Conventions of Indian calendars

[vidya at cco.caltech.edu]

> >(3) Can we identify a sort of calendrical frontier where practice changes?
> >(4) Does this really mean that if we use a date of shukla 10th of one
> >month that in another part of India that day would be recorded as krishna
> >of the adjacent month?

> (3) In 1991 I made a field research correcting about 50 kinds of
>     pancAngas (traditional calendar).  I am preparing a rough report
>     of my survey.
> (4) Difference of month names occurs only in kRSNapakSa, and there is
>     no variation in zuklapakSa, as Dominik said.

Regarding 4 above, maybe it is necessary to point out that shukla paksha remains shukla paksha and a date shukla 10th cannot be reported as krishna of the 
adjacent month. However a krishna 10th of the pUrNimAnta month will be 
krishna 10th of the adjacent month in the amAnta system. There is a rough 
geographical correlation - Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh follow
the amAnta system only. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, both lunar and solar
calenders are followed. Interestingly, the first month of the solar year is 
also called Chitra. Thus the new year as followed by Tamil and Malayalam peoples
falls in the middle of April always, and their Chitra also begins with that 
date. The lunar month of Chitra however begins with the lunar new year which
is on the same date as that followed elsewhere in the south. Two calenders
which are phase shifted and followed simultaneously, leads to the same day 
being labelled in two different ways. Quite complicated, but people keep 
track of it all!

S. Vidyasankar