Indian Chronology (Solar, Lunar and Planetary): A Practical Guide to the Interpretation and Verification of Tithis, Nakshatras, Horoscopes and other Indian Time-records, B.C. 1 to A.D. 2000 c9: Chapter IV. The Solar Months
Indian Chronology (Solar, Lunar and Planetary): A Practical Guide to the Interpretation and Verification of Tithis, Nakshatras, Horoscopes and other Indian Time-records, B.C. 1 to A.D. 2000 c9
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Chapter IV. The Solar Months
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16. The solar months of the Indian calendar are named in Table II. The reader will note that the Tamil names of months are practically the same as the Bengal names, but that the first Bengal month Vaisâkha gives the name to the second Tamil month and so on, the last Bengal month Chaitra being the first Tamil month Chittirai.
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Also, the Malayalam names of months are generally the same as the signs of the zodiac: the first two are called Medam and Edavam instead of Mesham and Rishabham.
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But whether in the Tamil country or in Malabar or in Bengal, the measure of the solar months is the same. Like the solar year, each solar month ends at a fraction of the day, that is, at the moment when the next sankrânti takes place. For purposes of computation, the sankrânti, as well as the month to which it gives its name, is reckoned from the very moment at which the previous month ends. But in practice in the Tamil country, when a saṅkrānti takes place after sunset, the next month begins next day; and when the saṅkrānti occurs before sunset, that is the first day of the next month, and the old month loses a day. We shall have occasion, when dealing with the use of the tables, to note some of the practical consequences of the working of this rule, and we shall mention at the same time the corresponding rules in other parts of India. (Secs. 144, 145 infra.)
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17. Note that the solar months in the Indian calendar, which have 30 days each, are placed at fairly regular intervals, and that the months with 31 days each, as also those with 29 days each, are arranged continuously. Thus the series is:
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which is fairly symmetrical. Owing, however, to the working of the rule about saṅkrāntis before and after sunset, a month may have occasionally an extra day, and solar months with 32 days are not infrequent, as we may see from Table XII. Any consequent confusion can always be avoided if you invariably determine the fraction of day at which a month ends and the next begins.