1.
Prithvi Narayan Shah
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Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha was the first King of unified Nepal. He is credited for starting the campaign for a unified Nepal and he was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah, the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father, King Nara Bhupal Shah, to the throne of the Gorkha Kingdom in 1743, Prithvi Narayan Shah was born as a prince in the Gorkha Kingdom. Chandra Pravawati raised him, although his mother was Kaushalyavati Devi. From a young age, he took interest in the affairs of his fathers state, Prithivi Narayan Shah had an early dream of conquering Nuwakot, partially as his father had lost it to the Mallas of Kathmandu in an earlier war. After the death of his father in 1743, Prithivi Narayan Shah ascended to the throne of Gorkha at the age of 20, as king, he valued his people and enjoyed talking to his subjects about their general concerns. This practice helped him to build a rapport with his people, King Shah sealed his borders and maintained a peaceful environment except for distant relations with the British, who were refusing to trade with Nepal at the time. Prithvi Narayaṇ was succeeded by his son, Pratap Singh, King Prithvi Narayan Shahs reign began with an immediate military defeat, his invasion of Nuwakot in 1743 CE failed. Conquering Nuwakot was essential for the unification, as it lay between Kathmandu and the Gorkha District, making it a trading route to Tibet. However, he successfully conquered Nuwakot in a subsequent attack in 1744 CE, after capturing Nuwakot, he took possession of the strategic locations in the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. The valley was cut off from the outside world and was controlled solely by Shah. He also occupied the Kuti Pass in c.1756 CE, halting all trade through the pass, after two humiliating defeats in Kirtipur, King Prithvi Narayan conquered the ancient city on his third attempt. Consequently, Jaya Prakash Malla of Kathmandu fled with his wife and took asylum in Patan and he eventually began to unify his conquered lands. King Prithvi Narayaṇ Shah was ultimately able to capture small principalities and this expansion was crucial as the British colonial forces had already begun colonizing the small kingdoms that form present-day India. Shah was convinced that the British forces would eventually approach his kingdom and he believed that 50 small principalities would easily be conquered by the British as part of their colonization strategy. Expanding his kingdom made it difficult for British forces to make their move. His expansion campaign was very ambitious, especially as he was the king of a small kingdom surrounded by strong. In January 1775, at the age of 52, Prithvi Narayan Shah died before he could organise the administration of his new country at Devighat
2.
Shaka era
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This is about the historical calendar era. For the Śaka calendar of 1957, see Indian national calendar, the Shaka era is a historical calendar era, corresponding to Julian year 78. It is also known as Shalivahana Śaka era or rtgs, Mahasakkarat Greater Era), the origin of the Shaka era is highly controversial. The other is called Saka Era of 78 AD, or simply Saka Era, a parallel northern India system is the Vikrama Era, which is related to the Bikrami calendar linked to Vikramaditya. The beginning of the Shaka era is now equated to the ascension of king Chashtana in 78 CE. His inscriptions, dated to the years 11 and 52, have found at Andhau in Kutch region. These years are interpreted as Shaka years 11 and 52, a previously more common view was that the beginning of the Shaka era corresponds to the ascension of Kanishka I in 78 CE. However, the latest research by Henry Falk indicates that Kanishka ascended the throne in 127 CE, moreover, Kanishka was not a Shaka, but a Kushana ruler. Other historical candidates have included such as Vima Kadphises, Vonones. Sircar also suggests that the association of the northern king Vikramaditya with Vikrama era might have led the southern scholars to fabricate a similar legend of their own. Another similar account claims that the legendary emperor Vikramaditya defeated the Shakas in 78 CE, and this legend has been mentioned in the writings of Brahmagupta, Al-Biruni, and others. However, this is an obvious fabrication, over time, the word Shaka became generic, and came to be mean an era, the era thus came to be known as Shalivahana Shaka. The earliest known users of the era are the Western Satraps, from the reign of Rudrasimha I, they recorded the date of minting of their coins in the Shaka era, usually written on the obverse behind the kings head in Brahmi numerals. The use of the era survived into the Gupta period. It was in use by the 6th to 7th centuries, e. g. in the works of Varāhamihira and Brahmagupta. The calendar era remained in use in India and Southeast Asia throughout the medieval period and it was used by Javanese courts until 1633, when it was replaced by Anno Javanico, a hybrid Javanese-Islamic system. It was adopted as the era of the Indian national calendar in 1957, the Shaka era is the vernal equinox of the year AD78. The year of the modern Shaka Calendar is tied to the Gregorian date of 22 March every year, except in Gregorian leap years when it starts on 21 March
3.
Vikram Samvat
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Vikram Samvat Nepali, नेपाली पात्रो, Listen ) is an era used in India and Nepal, just like the Christian era started in 1 CE. The Vikram Samvat started in 58/57 BCE in southern and 57/56 BCE in northern systems of Hindu calendar, the era is named after king Vikramaditya. The Vikram Samvat calendar is 56.7 years ahead of the solar Gregorian calendar, for example, the year 2073 BS began in 2016 CE and will end in 2017 CE. The new year begins with the first day of month Baishakh, the first day of the new year is passionately celebrated in a historical carnival that takes place every year in Bhaktapur, called Bisket Jatra. The Rana rulers of Nepal made it their official calendar, there have been calls for the Vikram Samvat to replace Saka as Indias official calendar. The classical Vikram Samvat uses lunar months and solar sidereal years, because 12 months do not match a sidereal year exactly, correctional months are added or occasionally subtracted. A Tithi or lunar day is defined as the time it takes for the angle between the moon and the Sun to increase by 12°. Tithis begin at varying times of day and vary in duration from approximately 19 to approximately 26 hours, a Paksa or lunar fortnight consists of 15 tithis. According to popular tradition, the legendary king Vikramaditya of Ujjain established the Vikrama Samvat era after defeating the Śakas. Kalakacharya Kathanaka by the Jain sage Mahesarasuri gives the account, Gandharvasena, the then-powerful king of Ujjain, abducted a nun called Sarasvati. The enraged monk sought the help of the Śaka ruler King Sahi in Sistan, despite heavy odds but aided by miracles, the Śaka king defeated Gandharvasena and made him a captive. Sarasvati was repatriated, although Gandharvasena himself was forgiven, the defeated king retired to the forest, where he was killed by a tiger. His son, Vikramaditya, being brought up in the forest, had to rule from Pratishthana, later on, Vikramaditya invaded Ujjain and drove away the Śakas. To commemorate this event, he started a new era called the Vikrama era, the Ujjain calendar started around 56-58 BCE, and the subsequent Shaka era calendar was started in 78 CE at Pratishthana. The association of the era beginning in 57 BCE with Vikramaditya is not found in any source before the 9th century CE, the earlier sources call this era by various names, including Kṛṭa, Kritaa, the era of the Malava tribe, or simply, Samvat. The earliest known inscription that calls the era Vikrama is from 842 CE and this inscription of Chauhana ruler Chandamahasena was found at Dholpur, and is dated Vikrama Samvat 898, Vaishakha Shukla 2, Chanda. The earliest known inscription that associates this era with a king called Vikramaditya is dated 971 CE, the earliest literary work that connects the era to Vikramaditya is Subhashita-Ratna-Sandoha by the Jain author Amitagati. V. A. Smith and D. R. Bhandarkar believed that Chandragupta II adopted the title Vikramaditya, earlier, some scholars believed that the Vikrama Samavat corresponded to the Azes era of the Indo-Scythian king King Azes
4.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
5.
All India Radio
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All India Radio, officially known since 1956 as Ākāshvāṇī, is the national public radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1930, it is the service of Prasar Bharatis Doordarshan. AIR has covered more than 99% of the Indian population as per the latest information given by Minister of Information, All India Radio is the largest radio network in the world. Its headquarters is at the Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi, Akashvani Bhavan houses the Drama Section, the FM Section and the National Service. Ākāśavāni is a Sanskrit word meaning celestial announcement, or voice from the sky/heaven, in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist holy traditions, Akashvanis often featured in stories as a medium of communication from the heavens to mankind. Akashvani was first used in the context of radio by M. V. Gopalaswamy after setting up the nation’s first private station in his residence. Akashvani seemed to be a name for a radio broadcaster and was later adopted as All India Radios on-air name in 1956. During the British Raj, broadcasting began in July 1923 with programmes by the Bombay Presidency Radio Club, however, on 1 March 1930, the company went into liquidation. The government took over the facilities, beginning the Indian State Broadcasting Service on 1 April 1930 on an experimental basis for two years, and then permanently in May 1932. On 8 June 1936, the ISBS was renamed All India Radio, on 1 October 1939, the External Service began with a broadcast in Pushtu, it was intended to counter radio propaganda from Germany directed to Afghanistan, Iran and the Arab nations. When India became independent in 1947, the AIR network had six stations. The total number of sets at that time was about 275,000 in India. On 3 October 1957, the Vividh Bharati Service was launched, television broadcasting began in Delhi in 1959 as part of AIR, but was split off from the radio network as Doordarshan on 1 April 1976. FM broadcasting began on 23 July 1977 in Chennai, and was expanded during the 1990s, AIR has many services in a number of languages, each serving different regions across India. Vividh Bharati is one of the services of AIR. Its name roughly translates as Diverse Indian, and it is known as the Commercial Broadcasting Service. It is the commercially most accessible of the AIR networks and is popular in Mumbai, Vividh Bharati offers a wide range of programmes including news, film music and comedy programs. It operates on different medium wave-band frequencies for each city, All frequencies are in kHz, unless otherwise noted
6.
