Hindu new years day

[Bijoy Misra]

On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Martin Gansten wrote:

> >> Obviously this is a survival from the time when these sankrantis really did
> >> coincide with the solstices.
> >
> >Is there a source for the last sentence?  I would think that
> >the Sakranti could relate to the declination of the sun at an
> >intermediate latitude.
>
> This isn't clear to me. How would they relate? The ayanas are the northern
> and southern course of the sun. Irrespective of where you are on the globe,
> the sun will be observed at the northern tropic at summer solstice (around
> 21 June), and at the southern tropic at winter solstice (around 21
> December). These dates would not alter depending on your location (though of
> course the terms 'summer' and 'winter' are so dependent), nor would they
> change with time. The sankrantis, however, do change; in Balabhadra's time,
> they would have taken place some 5 days earlier than today, owing to
> precession (ayanamsha).
>
I don't know how the hindu astronmers define sakranti.
I would think that the topics as a concept would be new.
In such case one can create a different frame of
reference.  On the other hand if they connected
sakranti to solstice then we have an erroneous
calculation.

I wish to check.  Which text to look?

- BM