Date with Calendar

Of days, weeks, months and years

What if, last time on the same night you said
A New Year begins
What ends and begins with the flip of calendar’s leaf
Is a sleight of visions……….
Drains are still painted red in my nightmares.
How long is the way to Cuckoos nest?
Can you tell me? O’Friend.

Thank God the pain has subsided since I wrote the poem titled RSVP- more than a decade back when turbulence was raging all around; out of which I have quoted the opening and closing verses as preface to today’s write-up, reason being the word calendar that figures in it; purchase of which, for my office-room and home being a ritual for me, like many millions of people - bringing to my mind instantly two questions- why no industrial unit has come up in our state for manufacturing different type of calendars, diaries, organizers & other related items and second why can’t the chairman J&K Bank ensure gifting corporate calendar to all clients, without discrimination.

Regular rising and setting of Sun, waxing and waning of moon and recurrent cycle in women must have given mankind the concept of day and month from the earliest days of existence on this planet. As thoughtful eyes lifted towards sky much more was observed and knowledge enabled incorporation of meaningful changes in the time-reckoning system.

Earliest calendar was based on the movements of the moon and the twelve moon-cycles formed one year. Since the Lunar year did not conform to the solar year one extra intercalary lunar month was inserted in computation.
 

The ancient Babylonians, Greeks & Romans followed this lunar calendar. Hebrew calendar- that began probably 3760 years before the beginning of the Christian era, was based on lunar cycle; with twelve months which are alternately of 29 & 30 days (354 days). An extra month of 29 days is intercalated seven times in every cycle of 19 years.
 

Islamic calendar- that began from hijrat of Prophet (SAW) around 15 July 622AD, is same as of Hebrew. Thirty years form a cycle and eleven times in every cycle one extra day is added.

Long before the Christian era, Egyptians made month a purely arbitrary unit, not corresponding to the actual lunar cycle, and divided year into 12 months of 30 days adding five extra days. In 238 B.C Pharaoh III added a new day to the calendar every four years. In 321AD emperor Constantine introduced the seven day week of the Julian calendar. As actually one year corresponded to 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes & 46 seconds efforts were made to adjust the fractional difference which cumulated to a significant quantum over years, The Gregorian calendar was accepted by the English in 1752 AD, by Japan in 1873, China in 1912, Russia in 1918 & Greece in 1924 AD.
 

Tibetan Calendar

The Chinese calendar was probably introduced by the Mongols, whose name is preserved in the Calendar (Hor-zla)- Hor is for Mongol and La is a Tibetan word meaning both crop & year, as was the case in the archaic China. The system of reckoning time is by the 12 year and sixty year cycles of Jupiter. The system invented in China had been taken over by the Turks, but to lessen the possibility of confusion the Chinese had combined this cycle with another ten signs, so that a given composite year-name only recurred every sixty years. The Tibetans subsequently adopted this system but the ten signs were replaced by the five elements; each divided into male and female. The 12 years are denoted by animals in this curious duo-decimal cycle. Rat (Yos), Ox (Lang), Tiger (sTag), Rabbit ( Biwa), Dragon (Drug), Serpent (Rul), Horse (Sta), Sheep (Look), Monkey (sPray), Bird (Cha), Dog (Khi) and pig (phag). The five elements are wood (Shing), Fire (me), Earth (sa), Iron (chak) and water (chhu). Each element comes twice, first as male and then as female; e.g Male Water Tiger, Female Earth Pig year etc. Thus each great cycle consists of 60 years. The Tibetan year is a lunar one, necessitating corrections.
 

In modern Tibet Farmers New Year (Sonam Losar) falls in the 10th or 11th lunar month and it is distinguished from the Kings New Year (Gyalpo Losar) which is the same as in the Chinese calendar (i.e. first lunar month). Thus in Tibetan Calendar February is the 1st month but the farmers New Year has persisted besides it and this is tied to the winter solstice at the end of the 10th or the first of the 11th month. Interesting enough, the Sonam Losar was celebrated; it is said, by villagers of Shigatse Tibet with a distinguishingly remarkable custom. For several days servants and masters changed robes. In the carnivals of ancient china, the world is turned upside down to mark the uncertain interval of crossing from the old year to the new.

The Tibetan cycle of years began from 1027AD and Ladakhis inherited the same system along with many other things but the association with elements began only in 16th century AD. In Ladakh the months (dawa) are numerically named as 1st month –chikpa, 2nd nispa, 3rd sumpa and likewise. The days (Za) and weeks are the same as we have and the days are named, as in Aryan System, after sun, moon and the five anciently known planets; Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus & Saturn. Thus days are: Nima (Sunday), Zaldawa, Migmar, Lakpa, Phurba, Pasung & Spinba (Saturday). The inherent inaccuracies of lunar system have put historians and research scholars to great difficulty in working out dates from Ladakh chronicles and hats off to those who remained undeterred in such odds.

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