Government of India
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It is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. There is a bicameral Parliament with the Lok Sabha as a lower house, the judicial branch systematically contains an apex Supreme Court,24 high courts, and several district courts, all inferior to the Supreme Court. Similar to the government, individual state governments each consist of executive, legislative. The legal system as applicable to the federal and individual state governments is based on the English Common, the full name of the country is the Republic of India. No other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name appears on legal banknotes, in treaties. The Union Government, Central Government or Government of India are often used in an official and unofficial capacity to refer to the Government of India, because the seat of government is in New Delhi, New Delhi is commonly used as a metonym for the Central Government. Legislative branch in India is exercised by the Parliament and a legislature consisting of the Rajya Sabha. The latter is considered the house or the House of the people. The Parliament does not have control and sovereignty, as its laws are subject to judicial review by the Supreme Court of India. However, it does exercise some control over the executive branch, the members of the cabinet, including the prime minister and the Council of Ministers, are either chosen from parliament or elected there to within six months of assuming office. The cabinet as a whole is responsible to the Lok Sabha, the Lok Sabha is a temporary house and can only be dissolved when the party in power loses the support of the majority of the house. Whereas the Rajya Sabha is a permanent house which can never be dissolved though the members of the Rajya Sabha who are elected for a six-year term, the Executive Branch of government is the one that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers. The executive power is vested mainly in the President of India, the President has all constitutional powers and exercises them directly or through officers subordinate to him as per the aforesaid Article 53. The President is to act in accordance with aid and advice tendered by the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers remains in power during the pleasure of the President. However, in practice, the Council of Ministers must retain the support of the Lok Sabha, if a President were to dismiss the Council of Ministers on his or her own initiative, it might trigger a constitutional crisis. Thus, in practice, the Council of Ministers cannot be dismissed as long as it holds the support of a majority in the Lok Sabha, the President is responsible for making a wide variety of appointments. His/Her work is to facilitate smooth transaction of business in Ministries/ Departments of the Government, the President is de jure the Commander in Chief of the Indian Armed Forces
7.
Java
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Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of over 141 million or 145 million as of 2015 Census released in December 2015, the Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is located on western Java. Much of Indonesian history took place on Java and it was the center of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, the Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies. Java was also the center of the Indonesian struggle for independence during the 1930s and 1940s, Java dominates Indonesia politically, economically and culturally. Formed mostly as the result of eruptions, Java is the 13th largest island in the world. A chain of mountains forms an east–west spine along the island. Three main languages are spoken on the island, Javanese, Sundanese, of these, Javanese is the dominant, it is the native language of about 60 million people in Indonesia, most of whom live on Java. Furthermore, most residents are bilingual, speaking Indonesian as their first or second language, while the majority of the people of Java are Muslim, Java has a diverse mixture of religious beliefs, ethnicities, and cultures. Java is divided into four provinces, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Banten, the origins of the name Java are not clear. One possibility is that the island was named after the plant, which was said to be common in the island during the time. There are other sources, the word jaú and its variations mean beyond or distant. And, in Sanskrit yava means barley, a plant for which the island was famous, Yawadvipa is mentioned in Indias earliest epic, the Ramayana. Sugriva, the chief of Ramas army dispatched his men to Yawadvipa and it was hence referred to in India by the Sanskrit name yāvaka dvīpa. Java is mentioned in the ancient Tamil text Manimekalai by Chithalai Chathanar that states that Java had a kingdom with a capital called Nagapuram, another source states that the Java word is derived from a Proto-Austronesian root word, Iawa that meaning home. The great island of Iabadiu or Jabadiu was mentioned in Ptolemys Geographia composed around 150 CE Roman Empire, Iabadiu is said to mean barley island, to be rich in gold, and have a silver town called Argyra at the west end. The name indicate Java, and seems to be derived from Hindu name Java-dvipa, Java lies between Sumatra to the west and Bali to the east. Borneo lies to the north and Christmas Island is to the south and it is the worlds 13th largest island. Java is surrounded by the Java Sea to the north, Sunda Strait to the west, Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin, it contains thirty-eight mountains forming an east–west spine that have at one time or another been active volcanoes
8.
Bali
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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and it is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital, Denpasar, is located in the part of the island. With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesias Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census,83. 5% of Balis population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13. 4% Muslim, Christianity at 2. 5%, Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in tourists since the 1980s. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of its economy and it is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali, in March 2017, Tripadvisor named the island the worlds top destination in its Travelers choice award. Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species, in this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean, most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit,2013 APEC and Miss World 2013. Bali is the home of the Subak Irrigation System, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the islands west. In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora, each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead. Inscriptions from 896 and 911 dont mention a king, until 914 and they also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindoks great-granddaughter, Mahendradatta, married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa around 989 and this marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150, jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204. Balinese culture was influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture. The name Bali dwipa has been discovered from inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD. It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation, some religious and cultural traditions still practiced today can be traced to this period
9.
Hinduism in Indonesia
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Hinduism in Indonesia is practised by 1. 7% of the total population, and by 83. 5% of the population in Bali as of the 2010 census. Hinduism is one of the six official religions of Indonesia, in 2010, there were an estimated total of over 4 million Hindus in Indonesia according to Indonesian census. The Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia disputed the methodology, and estimated 18 million Hindus lived in Indonesia in 2005. The natives of Indonesian Archipelago practiced indigenous animism and dynamism, beliefs common to the Austronesian people, native Indonesians venerated and revered ancestral spirit, they also believed that some spirits may inhabit certain places such as large trees, stones, forests, mountains, or any sacred place. This unseen spiritual entity that has supernatural power is identified by ancient Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese as hyang that can mean either divine or ancestral, in modern Indonesian, hyang tends to be associated with God. Hindu influences reached the Indonesian Archipelago as early as the first century, historical evidence is unclear about the diffusion process of cultural and spiritual ideas from India. Java legends refer to Saka-era, traced to 78 AD, stories from the Mahabharata Epic have been traced in Indonesian islands to the 1st century, however, the versions mirror those found in southeast Indian peninsular region. Indonesian islands adopted both Hindu and Buddhist ideas, fusing them with pre-existing native folk religion and Animist beliefs. In the 4th century, the kingdom of Kutai in East Kalimantan, Tarumanagara in West Java, excavations between 1950 and 2005, particularly at the Cibuaya and Batujaya sites, suggests that Tarumanagara revered deity Wisnu of Hinduism. Ancient Hindu kingdoms of Java built many temples, named rivers on the island as Gomati and Ganges. Hinduism along with Buddhism spread across the archipelago, numerous sastras and sutras of Hinduism were translated into the Javanese language, and expressed in art form. The Hindu-Buddhist ideas reached the peak of their influence in the 14th century, the last and largest among the Hindu-Buddhist Javanese empires, Majapahit, influenced the Indonesian archipelago. Sunni Muslim traders of the Shafii fiqh, as well as Sufi Muslim traders from India, Oman and Yemen brought Islam to Indonesia. The earliest known mention of a small Islamic community midst the Hindus of Indonesia is credited to Marco Polo, about 1297 AD, four diverse and contentious Islamic Sultanates emerged in north Sumatra, south Sumatra, west and central Java, and in southern Borneo. These Sultanates declared Islam as their religion and pursued war against each other as well as the Hindus. For example, Jizya was imposed on unbelievers of Islam in Sumatra, in some regions, Indonesian people continued their old beliefs and adopted a syncretic version of Islam. In other cases, Hindus and Buddhists left and concentrated as communities in islands that they could defend, Hindus of western Java, for example, moved to Bali and neighboring small islands. While this era of conflict and inter-Sultanate warfare was unfolding
10.
