Know Unknown | May-Jun 2025

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Inside the Almanac



SUDIPTA Shekhar Pal

Kolkata, West Bengal

 

 

With the arrival of the Bengali New Year, a new book enters every Bengali household. It is called the Panjika. It comes with a pink cover, printed on very ordinary paper, and packed inside with tightly arranged tiny letters. This is its outer appearance.


The formal name of the Panjika is Panchanga. Since it discusses five aspects of time measurement, it has been given this name. In simple terms, a calendar presented in book form with detailed information is called a Panjika.

As far as we know, the purpose of the Panjika was to determine the time of sowing crops and the dates of religious rituals and festivals. The sowing time is determined according to the seasons, which is related to the Earth’s annual motion. Most religious events are fixed based on lunar phases, which depend on the Moon’s revolution around the Earth. When the Panjika was first introduced, people did not know that the Earth revolves around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth. They believed and observed that both the Sun and the Moon — then known as planets — revolved around the Earth. Just as the Sun moves daily from east to west, it also moves very slowly from west to east. From modern knowledge, we now know that the first motion is due to the Earth's rotation and the second is due to its revolution.

Suppose seeds need to be sown on the first day of the monsoon. One day, after a long summer, the monsoon begins. The next time the Earth completes one full revolution and returns to the same position, it will again resemble that first day of monsoon. This time period is 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 37 seconds. It is called a sidereal year. In addition to daily and annual motions, the Earth has another motion — the precession of its axis. In astronomical terms, this is called axial precession. Because of this, the Earth doesn't need to wait a full sidereal year to return to the same seasonal position. Each year, 24 minutes less is enough. A few minutes here and there may not affect things over a couple of years or even a couple of centuries, but over thousands of years, the impact becomes noticeable. For instance, the call of the cuckoo that marks the beginning of spring may still be heard, and the spring breeze may still be felt, but the Panjika will show it is deep winter. Spring, in its gradual shift, has moved so far forward that it is now within the bounds of winter. The English calendar shortens the year by 24 minutes, which ensures that spring arrives on the same day every year and will continue to do so even after thousands of years.

Even if the Bengali calendar or Panjika is not strictly season-based, it should at least preserve the length of the sidereal year. But even that is not consistent. This is not the fault of the ancient authors of the Panjika, because the texts used to calculate the year’s length  like the Surya Siddhanta or the Ardharatrika — were written long ago. Though these texts were revised from the 5th to the 12th century, no changes were made to the length of the year. With the invention of precise instruments, it was discovered that the actual length of the sidereal year is 3 minutes and 27 seconds shorter than what was previously believed. The Panjika that uses this corrected value is known as a Driksiddha Panjika. The Bishuddha Siddhanta Panjika, familiar to us, is one such Driksiddha almanac. The earlier mentioned almanac is a Non-Driksiddha one. There is a difference of about 5 to 6 hours in the calculation of lunar phases (tithis) between the two versions, which often results in festivals being celebrated on different days.

After India gained independence, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru formed the Calendar Reform Committee, chaired by scientist Meghnad Saha. Based on the committee’s recommendations, the Rashtriya Panchang (National Calendar) has been published since 1957. In West Bengal, a similar committee was formed in 1963 to establish a more accurate Panjika. It recommended correcting any errors in the Surya Siddhanta’s data before preparing the Panjika. The following year, the government issued an official directive for almanac-makers to follow these corrections. However, for unknown reasons, that directive was not implemented. The government of West Bengal declares public holidays based on the Non-Driksiddha Panjika. Still, since 1890, the Bishuddha Siddhanta Panjika has been in circulation. Although it has not gained widespread popularity, many religious institutions follow this version.

 

Subjects in the Panjika

D a y s   o f   t h e   W e e k

A week is called Saptaha meaning seven days. Each day has a specific name, called Bashar or Bar. So, there are seven such names. A week is a unit of time, not as small as a day and not as long as a month. If this particular unit were six or eight or ten days long, then the number of days in a week would be different too. Some ancient civilizations did follow a different system, but in most parts of the world, the seven-day week and the corresponding day names are the norm. The names of the days in our Panjika are named after celestial bodies. These are not the modern astronomical planets that orbit the Sun. In earlier times, those that caused eclipses were considered planets. Regardless of modern science, the names are based on what ancient people believed. It is believed that in India, day names were introduced after the arrival of Alexander the Great. Before that, no ancient text mentions day names. Specific dates were identified by the month, the lunar day (tithi), and the star (nakshatra).

 

T i t h i

The Moon takes 27.3 days to orbit the Earth and return to the same position in its path. This duration is called a sidereal month. But during this time, the Earth doesn't remain still, it moves forward a little in its own orbit. Unless this extra distance is covered, the Moon will not appear to be in the same position to an observer on Earth. So, from the Earth’s perspective, it seems that the Moon completes one orbit around the Earth in 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes. This duration is called a synodic month. This period is divided into 30 parts, and each part is known as a tithi. Thus, there are 30 tithis: 14 in the waxing phase (Shukla Paksha), 14 in the waning phase (Krishna Paksha), plus the full moon (Purnima) and new moon (Amavasya). A tithi can be described as a lunar day. This lunar day is not related to sunrise or sunset, so it is not of much use in everyday life. However, knowledge of tithi is essential for religious rituals and for keeping track of tides. Determining which tithi falls on which day and how long it lasts requires complex calculations.

 

N a k s h a t r a   ( L u n a r  M a n s i o n )

When we observe from Earth, we are compelled to assume the Earth is stationary. Then it appears that the Moon and the Sun revolve around the Earth. The paths of the Moon and Sun are roughly the same. It is observed that the Moon is positioned near a different star each day. In this way, it stays near 27 different stars and then returns to the first one. These stars are called Nakshatras, and their names include Ashwini, Bharani, Krittika, and so on. This entire path, known as the ecliptic, is divided into 27 segments, each named after a Nakshatra. Each segment covers about 13 degrees and 20 minutes. Just like the Moon, the Sun also moves through these Nakshatras from west to east. The Panjika records which Nakshatra the Moon, the Sun, and other planets are in on a given day.

 

K a r a n a

Each tithi is divided into two halves, and each half is called a Karana. So, in a month, there should be 60 Karanas, but the total number of different Karanas is 11. Among these, four Karanas occur only once a month, and the remaining seven appear in a cyclical pattern.

 

Y o g a

The time the Moon takes to traverse the span of one Nakshatra is called a Yoga. The first Yoga is named Vishkumbha and the last one is Vaidhriti. Since the Panjika is based on these five elements — Tithi, Nakshatra, Karana, Yoga, and Weekday it is also called a Panchanga.

Apart from these, modern almanacs contain many more topics. One notable inclusion is the Rashi (zodiac sign). The ecliptic is divided into 12 segments, each called a Rashi. Each Rashi spans 30 degrees. The Rashis are named after the constellations found in those segments. The Panjika records which Rashi the Moon, Sun, and other planets are in. It also lists daily sunrise and sunset times, festival timings, tidal schedules, birth and death anniversaries of famous personalities, and information on lunar and solar eclipses. These topics were not originally part of the Panjika, but over time, many features were added to meet people’s needs. In the future, more new subjects may be included to serve even more of people’s requirements.

 

 


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