Indian Epigraphical Glossary c6.275

c6.275

amānta (CII 3), the technical name for the scheme of the lunar months in Southern India, according to which a month ends with the new-moon day, and the bright fortnight precedes the dark. According to Fleet, it is always this arrangement that is taken for calculation in astronomical works, though, even in Southern India, the arrangement was not applied to the Śaka years, for the civil reckoning, till between 804 and 866 A.D.; on the other hand, according to him, even in Northern India, this arrangement was used in Nepal with the years of the Newār era, though it was abandoned there when the Newār era was followed by the Vikrama era in its northern variety. For its prevalence in Indonesia, see Sel. Ins., p. 470.