Nyepi
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Nyepi is a Balinese Day of Silence that is commemorated every Isakawarsa according to the Balinese calendar. It is a Hindu celebration mainly celebrated in Bali, Indonesia, Nyepi, a public holiday in Indonesia, is a day of silence, fasting and meditation for the Balinese. The day following Nyepi is also celebrated as New Years Day, on this day, the youth of Bali practice the ceremony of Omed-omedan or The Kissing Ritual to celebrate the new year. The same day celebrated in India as ugadi, observed from 6 a. m. until 6 a. m. the next morning, Nyepi is a day reserved for self-reflection, and as such, anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. The main restrictions are no lighting fires, no working, no entertainment or pleasure, no traveling, and, for some, no talking or eating at all. The effect of these prohibitions is that Balis usually bustling streets and roads are empty, there is little or no noise from TVs and radios, and few signs of activity are seen even inside homes. The only people to be seen outdoors are the Pecalang, traditional security men who patrol the streets to ensure the prohibitions are being followed, although Nyepi is primarily a Hindu holiday, non-Hindu residents and tourists are not exempt from the restrictions. Although they are free to do as they wish inside their hotels, no one is allowed onto the beaches or streets, the only exceptions granted are for emergency vehicles responding to life-threatening conditions and women about to give birth. First, The Melasti Ritual is performed 3–4 days beforehand and it is dedicated to Sanghyang Widhi Wasa. The ritual is performed in Pura near the sea and meant to purify Arca, Pratima, second, The Bhuta Yajna Ritual is performed in order to vanquish the negative elements and create a balance with God, Mankind, and Nature. The ritual is meant to appease Batara Kala by Pecaruan offering. Devout Hindu Balinese villages usually make ogoh-ogoh, demonic statues made of richly painted bamboo and styrofoam symbolizing negative elements or malevolent spirits. After the ogoh-ogoh have been paraded around the village, the Ngrupuk ritual takes place, fifth, the Ngembak Agni/Labuh Brata Ritual is performed for all Hindus to forgive each other and to welcome the new days to come. Sixth and finally, The Dharma Shanti Rituals is performed all the Nyepi rituals are finished. Many Hindus on the Indian subcontinent observe the day as new year. For example, the Hindus of Maharashtra term the same festival, observed on the same day, the Sindhis, people from Sindh, celebrate the same day as Cheti Chand, which is the beginning of their calendar year. Manipuris also celebrate their New Year asSajibu Nongma Panba on the same day, the Hindus of Andhra Pradesh also celebrate their new year on the same day as Ugadi. Security is provided by the usual hansip, while the pecalang are redirected into security roles from their usual mundane tasks like traffic coordination to beef up the local security
11.
Nepal Sambat
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Nepal Era is the national lunar calendar of Nepal. The era started on 20 October 879 AD and was in use for all daily purposes until the beginning of the 20th century when it came under official disapproval. Nepal Sambat appeared on coins, stone and copper inscriptions, royal decrees, chronicles, Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts, legal documents. Today, it is used for purposes and to determine the dates to celebrate religious festivals and commemorate birthdays. The year 2013-14 AD corresponds to 1134 in Nepal Sambat and 2070-71 in the Bikram Sambat or Vikram Samvat calendar, following a century of official neglect and even suppression, Nepal Sambat has been revived as a symbol of Nepals glory and national unity. In 2008, the government named it a national era, on 25 October 2011, the government decided to bring Nepal Sambat into use as the countrys national calendar, and formed a taskforce to make recommendations on its implementation. However, no action has taken after that to bring the era into practice. Nepal Sambat was replaced as the calendar in Rana period of Nepal. The victory of the Gorkha Kingdom resulted in the end of the Malla dynasty, however, Nepal Sambat remained in official use for a time even after the coming of the Shahs. For example, the treaty with Tibet signed during the reign of Pratap Singh Shah is dated Nepal Sambat 895, in 1903, Saka Sambat in turn was superseded by Bikram Sambat as the official calendar. However, the government continued to use Saka Sambat on gold, despite the loss of legal recognition for Nepal Sambat, many people in the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of the country have continued using the calendar for ceremonial purposes. It is used to date manuscripts, books and inscriptions, birth and death anniversaries, and almost all the religious festivals, are observed according to the lunar calendar. Horoscopes are also based on the lunar calendar, the government moved to restore the national status of Nepal Sambat following prolonged lobbying by cultural and social organizations, most prominently by Nepal Bhasa Manka Khala. All the major newspapers now print Nepal Sambat along with dates on their mastheads. New Years Day celebrations have spread from the Kathmandu Valley to other towns in Nepal as well as abroad. New Years Day falls on the first day of the moon during the Swanti festival. Traditionally, traders used to close their ledgers and open new account books on the first day of Nepal Sambat, newars observe New Years Day by performing Mha Puja, a ritual to purify and empower the soul for the coming New Year besides praying for longevity. During this ceremony, family members sit cross-legged in a row on the floor in front of mandalas drawn for each person
12.
Hindu calendar
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Hindu calendar is a collective term for the various lunisolar calendars traditionally used in Hinduism. They adopt a similar underlying concept for timekeeping, but differ in their emphasis to moon cycle or the sun cycle, the names of months. A Hindu calendar is referred to as Panchanga. The ancient Hindu calendar is similar in design to the Jewish calendar. Early Buddhist communities of India adopted the ancient Indian calendar, later Vikrami calendar, Buddhist festivals continue to be scheduled according to a lunar system. The Buddhist calendar and the traditional calendars of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka. Similarly, the ancient Jainism traditions have followed the lunisolar system as the Hindu calendar for festivals, texts. However, the Buddhist and Jaina timekeeping systems have attempted to use the Buddha, the Hindu calendar is also important to the practice of Hindu astrology and zodiac system, most of which it adopted from Greece, in centuries after the arrival of Alexander the Great. The Indian national calendar or Saka calendar was introduced in 1952 based on the traditional Hindu calendars and this study was one of the six ancient Vedangas, or ancillary science connected with the Vedas – the scriptures of Hinduism. The ancient Indian culture developed a time keeping methodology and calendars for Vedic rituals. David Pingree has proposed that the field of timekeeping in Jyotisha may have derived from Mesopotamia during the Achaemenid period. Ohashi states that this Vedanga field developed from actual astronomical studies in ancient India, timekeeping as well as the nature of solar and moon movements are mentioned in Vedic texts. For example, Kaushitaki Brahmana chapter 19.3 mentions the shift in the location of the sun towards north for 6 months. The Vikrami calendar is named after king Vikramaditya and starts in 57 BCE, Hindu scholars attempted to keep time by observing and calculating the cycles of sun, moon and the planets. These texts present Surya and various planets and estimate the characteristics of the respective planetary motion, other texts such as Surya Siddhanta dated to have been complete sometime between the 5th century and 10th century present their chapters on various planets with deity mythologies. The manuscripts of texts exist in slightly different versions, present Surya- and planets-based calculation. These vary in their data, suggesting that the text were open and they tracked the solar year by observing the entrance and departure of surya in the constellation formed by stars in the sky, which they divided into 12 intervals of 30 degrees each. Like other ancient human cultures, Hindus innovated a number of systems of which intercalary months became most used, as their calendar keeping and astronomical observations became more sophisticated, the Hindu calendar became more sophisticated with complex rules and greater accuracy
13.
Chaitra
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Chaitra is a month of the Hindu calendar. In the standard Hindu calendar and Indias national civil calendar, Chaitra is the first month of the year and it is the last month in the Bengali calendar, where it is called Choitro. Chaitra or Chait is also the last month in the Nepali calendar, chithirai is the first month in the Tamil calendar. In the Vaishnava calendar, Vishnu governs this month, in the more traditional reckoning, the first month commences in March or April of the Gregorian Calendar, depending upon whether the Purushottam Maas was observed in the year. There is no fixed date in Gregorian calendar for 1st day of Chaitra, the month of Chaitra is also associated with the coming of Spring. Holi, the festival of colour, is celebrated on the full moon day of Phalguna month before Chaitra. Exactly 6 days after which the festival of Chaiti observed, in lunar religious calendars, Chaitra begins with the new moon in March/April and is the first month of the year. The first of Chaitra – is celebrated as New Years Day, known as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Chaitrai Vishu or Puthandu in Tamil Nadu and Ugadi in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Bengal people celebrate Charak Puja. The world famous chithirai Thiruvizha which is held on the banks of vaigai is held during this month in Madurai. In the Tamil calendar, Chitterai begins with the Suns entry into Aries in mid-April, the full moon day of chaitra is known as chithira pournami in Tamil which is an auspicious day for Amman. Chaitra is considered to be an auspicious month in which the creation of the universe was started. He also gradually included planets, stars, ruthu, years, in this month, the fifteen days in Shukla paksha are dedicated to fifteen deities. Each day of the month is dedicated to a different god, Chaiti Hindu units of measurement Hindu astronomy Jyotish Template, Indian astronomy-Prem Jotish
14.
