Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 350.5

350.5

The Indians divide the year into three seasons, each having four months. These they call the hot season, the wet season, and the cool season. They calculate their months according to the revolutions of the moon; but their three seasons are rendered subservient to both the solar and lunar year. This they contrive in the following manner:—Whenever the beginning of the lunar month falls on a Tuesday, for instance, and the sun enters Leo on the fifteenth or twentieth of that month, supposing it to be the month of Srawun (August), they commence the month of Bhadown (September) from the day on which the sun enters the new sign of the zodiac. This makes a difference of ten days, and some hours, in every solar year. Thus in every third year they have an extra month, which they include in that division they call the rainy season; and in that year they have five lunar months for the wet season. On the occasion of the extra month again recurring they include it in the cold season, and on the third occasion, in the hot season. The seasons, according to the Indian phraseology, are as follow:— Srawun (August) Bhadown (September) Asween (October) Kartik (November) The season of rain, answering to Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra. They reckon only twenty-six days, and something over, for Libra; and this difference they carry to the account of the lunar year, to make it correspond with the solar calculations.