the case of Makar Sakranti which is celebrated around January 14th at present time. However, as we all know, the winter solstice falls not on January 14th but it actually falls on Dec 21st which is the shortest day of the year and also denotes the end of winter and marks the official start of the harvest season. Thus to be correct with the seasons and with the solstices, the Makar Sankranti should fall on 21st Dec and not on 14th Jan. It is apparent that something is wrong with the Indian (Hindu) calendar. As a matter of fact, in the Indian calendar system, the tropical seasons (and the solstices and the equinoxes along with it) are out of phase by 24 days with the correct seasonal phenomenon as marked by the Gregorian calendar. To make matters worse, it is not only out of phase, but that this out of phase is also increasing every year. We will try to analyze how and why the Indian calendar is out of phase with the seasons and what to do about it. First, the reason why it is out of phase is very simple. We are measuring the solar year by a different method than being measured by the Gregorian calendar. Basically, we are measuring what is called a ‘sidereal’ (Sans. sayana) solar year while the scientific community is measuring a ‘tropical’ (Sans. nirayana) solar year. This brings us to the question how differently we measure a solar year. The solar year is measured by counting the time period of the successive return of the earth to the same reference point on the ecliptic. However, we can measure it two ways. We may take one reference point by taking a fixed background star on the ecliptic. In this system, the solar year measured, is the actual time taken for the earth to revolve once around the Sun with respect to a fixed star. This is known as the sidereal year. However, another reference point may be taken as the ‘equinox point’. That is, you measure the time from (say) one spring equinox to the next spring equinox. The year you measure thus is known as the tropical year. Tropically, the harvest season starts when the winter ends on the Winter Solstice which is, as we all know, on 21st Dec. Thus to be correct with the season and with the solstice, the Makar Sankranti should fall on 31st Dec and not on 14th Jan. Thus the Hindu calendar system, the tropical seasons are out of phase by about 24 days with the actual seasonal phenomenon and with the actual tropical calendar of as practiced by the world that follows the Gregorian calendar. So are the solstices and the equinoxes along with it. Let us now see how the discrepancy of 24 days has crept into the present Indian calendars. According to Surya Siddhanta, an ancient astronomical treaties, the Indian sidereal (sayana) year apparently coincided with the tropical (nirayana) year in KY (Kali Yugo) 3600, which has now been standardized as the as 285 AD. It means that in 285 AD, the solstices and the equinoxes were per the present Gregorian calendar; Makar Sankranti fell on 21st Dec and the Mesha Sankranti on 21st March etc. Since then however the equinoxes are precessing in the Hindu calendar at the rate of 20 minutes a year for total (2013-285)=1728 years, and this accounts for the (1728*20)/60/24 = 24 days discrepancy that we have today. To bring the matter home, we may note that at the present rate, we find that 500 years ago, the Hindus were celebrating the Makar sankranti around 7th January and that in another 500 years from now, we will be celebrating it on 21st January instead of the 14th January as we do today.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 18:43:24 +0000
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