Vaisakha
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Vaisakha Vaishakha or Baisakha is a month of the Hindu calendar that corresponds to April/May in the Gregorian Calendar. In the Indian national calendar Vaisakha is the month of the year. It is the first month of the Nepali calendar, Odia Calender, Punjabi calendar, regional calendars used on the sub-continent have two aspects, lunar and solar. Lunar months begin with Chaitra and solar months start with Vaisakha Sankranti, however, regional calendars mark one one official new year is celebrated. In regions such as Maharashtra which begin the new year with the commencement of the lunar year. Conversely, regions starting the new year with Vaisakha Sankranti, give prominence to the start of the year in Chaitra. In the Hindu solar calendar, Vaisakha begins in mid-April in Bengal, Nepal, in Tamil Nadu, it is known as Vaikasi and represents the second month of the Tamil solar calendar. In the Hindu lunar calendar, Vaisakha begins with the new moon in April, the name of the month is derived from the position of the moon near the star Vishakha on full moon day. In the Vaishnava calendar, Madhusudana governs this month, the month of Boishakh also marks the official start of Summer. The month is notorious for the afternoon storms called Kalboishakhi, the storms usually start with strong gusts from the north-western direction at the end of a hot day and cause widespread destruction. The first day of Baishakh is celebrated as the Pôhela Boishak or Bangla New Years Day, the day is observed with cultural programs, festivals and carnivals all around the country. The day of is also the beginning of all activities in Bangladesh. The traders starts new fiscal account book called Halkhata, the accounting in the Halkhata begins only after this day. It is celebrated with sweets and gifts with customers, the harvest festival of Vaisakhi is celebrated on in this month which marks the Punjabi new year according to the Punjabi calendar. Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on the Punjabi New year day, Vaisakha Purnima is celebrated as Buddha Purnima or the birthday of Gautama Buddha amongst southern Buddhists or the Theravada school. Purnima refers to the Full Moon, known in Sinhalese as Vesak, it is observed in the full moon of May. Vaishakha purnima is known as vaikasi vishakam in Tamil Nadu which is celebrated as the birthday of lord murugan, Vaisakha sukla chaturdasi is celebrated as Narasimha Jayanthi Festival in Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamivari Temple at Simhachalam. Baisakhi Vesākha Hindu units of measurement Hindu astronomy Jyotish
15.
Jyeshta
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Jyeshtha or Jyēṣṭha is a month of the Hindu calendar. In Indias national civil calendar, Jyestha is the month of the year. Known as Joishtho in Bengali, it is the month of the Bengali calendar. In lunar religious calendars, Jyēṣṭha begins on the new moon and is the month of the year. Traditionally, Jyēṣṭha is associated with summer, and corresponds to May–June in the Gregorian calendar. In Tamil, the month is known as Aani, the month of the solar calendar that begins in mid-June. In solar religious calendars, Jyēṣṭha begins with the Suns entry into Gemini, in the Vaishnava calendar, Vamana governs this month. Shani Dev Jayanti is celebrated on New Moon day i. e. Amavasya of Jyeshtha month, Ganga Dussehra is celebrated as the avatarana or descent of the Ganges from heaven to earth. The day of the celebration, Ganga Dashahara, the dashami of the moon of the Hindu calendar month Jyestha. A soak in the Ganges on this day is said to rid the bather of ten sins or alternatively, nirjala Ekadashi is celebrated on shukla paksha ekadashi of Jyeshtha. It is the most sacred and auspicious ekadashi among all 24 ekadashis in a year, one can attain the benefits of all 24 ekadashis by fasting on this day. Vat Purnima is a celebration observed in Maharashtra and Karnataka, India and it is celebrated on the full moon day of the month of Jyeshtha on the Hindu Calendar, which falls in June on the Gregorian Calendar. Women pray for their husbands by tying threads around a tree on this day. It honors Savitri, the wife of Satyavan who escaped death for her husbands life. Snana Yatra is a festival celebrated on the Purnima of the Hindu month of Jyeshtha. It is an important festival of the Jagannath Cult, the deities Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra, Sudarshan, and Madanmohan are brought out from the Jagannath Temple and taken in a procession to the Snana Bedi. They are ceremonially bathed and decorated for a public audience, sitalsasthi Carnival is being conducted in this month on the day of Jyeshtha Shuddha Shashthi in Odisha for many centuries. Hindu units of time Indian astronomy Hindu astrology
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Aashaadha
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Ashadha or Aashaadha is a month of the Hindu calendar that corresponds to June/July in the Gregorian calendar. In Indias national civil calendar, Āsāṛh is the month of the year, beginning on 22 June. The month is known as Ādi in Tamil, in solar religious calendars, Āsāṛh begins with the Suns entry into Cancer. It is the first of the two months that comprise the monsoon season, the corresponding month in the Bengali calendar, Aṣaṛh, is the third month. In lunar religious calendars, Āsāṛh begins on a new moon and is usually the month of the year. In the Vaishnava calendar, Vamana governs this month, rath Yatra is held on month of Asadha every year in, Odisha dedicated to Lord Jagannath. Guru Purnima, a dedicated to the Guru, is celebrated on the Purnima day of the month. Prior to it Shayani Ekadashi, is observed on the lunar day of the bright fortnight. Adi amavasai is an important festival in Tamil Nadu and auspicious for amman Hindu units of measurement Hindu astronomy Jyotish
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Shraavana
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Śrāvaṇa is a month of the Hindu calendar. In Indias national civil calendar, Śrāvaṇa is the month of the Hindu year, beginning in late July. In the Tamil calendar, it is known as Āvani and is the month of the solar year. Śrāvaṇa begins with the Suns entry into Leo, in lunar religious calendars, Śrāvaṇa begins on the new moon and is the fifth month of the year. Srabon is the month of the Bengali calendar. This is also the 2nd month of Varsha season, for many Hindus, the month of Shraavana is a month of fasting. Many Hindus will fast every Monday to the Lord Shiva and/or every Tuesday to the Goddess Parvati, fasting on Tuesdays of this month is known locally as Mangala Gauri Vrat. Shravana is considered to be a month in the Hindu calendar due to the many festivals that are celebrated during this time. Krishna Janmashtami, marking the birth of Krishna, falls on the 8th day after the moon and is celebrated with great pomp across the world. Raksha Bandhan, the festival of brothers and sisters, is celebrated on Shraavana Poornima, Raksha Bandhan also called Rakhi Purnima or simply Rakhi in many parts of India and Nepal, is a Hindu religious and secular festival. In simple words, Raksha bandhan means Bond of Protection In western India and parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, on this day, an offering of a coconut is made to the sea, as a mark of respect to Lord Varuna, the God of the Sea. In the coastal regions of Maharashtra i. e. Konkan, Narali Purnima marks the beginning of the fishing season and the fishermen, who depend on the sea for a living, make an offering to Lord Varuna so that they can reap bountiful fish from the sea. Fishermen start fishing in the sea after this ceremony, nag Panchami is also celebrated in many parts of India on the fifth day after Amavasya of Shraavana month. The snake god Nāga is worshiped, the last day of the Shraavana is celebrated as Pola, where the bull is worshiped by farmers from Maharashtra. In Karnataka Basava Panchami is celebrated on 5th day after amavasya. In 1196 AD this day Lingayat dharma guru Basava merged with god, Shraavana Poornima day is also celebrated as Shri Baladeva birth Ceremony. Lord Krishnas elder Brother Prabhu Balarama was born on this Poornima, gamha Purnima is celebrated in Odisha. On this date, all the domesticated Cows and Bullocks are decorated and worshipped, various kinds of country-made cakes called Pitha and sweets mitha are made and distributed within families, relatives and friends. In Oriya Jagannath culture, the lord Krishna & Radha enjoy the season of Shravana starting from Shukla Pakhya Ekadashi
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Bhaadra
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Bhadra or Bhadrapada or Bhaado or Bhadraba is a month of the Hindu calendar that corresponds to August/September in the Gregorian calendar. In Indias national civil calendar, Bhadra is the month of the year, beginning on 23 August. Known as Purattaasi, it is the month of the Tamil solar calendar. In solar religious calendars, Bhadra begins with the Suns entry into Virgo, in Nepals Bikram Sambat, Bhadra is the fifth month. In lunar religious calendars, Bhadra begins on the new moon in August/September and is the month of the year. The festival of Ganesha Chaturthi, celebrating the birthday of Ganesha, is observed from the 4-10 Bhadrapada in the bright fortnight and is the holiday of the year in Maharashtra. Per Shaka calendar, the fortnight of Bhadrapada is reserved for the veneration of the dead. This period is known as Pitru Paksha, in the Vaishnava calendar, Hrishikesh governs this month. The Goddess Radha was born on the day of this month. Vaishnavas and some Shivites fast during the month of Purattasi in Tamil Nadu. Haritalika Tritiya Ganesh Chaturthi Rishi Panchami Shukla Chaturdashi, Anant Chaturdashi Purnima, Madhu Purnima Hindu units of measurement Hindu astronomy Jyotish
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Ashwin
