Page:Sewell Dikshit The Indian Calendar (1896) proc.djvu/118

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102

THE INDIAN CALENDAR.

162. The year is purely lunar, and the month begins with the first heliacal rising of the moon after the new moon. The year is one of 354 days, and of 355 in intercalary years. The months have alternately 30 and 29 days each (but see below), with an extra day added to the last month eleven times in a cycle of thirty years. These are usually taken as the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 15th, 18th, 2ist, 24th, 26th, and 29th in the cycle, but Jervis gives the 8th, 16th, 19th, and 27th as intercalary instead of the 7th, 15th, 18th and 26th, though he mentions the usual list. Ulug Beg mentions the 16th as a leap-year. It may be taken as certain that the practice varies in different countries, and sometimes even at different periods in the same country.

30 years are equal to (354 x 30 + 11 =) 10,631 days and the mean length of the year is ⁠354+11/30⁠ days.^[1]

Since each Hijra year begins 10 or 11 civil days earlier than the last, in the course of 33 years the beginning of the Muhammadan year runs through the whole course of the seasons.

163. Table XVI. gives a complete list of the initial dates of the Muhammadan Hijra years from A.D. 300 to A.D. 1 900. The asterisk in col. 1 shews the leap-years, when the year consists of 355 days, an extra day being added to the last month Zî'l-ḥijjat. The numbers in brackets following the date in col. 3 refer to Table IX. (see above, Art. 95), and are for purposes of calculation as shewn below.

Muhammadan Months.
		Days.	Collective duration.			Days.	Collective duration.
1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
1	Muḥarram	30	30	7	Rajab	30	207
2	Śafar	29	59	8	Sha'bân	29	236
3	Rabî-ul awwal	30	89	9	Ramazân	30	266
4	Rabî-ul âkhir, or Rabi-uś śânî	29	118	10	Shawwâl	29	295
5	Jumâda'l awwal	30	148	11	Zî-l-ka'da	30	325
6	Jumâda'l âkhir, or Jumâda-ś śânî	29	177	12	Zî'l-ḥijja	29	354
					In leap-years	30	355

164. Since the Muhammadan year invariably begins with the heliacal rising of the moon, or her first observed appearance on the western horizon shortly after the sunset following the new-moon (the amâvâsyâ day of the Hindu luni-solar calendar), it follows that this rising is due about the end of the first tithi (śukla pratipadâ) of every lunar month, and that she is actually seen on the evening of the civil day corresponding to the 1st or 2nd tithi of the śukla (bright) fortnight. As, however, the Muhammadan day—contrary to Hindu practice, which counts the day from sunrise to sunrise—consists of the period from sunset to sunset, the first date of a Muhammadan month is always entered in Hindu almanacks as corresponding with the next following Hindu civil day. For instance, if the heliacal rising of the moon takes place shortly after sunset on a Saturday, the 1st day of the Muhammadan month is, in Hindu pañchâṅgs, coupled with the

↑ A year of the Hijra = 0.970223 of Gregorian year, and a Gregorian year = 1.03069 years of the Hijra. Thus 32 Gregorian years are about equal to 33 years of the Hijra, or more nearly 163 Gregorian years are within less than a day of 168 Hijra years.

[1] A year of the Hijra = 0.970223 of Gregorian year, and a Gregorian year = 1.03069 years of the Hijra. Thus 32 Gregorian years are about equal to 33 years of the Hijra, or more nearly 163 Gregorian years are within less than a day of 168 Hijra years.

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