the Lunar Calendar Every 32.5 months.

10. Every 3rd Lunar Year has 13 months. Example Shravana Masa followed by Adhika Sravan, Ashada followed by Adhika Ashada etc 

If we want to represent a Typical Lunar Calendar Month, it would look like below.

1. First day [Prathama/Pradyami] starts after Amavasya /No Moon Day 

2. With every 12* multiple change, new days begins counted till 14th day followed by Full Moon Day  called as Pournami. First 15 days is called as Shukla Paksha.

3. Day After Poornima will be Prathama till Chaturdsai followed by No Moon Day . These 15 days is called as Krishna Paksha.

2 Pakshas make 1 Month .

2 Months Make 1 Season or Rithu ( vasanta , Greeshma , Varsha etc )

3. Ruthu make 1 Ayana [ Uttara Ayana - the Day Sankranti Celebrated 

2 Ayana make 1 Lunar Year

As per Indian Calendar, 1 Super Age or Maha Yuga consists of 4 ages in 4:3:2:1 ratio.

Satya Yuga - Golden Age- 1.728 Million Years

Treta Yuga - Silver Age- 1.296 Million Years

DwaparaYuga - Bronze Age- 8,64, 000 Years

KaliYuga - Iron Age- 4,32,000Years

Thus one Mahayuga  make up 4,320,000 Lunar years. 

1000 Maha Yuga makes up 1 Day for Brahma ( creator) 

He has 100 years thus creation will last for 313 Trillion Years

Based  on these numbers currently we are in the year of  155,521,972,949,121.

To summarize various civilizations , cultures and countries have observed the patterns of day/night, seasons, changes in the nature to come up with different mechanism to measure the time. Most of them are based on the movement of Sun ,Moon & Earth. 


- Pavan Joshi

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