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Ashvin or Ashwin, also known as Aswayuja, is the seventh month of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, the Bikram Sambat which is the official solar calendar of Nepal and the parts of India. It is the month in the solar Bengali calendar and seventh in the lunar Shaka calendar of the Deccan region. It falls in the season of Shôrot, or Autumn, in solar religious calendar, Ashvin begins with the Suns exit from Virgo. It overlaps September and October of the Gregorian calendar and is the month preceding Diwali or Tihar the festival of lights, the month is here named Ashshin, Bengali script, আশ্বিন). In lunar religious calendars, Ashvin begins on the new moon after the autumn equinox, ashvini is the first star that appears in the evening sky. In Indian astrology it is the head of Aries, or the first of the 27 Nakshatra. Ashvin also stands for the twins, the Ashvins, the gods of vision, Ayurvedic medicine, the shining of sunrise and sunset. Asawin is the Thai variant of Ashvin and stands for warrior, the term is often translated into English as knight. Several major religious holidays take place in Ashvin, Ashwin is known as aipasi in Tamil and begins when the sun enters Libra in October. Ashvini Hindu astronomy Hindu units of measurement List of most popular given names
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Kartika (month)
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Karthikai, Kartika, Karthika or Kartik, is a Hinduism coined month of Bengali, Tamil, Maithili and Nepali calendar, named after the Hindu god, Kartikeya. In the lunar Hindu calendar, Kartika begins with the new moon in November and is the month of the year except in Gujarat. In the solar calendar used in Tamil Nadu, Karthikai begins with the Suns entry into Scorpio and is the month of the year. In the Vaishnava calendar, Damodara governs this month, in the reformed Indian national civil calendar, Kartika is the eighth month of the year. It corresponds with the months of October/November in the Gregorian Calendar Kartika is the month of the Bengali Calendar. It begins in mid-October of the Gregorian calendar, the name of the month is derived from the name of the star Krittika. It marks the start of the dry season, kārttikai is the eighth month of the Tamil calendar used by Tamils across the world. It corresponds to November/December in the Gregorian calendar and it begins when the sun enters the sign of Scorpio. Many festivals, such as Karthikai Deepam, are celebrated in this month, the name of the month is derived from a star, kārttikai. According to the Bikram Sambat calendar of Nepal, which is also the official calendar, Kartik is the seventh month, beginning on 18 October. Several major religious holidays take place in Kartik month and those are as follows, Balipratipada Govardhan Puja, Bhai Dooj Kartik Poornima Kartik Ekadashi The festival of Kartik Poornima falls in this month, celebrated as Dev Deepavali in Varanasi. This coincides with the nirvana of the Jain Tirthankara - Mahavira, and also, the well known festival, for the god of Sabarimalai, Ayyappans garland festival. This is also known as Tripuri Pournima, the second day of first of Karthika, called Bharatrudwitiya, is celebrated with sisters entertaining their brothers, following the legend of Yamuna, who entertained her brother Yama on the same day. Hindu units of measurement Hindu astronomy Jyotish MARATHI CALENDAR2017 Festivals in Karthika masam
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Agrahayana
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Agrahāyaṇa or Mārgaśīrṣa, is a month of the Hindu calendar. In Indias national civil calendar, Agrahāyaṇa is the month of the year, beginning on 22 November. Since Vedic times, this month is known as Mārgaśīrṣa after the Nakṣatra Mṛgaśiras, in Tamil, the month is known as Maarkazhi. The word Agrahāyaṇa means the month of Ayana or Equinox, the aligning of this name with the Mṛgaśiras Nakṣatra, gives rise to speculation that this name was given when the sun was near Orion at the time of vernal equinox, i. e. around 7000 years ago. In lunar religious calendars, Agrahāyaṇa may begin on either the new moon or the moon around the same time of year. In solar religious calendars, Agrahāyaṇa/Maarkazhi begins with the Suns entry into Sagittarius, in the Vaiṣṇava calendar, Keśava governs this month. Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī, the Ekādaśī of this Mārgaśīṣa month, is celebrated also as Mokṣadā Ekādaśī, bhairava Ashtami falls on Kṛṣṇa Pakṣa Aṣṭamī of this month of Mārgaśīṣa. On this day it is said that Lord Śiva appeared on earth in the manifestation as Śrī Kālabhairava. This day is commemorated with special prayers and rituals, in Tamil Nadu during this month of marghaazi ladies make koolams or rangoli early in the morning during 4 -5 o clock. Hindu units of measurement Hindu astronomy Jyotiṣa Precession of the earth, Vernal Equinox
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Pausha
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Pausha is a month of the Hindu calendar In the Indian national calendar, and the tenth month of the year, corresponding with December/January in the Gregorian calendar. It begins with the solstice on 22 December and ends on 20 January, in lunar religious Hindu calendars, Pausha / Paush / Poush maas begins with either the full or new moon in December and is the tenth month of the year. In the Tamil calendar, which is solar, Tai begins with the Suns entry into Capricorn around January 15, the harvest festival of Thai Pongal/Makar Sankranti is celebrated around January 15. The Tamil calendar has stayed in synch with the precession of the equinoxes, although the Tropical Zodiac, dating from at least the time of classical Greece, starts Capricorn at December 22, the sidereal zodiac starts Capricorn at January 15. In the Vaishnava calendar, Narayana governs this month, pausa Bahula Amavasya day is celebrated Theppotsavam at Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamyvari Temple in Simhachalam. The ‘Utsava idols’ are taken in a palanquin to ‘Varaha Pushkarini’, Hindu units of measurement Hindu astrology Indian astronomy
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Magha (month)
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Maagha is a month of the Hindu calendar. In Indias national civil calendar, Maagh is the month of the year. In lunar calendars, Maagh may begin on either the new moon or the moon around the same time of year. It is named thus because in this month, the moon is usually found nearby or within the star cluster called Magha. In solar calendars, Maagh begins with the Suns entry into Aquarius and this month is called maasi in Tamil. In the Vaishnava calendar, Madhava governs this month, Shukla Panchami, Vasant Panchami Shukla Saptami, Ratha Saptami Maagh Mela is an important festival celebrated most of North India. The world famous Maha Maham festival which is held every 12 years during full moon day of month of maasi
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Leap years
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A leap year is a calendar year containing one additional day added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. By inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected, a year that is not a leap year is called a common year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, each year has 366 days instead of the usual 365. In the Bahai Calendar, a day is added when needed to ensure that the following year begins on the vernal equinox. For example, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday in 2001, Wednesday in 2002, the length of a day is also occasionally changed by the insertion of leap seconds into Coordinated Universal Time, owing to the variability of Earths rotational period. Unlike leap days, leap seconds are not introduced on a regular schedule, in the Gregorian calendar, the standard calendar in most of the world, most years that are multiples of 4 are leap years. In each leap year, the month of February has 29 days instead of 28, adding an extra day to the calendar every four years compensates for the fact that a period of 365 days is shorter than a tropical year by almost 6 hours. Some exceptions to this rule are required since the duration of a tropical year is slightly less than 365.25 days. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 were not leap years, over a period of four centuries, the accumulated error of adding a leap day every four years amounts to about three extra days. The Gregorian calendar therefore removes three leap days every 400 years, which is the length of its leap cycle and this is done by removing February 29 in the three century years that cannot be exactly divided by 400. The years 1600,2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1700,1800,1900,2100,2200 and 2300 are common years, by this rule, the average number of days per year is 365 + 1⁄4 − 1⁄100 + 1⁄400 =365.2425. The rule can be applied to years before the Gregorian reform, the Gregorian calendar was designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter remains close to the vernal equinox. The Accuracy section of the Gregorian calendar article discusses how well the Gregorian calendar achieves this design goal, the following pseudocode determines whether a year is a leap year or a common year in the Gregorian calendar. The year variable being tested is the representing the number of the year in the Gregorian calendar. Care should be taken in translating mathematical integer divisibility into specific programming languages, if then else if then else if then else February 29 is a date that usually occurs every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, the Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a calendar and named many of its days after the syzygies of the moon, the new moon. The Nonae or nones was not the first quarter moon but was exactly one nundina or Roman market week of nine days before the ides and this is what we would call a period of eight days
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Ecliptic
