History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.94.4

v6.c82.94.4

The result was that the opening day of this calendar would shift back through the solar year until a whole cycle of that year had been completed in 1456 or 1506 years This calendar called sliding calendar was in use for about 3000 years in Egypt from proto-dynastic period until the Roman period. There was also another calendar against which this sliding calendar moved. A year of 360 days (divided into 12 months of 30 days each) was not peculiar to ancient Vedic India nor to ancient Egypt, but played an important role also in Mesopotamia, which had a strictly lunar calendar The co-existence of months of various lengths for later times is vouchsafed by the Arthaśāstra p 108 (Sham Shastri's ed of 1919). A year of 360 days was in later times in India called a *Sāvana* one (from 'savana' meaning extracting of soma juice in a sacrifice) and a month was added after about 30 months to bring the lunar year (of 354 days) in line with the solar year.