Why adhikmas in 2024? Nagakkal sculpture, Bellary District of Tamil Nadu, holds the answer.
Channel: GemsOfINDOLOGY
Date: 2023-07-12

Do you know why an additional month called 'adhikmasa' is added to the lunar calendar in certain years? The Nagakkal sculpture, located in the Bellary District of Tamil Nadu, holds the answer.

This sculpture depicts the intercalation of 7 extra lunar months every 19 solar years. In Indian astrology, a lunar year of 12 full moons is approximately 354 solar days. This means that the moon completes its 12 revolutions 11 days earlier than the solar year, resulting in a discrepancy of approximately 28 days within 2.5 years, and 7 months within 19 solar years.

In India, an agricultural economy with multiple crop cycles in a year, farmers rely on tithis and panchangas to determine when to sow crops. An 11-day discrepancy each year would lead to crops being sown 11 days earlier in each successive lunar year, ultimately causing crop failure. Therefore, an additional month, adhikmasa, is added every 2.5 years to reconcile this difference.

To illustrate, there are 29.531 solar days in a lunar month, and within 6940 days in 19 solar years (365×19+5), the moon completes 235 lunations. The difference of 235-228 = 7 is referred to as 7 adhikmasa or matrikas in 19 solar years. Adding seven months to the calendar would create chaos, so our ancient scientists were adding 1 additional lunar month rach 2.5 solar years. The latest addition is done in 2024 and next in 2027 so on and so forth

This sculpture features 7 hoods of a intertwined snake, along with a sun and moon at the top with 52 knots and turns. There are 720+ scales on snake's body probably total of one solar and one lunar year. In the centre, there are 19 major petals on the outer ring of the flower probably the years when the sun and moon years reconcile to each other.

Ain't this science? 🙂

#Archaeology #Astronomy