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The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun on the celestial sphere, and is the basis for the ecliptic coordinate system. It also refers to the plane of this path, which is coplanar with the orbit of Earth around the Sun, the motions as described above are simplifications. Due to the movement of Earth around the Earth–Moon center of mass, due to further perturbations by the other planets of the Solar System, the Earth–Moon barycenter wobbles slightly around a mean position in a complex fashion. The ecliptic is actually the apparent path of the Sun throughout the course of a year, because Earth takes one year to orbit the Sun, the apparent position of the Sun also takes the same length of time to make a complete circuit of the ecliptic. With slightly more than 365 days in one year, the Sun moves a little less than 1° eastward every day, again, this is a simplification, based on a hypothetical Earth that orbits at uniform speed around the Sun. The actual speed with which Earth orbits the Sun varies slightly during the year, for example, the Sun is north of the celestial equator for about 185 days of each year, and south of it for about 180 days. The variation of orbital speed accounts for part of the equation of time, if the equator is projected outward to the celestial sphere, forming the celestial equator, it crosses the ecliptic at two points known as the equinoxes. The Sun, in its apparent motion along the ecliptic, crosses the equator at these points, one from south to north. The crossing from south to north is known as the equinox, also known as the first point of Aries. The crossing from north to south is the equinox or descending node. Likewise, the ecliptic itself is not fixed, the gravitational perturbations of the other bodies of the Solar System cause a much smaller motion of the plane of Earths orbit, and hence of the ecliptic, known as planetary precession. The combined action of two motions is called general precession, and changes the position of the equinoxes by about 50 arc seconds per year. Once again, this is a simplification, periodic motions of the Moon and apparent periodic motions of the Sun cause short-term small-amplitude periodic oscillations of Earths axis, and hence the celestial equator, known as nutation. Obliquity of the ecliptic is the used by astronomers for the inclination of Earths equator with respect to the ecliptic. It is about 23. 4° and is currently decreasing 0.013 degrees per hundred years due to planetary perturbations, the angular value of the obliquity is found by observation of the motions of Earth and other planets over many years. From 1984, the Jet Propulsion Laboratorys DE series of computer-generated ephemerides took over as the ephemeris of the Astronomical Almanac. Obliquity based on DE200, which analyzed observations from 1911 to 1979, was calculated, jPLs fundamental ephemerides have been continually updated. J. Laskar computed an expression to order T10 good to 0″. 04/1000 years over 10,000 years, all of these expressions are for the mean obliquity, that is, without the nutation of the equator included
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Hindu
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Hindu refers to any person who regards themselves as culturally, ethnically, or religiously adhering to aspects of Hinduism. It has historically used as a geographical, cultural, or religious identifier for people indigenous to South Asia. The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time, by the 16th century, the term began to refer to residents of India who were not Turks or Muslims. The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear, competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and medieval Hindu-Muslim wars. A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and regional languages. The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma, the Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in religious context in 1649. In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals, scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon. Hindoo is a spelling variant, whose use today may be considered derogatory. At more than 1.03 billion, Hindus are the third largest group after Christians. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to Indias 2011 census. After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Myanmar. These together accounted for 99% of the worlds Hindu population, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu, which means a large body of water, covering river, ocean. It was used as the name of the Indus river and also referred to its tributaries, the Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhava in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hidush, the people of India were referred to as Hinduvān and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama. The term Hindu in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term, the Arabic equivalent Al-Hind likewise referred to the country of India. Among the earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose connotation overflows in the religious according to Arvind Sharma. The Hindu community occurs as the amorphous Other of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that Hindu retained its geographical reference initially, Indian, indigenous, local, virtually native. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves, the poet Vidyapatis poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks in a city and concludes The Hindus and the Turks live close together, Each makes fun of the others religion
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Lunisolar calendar
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A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. As with all calendars which divide the year into months there is a requirement that the year have a whole number of months. In this case ordinary years consist of twelve months but every second or third year is an embolismic year, also, some of the ancient pre-Islamic calendars in south Arabia followed a lunisolar system. The Chinese, Coligny and Hebrew lunisolar calendars track more or less the tropical year whereas the Buddhist, therefore, the first three give an idea of the seasons whereas the last two give an idea of the position among the constellations of the full moon. The Tibetan calendar was influenced by both the Chinese and Hindu calendars, the Germanic peoples also used a lunisolar calendar before their conversion to Christianity. The Metonic cycle, used in the Hebrew calendar and the Julian and Gregorian ecclesiastical calendars, the classic Metonic cycle can be reproduced by assigning an initial epact value of 1 to the last year of the cycle and incrementing by 11 each year. Between the last year of one cycle and the first year of the next the increment is 12 and this adjustment, the saltus lunae, causes the epacts to repeat every 19 years. When the epact goes above 29 an intercalary month is added and 30 is subtracted, the intercalary years are numbers 3,6,8,11,14,17 and 19. Both the Hebrew calendar and the Julian calendar use this sequence, the Buddhist and Hebrew calendars restrict the leap month to a single month of the year, the number of common months between leap months is, therefore, usually 36, but occasionally only 24 months. An alternative way of dealing with the fact that a year does not contain an integer number of months is by including uncounted time in the year that does not belong to any month. Some Coast Salish peoples used a calendar of this kind, for instance, the Chehalis began their count of lunar months from the arrival of spawning chinook salmon, and counted 10 months, leaving an uncounted period until the next chinook salmon run. The Gregorian calendar has a calendar, which is used to determine the date of Easter. The rules are in the Computus, Hebrew calendar Jain calendar Hindu calendar Computus Easter rule for Julian and Gregorian calendars. Lunisolar calendar year 2014 Lunisolar Calendar Calendar studies Model of lunisolar calendar based on observation of the sun and moon position
28.
Common Era
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Common Era or Current Era is a year-numbering system for the Julian and Gregorian calendars that refers to the years since the start of this era, i. e. since AD1. The preceding era is referred to as before the Common or Current Era, the Current Era notation system can be used as a secular alternative to the Dionysian era system, which distinguishes eras as AD and BC. The two notation systems are equivalent, thus 2017 CE corresponds to AD2017 and 400 BCE corresponds to 400 BC. The year-numbering system for the Gregorian calendar is the most widespread civil calendar used in the world today. For decades, it has been the standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations. The expression has been traced back to Latin usage to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, the term Common Era can be found in English as early as 1708, and became more widely used in the mid-19th century by Jewish academics. He attempted to number years from a reference date, an event he referred to as the Incarnation of Jesus. Dionysius labeled the column of the table in which he introduced the new era as Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, numbering years in this manner became more widespread in Europe with its usage by Bede in England in 731. Bede also introduced the practice of dating years before what he supposed was the year of birth of Jesus, in 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius. The first use of the Latin term vulgaris aerae discovered so far was in a 1615 book by Johannes Kepler, Kepler uses it again in a 1616 table of ephemerides, and again in 1617. A1635 English edition of that book has the title page in English – so far, a 1701 book edited by John LeClerc includes Before Christ according to the Vulgar Æra,6. A1716 book in English by Dean Humphrey Prideaux says, before the beginning of the vulgar æra, a 1796 book uses the term vulgar era of the nativity. The first so-far-discovered usage of Christian Era is as the Latin phrase aerae christianae on the page of a 1584 theology book. In 1649, the Latin phrase æræ Christianæ appeared in the title of an English almanac, a 1652 ephemeris is the first instance so-far-found for English usage of Christian Era. The English phrase common Era appears at least as early as 1708, a 1759 history book uses common æra in a generic sense, to refer to the common era of the Jews. The first-so-far found usage of the phrase before the era is in a 1770 work that also uses common era and vulgar era as synonyms. The 1797 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica uses the terms vulgar era, the Catholic Encyclopedia in at least one article reports all three terms being commonly understood by the early 20th century. Thus, the era of the Jews, the common era of the Mahometans, common era of the world
29.
