Hindu new years day

Martin Gansten mgansten at SBBS.SE
Sat Jan 23 16:49:29 UTC 1999


>> 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).

Best regards,
Martin Gansten





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