Indian national calendar - wikipedia Indian national calendar Mohar of Gorkha king Prithvi Narayan Shah dated Saka Era 1685 ( AD 1763 ) The Indian national calendar, sometimes called the Saka calendar, is the official civil calendar in use in India along with the Vikram Samvat calendar. It is used, alongside the Gregorian calendar, by The Gazette of India, in news broadcasts by All India Radio and in calendars and communications issued by the Government of India. The Saka calendar is also used in Java and Bali among Indonesian Hindus. Nyepi, the `` Day of Silence '', is a celebration of the Saka new year in Bali. Nepal 's Nepal Sambat evolved from the Saka calendar. The term may also ambiguously refer to the Hindu calendar ; the Saka era is also commonly used by other calendars. The historic Shaka era calendar is still widely used. It has years that are solar sidereal ( after periodic adjustments ), and has lunal months. The official Saka uses a tropical solar year. Contents 1 Calendar structure 2 Adoption 3 See also 4 References 5 External links Calendar structure The calendar months follow the signs of the tropical zodiac rather than the sidereal zodiac normally used with the Hindu calendar. # Month ( Sanskrit ) Length Start date ( Gregorian ) Tropical zodiac Tropical zodiac ( Sanskrit ) Chaitra 30 / 31 March 22 / 21 Aries Meṣa Vaishākha 31 April 21 Taurus Vṛṣabha Jyēshtha 31 May 22 Gemini Mithuna Āshādha 31 June 22 Cancer Karkata 5 Shrāvana 31 July 23 Leo Siṃha 6 Bhaadra 31 August 23 Virgo Kanyā 7 Āshwin 30 September 23 Libra Tulā 8 Kārtika 30 October 23 Scorpio Vṛścik‌‌‌a 9 Agrahayana 30 November 22 Sagitarius Dhanur 10 Pausha 30 December 22 Capricorn Makara 11 Māgha 30 January 21 Aquarius Kumbha 12 Phalguna 30 February 20 Pisces Mīna In leap years, Chaitra has 31 days and starts on March 21 instead of March 22. The months in the first half of the year all have 31 days, to take into account the slower movement of the sun across the ecliptic at this time. The names of the months are derived from older, Hindu lunisolar calendars, so variations in spelling exist, and there is a possible source of confusion as to what calendar a date belongs to. Years are counted in the Saka Era, which starts its year 0 in the year 78 of the Common Era. To determine leap years, add 78 to the Saka year -- if the result is a leap year in the Gregorian calendar, then the Saka year is a leap year as well. Its structure is just like the Persian calendar. Adoption Senior Indian Astrophysicist Meghnad Saha was the head of the Calendar Reform Committee under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Other members of the Committee were : A.C. Banerjee, K.K. Daftari, J.S. Karandikar, Gorakh Prasad, R.V. Vaidya and N.C. Lahiri. It was Saha 's effort, which led to the formation of the Committee. The task before the Committee was to prepare an accurate calendar based on scientific study, which could be adopted uniformly throughout India. It was a mammoth task. The Committee had to undertake a detailed study of different calendars prevalent in different parts of the country. There were thirty different calendars. The task was further complicated by the fact that religion and local sentiments were integral to those calendars. India 's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in his preface to the Report of the Committee, published in 1955, wrote : `` They ( different calendars ) represent past political divisions in the country... Now that we have attained Independence, it is obviously desirable that there should be a certain uniformity in the calendar for our civic, social, and other purposes, and this should be done on a scientific approach to this problem. '' Usage started officially at 1 Chaitra 1879, Saka Era, or 22 March 1957. However, government officials seem to largely ignore the New Year 's Day of this calendar in favour of the religious calendar. See also Hindu calendar Vikram Samvat History of calendars Saka era Bengali calendar, a related Indic calendar Persian calendar Indian New Year 's days Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika Ritu ( Indian season ) Kollam era the Malayalam calendar Tamil calendar List of calendars References Jump up ^ `` Government Holiday Calendar ''. Govt. of India Official website. Jump up ^ Meghnad Saha Jump up ^ `` Hindu '' New Year 's Day and related issues Report of the Calendar Reform Committee ( New Delhi : Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1955 ) -- online link. Mapping Time : The Calendar and its History by E.G. Richards ( ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 286205 - 1 ), 1998, pp. 184 -- 185. External links Calendars and their History ( by L.E. Doggett ) Indian Calendars ( by Leow Choon Lian, pdf, 1.22 mb ) Positional astronomy in India Indian National Calendar abstract National symbols of India Flag Emblem Anthem Song Calendar Currency Animal Aquatic animal Bird Flower Fruit River Tree Calendars Systems Lunar Lunisolar Solar In wide use Astronomical Bengali Chinese Ethiopian Gregorian Hebrew Hindu Iranian Islamic ISO Unix time In more limited use Akan Armenian Assyrian Bahá'í ( Badí ' ) Balinese pawukon Balinese saka Berber Buddhist Burmese Chinese Coptic Gaelic Germanic Heathen Georgian Hebrew Hindu or Indian Vikram Samvat Saka Igbo Iranian Jalali ( medieval ) Hijri ( modern ) Zoroastrian Islamic Fasli Tabular Jain Japanese Javanese Korean Juche Kurdish Lithuanian Malayalam Mongolian Melanau Nanakshahi Nepal Sambat Nisg̱a'a Oromo Romanian Somali Sesotho Slavic Slavic Native Faith Tamil Thai lunar solar Tibetan Vietnamese Xhosa Yoruba Types Runic Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar round Christian variants Julian Revised Liturgical year Eastern Orthodox Saints Historical Attic Aztec Tonalpohualli Xiuhpohualli Babylonian Bulgar Byzantine Celtic Cham Culāsakaraj Egyptian Florentine French Republican Germanic Greek Hindu Inca Maya Haab ' Tzolk'in Muisca Pentecontad Pisan Rapa Nui Roman calendar Rumi Soviet Swedish Turkmen By specialty Holocene ( anthropological ) Proleptic Gregorian / Proleptic Julian ( historiographical ) Darian ( Martian ) Dreamspell ( New Age ) Discordian / Pataphysical ( surreal ) Proposals Calendar reform Hanke -- Henry Permanent International Fixed Pax Positivist Symmetry454 Tranquility World New Earth Time Fictional Discworld Greyhawk Middle - earth Stardate Star Wars ( Galactic Standard Calendar ) Displays and applications Electronic Perpetual Wall Year naming and numbering Terminology Era Epoch Regnal name Regnal year Year zero Systems Ab urbe condita Anno Domini / Common Era Anno Mundi Assyrian Before Present Chinese Imperial Chinese Minguo Human Era Japanese Korean Seleucid Spanish Yugas Satya Treta Dvapara Kali Vietnamese List of calendars Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indian_national_calendar&oldid=807977229 '' Categories : Hindu calendar Indian culture National symbols of India Months of the Hindu calendar Time in India Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans অসমীয়া Asturianu বাংলা Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Brezhoneg Čeština Dansk Deutsch ދިވެހިބަސް Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Furlan Galego ગુજરાતી 한국어 हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Basa Jawa Kiswahili Lietuvių മലയാളം मराठी Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Русский संस्कृतम् Simple English Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Basa Sunda Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 31 October 2017, at 04 : 02. 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Question: which is the first month of the indian national calendar
Answer: Chaitra