Astrophysics
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Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that employs the principles of physics and chemistry to ascertain the nature of the heavenly bodies, rather than their positions or motions in space. Among the objects studied are the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium and their emissions are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. In practice, modern astronomical research often involves an amount of work in the realms of theoretical and observational physics. Although astronomy is as ancient as recorded history itself, it was separated from the study of terrestrial physics. Their challenge was that the tools had not yet been invented with which to prove these assertions, for much of the nineteenth century, astronomical research was focused on the routine work of measuring the positions and computing the motions of astronomical objects. Kirchhoff deduced that the lines in the solar spectrum are caused by absorption by chemical elements in the Solar atmosphere. In this way it was proved that the elements found in the Sun. Among those who extended the study of solar and stellar spectra was Norman Lockyer and he thus claimed the line represented a new element, which was called helium, after the Greek Helios, the Sun personified. By 1890, a catalog of over 10,000 stars had been prepared that grouped them into thirteen spectral types, most significantly, she discovered that hydrogen and helium were the principal components of stars. This discovery was so unexpected that her dissertation readers convinced her to modify the conclusion before publication, however, later research confirmed her discovery. By the end of the 20th century, studies of astronomical spectra had expanded to cover wavelengths extending from radio waves through optical, x-ray and it is the practice of observing celestial objects by using telescopes and other astronomical apparatus. The majority of observations are made using the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio astronomy studies radiation with a greater than a few millimeters. The study of these waves requires very large radio telescopes, infrared astronomy studies radiation with a wavelength that is too long to be visible to the naked eye but is shorter than radio waves. Infrared observations are made with telescopes similar to the familiar optical telescopes. Objects colder than stars are studied at infrared frequencies. Optical astronomy is the oldest kind of astronomy, telescopes paired with a charge-coupled device or spectroscopes are the most common instruments used. The Earths atmosphere interferes somewhat with optical observations, so adaptive optics, in this wavelength range, stars are highly visible, and many chemical spectra can be observed to study the chemical composition of stars, galaxies and nebulae
30.
Meghnad Saha
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Meghnad Saha FRS was an Indian astrophysicist best known for his development of the Saha ionization equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars. Meghnad Saha was born in Shaoratoli village near Dhaka, British India, son of Jagannath Saha, Meghnad Saha belonged to a poor family and struggled to rise in life. During his early schooling he was forced to leave Dhaka Collegiate School because he participated in the Swadeshi movement and his Indian School Certificate was earned from Dhaka College. He became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1927 and he was president of the 21st session of the Indian Science Congress in 1934. Saha was fortunate to have brilliant teachers and class fellows, in his student days, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sarada Prasanna Das and Prafulla Chandra Ray were at the pinnacle of their fame. Amongst his class fellows were Satyendra Nath Bose, Jnan Ghosh, in later life he was close to Amiya Charan Banerjee, a renowned mathematician at Allahabad University. On his religious views, Saha was an atheist, Saha died on 16 February 1956. Meghnad Sahas best-known work concerned the thermal ionisation of elements, by studying the spectra of various stars, one can find their temperature and from that, using Sahas equation, determine the ionisation state of the various elements making up the star. This work was extended by Ralph H. Fowler and Edward Arthur Milne. Saha had previously reached the conclusion on the subject. It will be admitted from what has gone before that the plays the leading role in determining the nature of the stellar spectrum. Too much importance must not be attached to the figures given and he founded the journal Science and Culture and was the editor until his death. A lasting memorial to him is the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Saha was the chief architect of river planning in India and prepared the original plan for the Damodar Valley Project. But science and technology are as important for administration now-a-days as law, I have gradually glided into politics because I wanted to be of some use to the country in my own humble way. The first time, in 1929, Saha was nominated for the Physics Nobel Prize for the year 1930 by D. M, the Nobel Committee evaluated Sahas work. It was seen as an application, but not a discovery. Thus he was not awarded the Prize, Saha was nominated again for the Prize in 1937 and 1940 by A. H. Compton, and in 1939,1951 and 1955 by S. K. Mitra. The Nobel Committee remained to its previous decision, Meghnad Saha’s ionization equation, which opened the door to stellar astrophysics” was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science could be considered in the Nobel Prize class
31.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
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It runs thirty-seven laboratories and thirty-nine field stations or extension centres throughout the nation, with a collective staff of over 17,000 workers. Although it is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology. In December 2006, Director General Raghunath A. Mashelkar, retired following which M. K. Bhan took over the post, but he was relieved on 7 March 2007. After that T. Ramasami had the charge of Director General of CSIR until Samir K. Brahmachari was appointed as the Director General on 13 November 2007. In May,2014, the post of general was held by P. S. Ahuja, who retired on December,31,2014. Garg assumed as director general of CSIR, current director, Dr. Girish Sahni was appointed as director general of CSIR, with effect from the 24th August 2015. In the 1930s, the need for establishing research organisations for the development of natural resources, eminent citizens such as C. V. Raman, Lt. Col. Seymour Sewell and J. C. Ghosh had proposed the creation of a board of scientific research. Sir Richard Gregory, then editor of Nature, was among the first people who reported to the British Government. Indian scientists at Calcutta and Bangalore initiated schemes to launch a National Institute of Sciences, at the Fifth Industries Conference in 1933, the Provincial Governments of Bombay, Madras, Bihar and Orissa unanimously reiterated their demand for a co-ordinating forum for industrial research. Hoare advised the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, to support the demand, the Indian DSIR was rejected, however, the colonial government provided a small concession. It instead offered to create an Industrial Intelligence and Research Bureau, the Bureaus limited resources made it impossible to initiate major research and industrial activities as had hoped for. It was mainly concerned with testing and quality control, at the onset of World War II in 1939, the bureau was proposed to be abolished. Arguably, Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar became the most instrumental in the creation of CSIR in India and it was by this persistence that the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research was created on 1 April 1940 for a period of two years. Mudaliar became the chair of the board and it was at this point that Bhatnagar was appointed to pilot the board, as the Director. The BSIR was allocated a budget of INR500,000 under the Department of Commerce. By the end of 1940, about 80 researchers were engaged, in early 1941 Bhatnagar persuaded the government to set up an Industrial Research Utilisation Committee for translating results into application
32.
Jawaharlal Nehru
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Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state, a sovereign, socialist, secular and he was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community while many Indian children knew him as Chacha Nehru. The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman and Swaroop Rani, Nehru was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister. Upon his return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court, and took an interest in national politics, a committed nationalist since his teenage years, he became a rising figure in Indian politics during the upheavals of the 1910s. He became the prominent leader of the factions of the Indian National Congress during the 1920s. As Congress President in 1929, Nehru called for independence from the British Raj. Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s as the country moved towards independence, but these achievements were seriously compromised in the aftermath of the Quit India Movement in 1942, which saw the British effectively crush the Congress as a political organisation. The Muslim League under his old Congress colleague and now bête noire, negotiations between Nehru and Jinnah for power sharing failed and gave way to the independence and bloody partition of India in 1947. As Prime Minister, he set out to realise his vision of India, the Constitution of India was enacted in 1950, after which he embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social and political reforms. Chiefly, he oversaw Indias transition from a colony to a republic, while nurturing a plural, in foreign policy, he took a leading role in Non-Alignment while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia. Under Nehrus leadership, the Congress emerged as a party, dominating national and state-level politics and winning consecutive elections in 1951,1957. He remained popular with the people of India in spite of troubles in his final years. In India, his birthday is celebrated as Childrens Day, Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father, Motilal Nehru, a barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community. His mother, Swaruprani Thussu, who came from a well-known Kashmiri Brahmin family settled in Lahore, was Motilals second wife, Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children, two of whom were girls. The elder sister, Vijaya Lakshmi, later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly, the youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer and authored several books on her brother. Nehru described his childhood as a sheltered and uneventful one and he grew up in an atmosphere of privilege at wealthy homes including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhawan. His father had him educated at home by governesses and tutors
33.
New Year's Day
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New Years Day, also called simply New Years or New Year, is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar. In pre-Christian Rome under the Julian calendar, the day was dedicated to Janus, god of gateways and beginnings, other global New Years Day traditions include making New Years resolutions and calling ones friends and family. Mesopotamia instituted the concept of celebrating the new year in 2000 BC, celebrated new year around the time of the vernal equinox, the early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March and that the new year once began with the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the months. September through December, our ninth through twelfth months, were positioned as the seventh through tenth months. Roman legend usually credited their second king Numa with the establishment of the months of January and February and these were first placed at the end of the year, but at some point came to be considered the first two months instead. The January Kalends came to be celebrated as the new year at some point after it became the day for the new consuls in 153 BC. Romans had long dated their years by these consulships, rather than sequentially, still, private and religious celebrations around the March new year continued for some time and there is no consensus on the question of the timing for January 1s new status. Once it became the new year, however, it became a time for family gatherings, in AD567, the Council of Tours formally abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. These days were also astronomically and astrologically significant since, at the time of the Julian reform, March 25 had been understood as the spring equinox and December 25 as the winter solstice. Medieval calendars nonetheless often continued to display the months running from January to December, among the 7th century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was the custom to exchange gifts on the first day of the new year. This custom was deplored by Saint Eligius, who warned the Flemish and Dutch, make vetulas, little deer or iotticos or set tables at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks. Because of the leap year error in the Julian calendar, the date of Easter had drifted backward since the First Council of Nicaea decided the computation of the date of Easter in 325, by the sixteenth century, the drift from the observed equinox had become unacceptable. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII declared the Gregorian calendar widely used today, the Gregorian calendar reform also restored January 1 as New Years Day. Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar almost immediately, it was gradually adopted among Protestant countries. The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed calendar until 1752, until then, the British Empire – and its American colonies – still celebrated the new year on 25 March. Most nations of Western Europe officially adopted 1 January as New Years Day somewhat before they adopted the Gregorian Calendar, in Tudor England, New Years Day, along with Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, was celebrated as one of three main festivities among the twelve days of Christmastide. There, until the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752, Pope Gregory acknowledged 1 January as the beginning of the new year according to his reform of the Catholic Liturgical Calendar
34.
