Art & Culture
Calendar Forms Used in India
India's own official calendar starts counting from 78 CE, not year one, and it still runs alongside the Gregorian calendar in the Government's own Official Gazette.
Independent India inherited a genuinely fragmented calendar landscape, several regional calendar systems in simultaneous official and religious use, and adopting a single national calendar was intended chiefly to bring uniformity to official date-keeping rather than to replace every regional or religious calendar in daily use.
The Indian National Calendar: based on the Saka Era
The Indian National Calendar came into official government use from 22 March 1957, and is based on the Saka Era, an ancient Indian calendar era whose year count begins in 78 CE, so a given Gregorian year corresponds to a Saka year roughly 78 less. Its first month is Chaitra, which begins on 22 March in an ordinary year and 21 March in a leap year, deliberately aligned close to the Gregorian calendar's own dates rather than drifting independently. The Saka calendar is used alongside, not instead of, the Gregorian calendar for a range of official government purposes, most visibly in the dating of India's own Official Gazette.
Other calendars in active use
The Vikram Samvat (Vikrami calendar) is a widely used traditional Hindu lunar calendar across North India, its year count beginning in 57 BCE, and it is also the official calendar of Nepal, so a Vikram Samvat year runs numerically well ahead of the corresponding Gregorian year. The Hijri calendar, the Islamic lunar calendar used for religious purposes by India's Muslim community as elsewhere in the Islamic world, is a purely lunar calendar of twelve months totalling 354 or 355 days a year, meaningfully shorter than a solar year, which is exactly why Hijri dates for religious observances shift steadily earlier against the Gregorian calendar from one year to the next rather than falling on a fixed Gregorian date.
Quick revision points
- Indian National Calendar: official from 22 March 1957, based on the Saka Era (year count begins 78 CE); first month Chaitra begins 22 March (21 March in a leap year); used alongside the Gregorian calendar, notably in the Official Gazette of India.
- Vikram Samvat: traditional Hindu lunar calendar widely used across North India, year count begins 57 BCE; also Nepal's official calendar.
- Hijri calendar: Islamic lunar calendar, 12 lunar months, 354 or 355 days a year (shorter than a solar year), which is why religious observance dates shift earlier against the Gregorian calendar year on year.