- Recently, the Assam Government has announced that Bhaskarabda, a Luni-Solar Calendar will be used as an official calendar.
- Presently, the official calendar of Assam government makes use of the Saka calendar and the Gregorian calendar.
- However, the Bhaskarabda calendar will also be used from now onwards.
Important points:
- Bhaskarabda, an era counted from the date of the ascension of a 7th-century local ruler Bhaskar Varman.
- It is based on both the phases of the moon and the solar year.
- It began when Bhaskaravarman was crowned ruler of the Kamrupa kingdom.
- He was a contemporary and political ally of northern Indian ruler Harshavardhana.
- The gap between Bhaskarabda and Gregorian is 593 years.
Type of Calendars:
- Any dating system based on the seasonal year of approximately 365 1/4 days, the time it takes the Earth to revolve once around the Sun.
- Any dating system based on a year consisting of synodic months—i.e., complete cycles of phases of the Moon.
- In the lunisolar calendar months are lunar but years are solar, it was used in the early civilizations of the whole Middle East and in Greece.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT