Indian Calendar

The Hindu calendar year was counted 360 days. So it was based on the lunar count of time (had 12 months after 30 days). When was it built?? Unfortunately, it is not easy to establish, the more that the Hindus have used a large number of calendars throughout their long history. They also did not recognize one starting point. The brahmanas counted the time from 3102 r. p.n.e., i.e. the beginning of the war described in the old epic "Mahabharata", and at the same time the beginning of the Kali Yuga period, that is, the Iron Age.

Moreover, time in Hindu concepts had (and has) completely different dimensions from Earth. It is defined by the life of the god-Brahma, counting 100 years of this god. .

To understand, what does it mean, you need to know, that the "day of Brahma" counts… 4 320 Earth years, while the "year of Brahma" - 360 times more…

So the Hindus divided their time into "Brahma days", or kalpa. Kalpa - recognized by Hindus as the basic cycle of the count of time - is divided into 14 smaller cycles, called manwantara. Manwantara, in turn, is divided into 71 mahajuga (also called aeons), i.e. the so-called. "Great ages". Each of them lasts 4 320 000 lat. And Eon, meaning "great age", is divided into 4 smaller: Kritia - The Golden Age (ongoing 4800 lat), Treta - The Silver Age (3600 lat), Dwapara - The Bronze Age (2400 lat) and Kali - the Iron Age (1200 lat). The age of Kali is now going on, also called "the age of sin", VII of our kalpa's mantars, and Brahma is said to live his 50 year of life…

This is how the Indians counted (and count)… eternity. In practice - time was measured according to the rotation of the moon and the apparent movement of the sun. Because over time, the lunisolar calendar was introduced in India. It consisted of 12 synodic months, and for its reconciliation with the tropical year added co 3 years one follow-up month. The Sak era was taken as the starting point, a year then 78 neither. Kaniszka introduced her (1st or 2nd century. neither.), founder of the Kushan dynasty. It is also worth adding, that in India there were over 20 different baseline dates for calculating years. This calendar mess was only removed in 1952 year. It was this year that a new one was passed in India, uniform calendar - referring to old Indian traditions, and at the same time consistent with the tropical year. According to this calendar, years usually count 365 days, leap - 366. The year begins 22 III, and in leap years - 21 III. The Indian Saka era was also kept as the starting point for the count of years.