Krsna Kirtana Songs est. 2001 www.kksongs.org

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The Vedic Year

Unlike the Western calendar, which is based on the rotation of the sun, the Vedic calendar is based on the lunar calendar, or the calendar based on the moon’s cycle. Many cultures, races, and religions have adopted their own versions of their lunar calendar. The Vedic system is much more complex, for it has many elements in understanding its calendar. While the attempt of this page is not to teach Vedic astrology and mathematical formulas in order to derive a calendar, this page will examine some properties of the Vedic calendar system.

VEDIC DAY (TITHI):

In the solar calendar, the day is based on roughly twenty-four hours. Through the solar calendar, 12:00 AM is marked as the start of the new day. With the Vedic calendar, the day is defined by sunrise to sunrise of the next day. Each day is not necessarily twenty-four hours, nor is each day of the year going to bear the same length. The Vedic day is known as the tithi.

Due to the pre-calculated time of the start of the tithi not matching up with sunrise times, few tithis may be lost in each month. The Vedic astrologist is able to calculate and determine which days will be missing from the calendar.

VEDIC MONTH:

Generally, there are twelve months of the year. Each month on the Vedic calendar contains thirty days on average. Due to the loss of days accumulated through each lunar year, an extra thirteenth month is added to make up for this missing year. It is known as the “adhika” month. This is equivalent to the Western Leap Year held on February 29.

Each Vedic month is divided in two approximate halves. The first approximate fifteen day period of a month is known as the krsna-paksa, or the phase of the waning moon. The other half of the month is known as the gaura-paksa, or the phase of the waxing moon. Some will call this the “sukla-paksa.” The full moon (purnima) marks the end of the gaura-paksa, while the new moon (amavasya) ends the krsna-paksa.

Each day is named for its ordinal placement with respect to the start of its paksa. This name is known as the tithi. Here is a table to assist the naming of the days.

PLACEMENT IN THE MONTH	VEDIC NAME
Full Moon	purnima
Day 1	pratipat
Day 2	dvitiya
Day 3	tritiya
Day 4	caturti
Day 5	pancami
Day 6	sasti
Day 7	saptami
Day 8	astami
Day 9	navami
Day 10	dasami
Day 11	ekadasi
Day 12	dvadasi
Day 13	trayodasi
Day 14	caturdasi
New Moon	amavasya
Day 1…	pratipat…

VAISNAVA CALENDARS

The Gaudiya Vaisnavas adopted the Vedic calendar with the same process of creating yearly calendars. The only real difference is that they renamed the months to correspond to the names of Krsna. The Vaisnava calendar has the Gaura Purnima be the New Year event for the Vaisnavas. Here is a list of comparing the Western months to the Vedic and Vaisnava months.

WESTERN NAME	VEDIC NAME	VAISNAVA NAME
March-April	Caitra	Visnu
April-May	Vaisakha	Madhusudana
May-June	Jyaistha	Trivikrama
June-July	Asadha	Vamana
July-August	Sravana	Sridhara
August-September	Bhadra	Hrsikesa
September-October	Asvina	Padmanabha
October-November	Kartika	Damodara
November-December	Magasirsa	Kesava
December-January	Pausa	Narayana
January-February	Magha	Madhava
February-March	Phalguna	Govinda
(leap month)*	Adhika*	Purusottama-adhika*

* In 2007, Jyaistha (Trivikrama) will be split by Adhika (Purusottama-adhika). After completion of the krsna-paksa of Jyaistha, Adhika will take place. Unlike the rest of the months of the year where the gaura paksa follows krsna paksa, Adhika will begin with gaura-paksa and be followed by krsna-paksa. At the end of Adhika, the remainder of Jyaistha (gaura-paksa) will be completed.