History of calendars
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The history of calendars, that is, of people creating and using methods for keeping track of days and larger divisions of time, covers a practice with very ancient roots. Archeologists have reconstructed methods of timekeeping that go back to prehistoric periods at least as old as the Neolithic, the natural units for timekeeping used by most historical societies are the day, the solar year and the lunation. Calendars are explicit schemes used for timekeeping, the first recorded calendars date to the Bronze Age, dependent on the development of writing in the Ancient Near East, the Egyptian and Sumerian calendars. A larger number of systems of the Ancient Near East appear in the Iron Age archeological record. This includes the calendar of the Persian Empire, which in turn gave rise to the Zoroastrian calendar as well as the Hebrew calendar, Calendars in antiquity were usually lunisolar, depending on the introduction of intercalary months to align the solar and the lunar years. This was mostly based on observation, but there may have been attempts to model the pattern of intercalation algorithmically. Nevertheless, the Roman calendar contained very ancient remnants of a pre-Etruscan 10-month solar year, the Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE. The Julian calendar was no longer dependent on the observation of the new moon and this created a dissociation of the calendar month from the lunation. In the 11th century in Persia, a calendar reform led by Khayyam was announced in 1079, given that the length of the year is changing in the sixth decimal place over a persons lifetime, this is outstandingly accurate. For comparison the length of the year at the end of the 19th century was 365.242196 days, the Gregorian calendar was introduced as a refinement of the Julian calendar in 1582, and is today in worldwide use as the de facto calendar for secular purposes. Latin calendarium meant account book, register, as accounts were settled, the Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in Middle English as calender by the 13th century. The spelling calendar is from Early Modern English, a number of prehistoric structures have been proposed as having had the purpose of timekeeping. This includes many structures, and reconstructed arrangements going back far into the Neolithic period. The ancient Sumerian calendar divided a year into 12 lunar months of 29 or 30 days, each month began with the sighting of a new moon. Sumerian months had no uniform name throughout Sumer because of the religious diversity and this resulted in scribes and scholars referring to them as the first month, the fifth month etc. To keep the year of 354 days in step with the solar year of 365.242 days an extra month was added periodically. Also, every six years the Sumerian calendar included a month of 62 days. There were no weeks in the Sumerian calendar, holy days and time off from work were usually celebrated on the first, seventh and fifteenth of each month
35.
Bengali calendars
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The Bengali Calendar or Bangla Calendar is a solar calendar used in the region of Bengal. A revised version of the calendar is the national and official calendar in Bangladesh, the New Year in the Bengali calendar is known as Pôhela Bôishakh. The Bengali Era or Anno Bengal, the Bengali year is 594 less than the AD or CE year in the Gregorian calendar if it is before Pôhela Bôishakh, the revised version of the Bengali calendar was officially adopted in Bangladesh in 1987. However, it is not followed in India where the traditional version continues to be followed due to occurrence of Hindu festivals based on a particular sidereal solar day. The Bengali calendar is a solar calendar, the calendar was developed by Alauddin Husain Shah, a Hussain Shahi sultan of Bengal by combining the lunar Islamic calendar with the solar calendar, prevalent in Bengal. All theories agree that the Mughal Emperor, Akbar was instrumental in promulgating the Bengali calendar, Akbar modified, developed and re introduced the Bengali Calendar in order to make tax collection easier in Bengal. The calendar was called as Tarikh-e-Elahi. Sources credit the idea to Alauddin Husain Shah, akbars royal astronomer Fathullah Shirazi developed the Bengali calendar, by synthesizing the Lunar Islamic and Solar calendars. The calendar started with the Islamic calendar value, but the Sanskrit month names were used from the earlier version, the distinctive characteristic of the Bengali year was that rather than being a lunar calendar, it was based on a union of the solar and lunar year. This was essentially a great promotion as the solar and lunar years were formulated in very diverse systems, primarily this calendar was named as Fasli Sôn and then Bônggabdô. The Bengali Year was launched on 1584 AD or 992 AH and this was the day that Akbar defeated Hemu in the clash of Panipat to ascend the throne. The month of Muharram in the year 963 AH was equal to the month of Boishakh in the Bengali calendar, in the Tarikh-e-Elahi version of the calendar, each day of the month had a separate name, and the months had different names from what they have now. The Bengali calendar consists of 6 seasons, known as Rreetu ঋতু or Kal কাল, hence after some centuries the months will shift far away from the actual seasons. But the new revised version of the Bengali calendar used in Bangladesh will continue to maintain the seasons on time as mentioned above. The Bengali Calendar incorporates the seven-day week as used by other calendars. The names of the days of the week in the Bengali Calendar are based on the Navagraha, the day begins and ends at sunrise in the Bengali calendar, unlike in the Gregorian calendar, where the day starts at midnight. Pôhela Bôishakh in West Bengal and other states of India with Bengali diaspora, is celebrated on 14/15 April of the Gregorian calendar, however, according to the revised version of the calendar, now followed in Bangladesh, Pôhela Bôishakh always falls on 14 April. It is not clear, from what ground they start counting of 1st Bengali calendar year from the 593AD, the length of a year is counted as 365 days, as in the Gregorian calendar
36.
Malayalam
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Malayalam /mʌləˈjɑːləm/ is a language spoken in India, predominantly in the state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated as a Classical Language in India in 2013 and it was developed to the current form mainly by the influence of the poet Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan in the 16th century. Malayalam has official status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is spoken by some 38 million people, according to one theory, Malayalam originated from Middle Tamil in the 7th century. However, the current understanding proposes the separation of Malayalam from Proto-Dravidian in the pre-historic era, Malayalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, including present day Kerala state, silappatikaramit was written by Chera prince Ilango Adigal from Chunkaparra, and is considered a classic in Sangam literature. Modern Malayalam still preserves many words from the ancient Tamil vocabulary of Sangam literature, the earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu alphabet, and later the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it. As Malayalam began to borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit. This developed into the modern Malayalam script, many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam. The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries, the first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785. Due to its lineage deriving from both Tamil and Sanskrit, the Malayalam script has the largest number of letters among the Indian language orthographies, the Malayalam script includes letters capable of representing almost all the sounds of all Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. Malayalam serves as a language on the islands including the Mahl-dominated Minicoy Island. The word Malayalam originated from the Sanskrit resp, Malayalam words malai or mala, meaning hill, and elam, meaning region. Malayalam thus translates as hill region and used to refer to the land of the Chera dynasty, the language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, and Mallealle. The word Malayalam originally meant only for the name of the region, Malayanma or Malayayma represented the language. With the emergence of modern Malayalam language, the name of the language started to be known by the name of the region, hence now, the word Malayanma is considered by some to represent the olden Malayalam language. The language got the name Malayalam during the mid 19th century, the origin of Malayalam, an independent offshoot of the proto-Dravidian language, has been and continues to be an engaging pursuit among comparative historical linguists. Together with Tamil, Toda, Kannada and Tulu, Malayalam belongs to the group of Dravidian languages
37.
Tamil calendar
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The Tamil calendar is a sidereal Hindu calendar used in Tamil Nadu, India. It is also used in Puducherry, and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Tamil Nadu farmers greatly refer to this. It is used today for cultural, religious and agricultural events, the Tamil calendar is based on the classical Hindu lunisolar calendar also used in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal, Odisha, Rajasthan and Punjab. There are several festivals based on the Tamil Hindu calendar, the Tamil New Year follows the nirayanam vernal equinox and generally falls on 14 April of the Gregorian year. 14 April marks the first day of the traditional Tamil calendar, tropical vernal equinox fall around 22 March, and adding 23 degrees of trepidation or oscillation to it, we get the Hindu sidereal or Nirayana Mesha Sankranti. Hence, the Tamil calendar begins on the date in April which is observed by most traditional calendars of the rest of India - Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Manipur. This also coincides with the new year in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh Nepal. The traditional Tamil year starts on 14 April 2017, Kaliyuga 5119, vikrama and Shalivahana Saka eras are also used. There are several references in early Tamil literature to the April new year, nakkirar, the author of the Nedunalvaadai writes in the 3rd century that the Sun travels from Mesha/Chitterai through 11 successive Raasis or signs of the zodiac. Kūdalūr Kizhaar in the 3rd century refers to Mesha Raasi/Chitterai as the commencement of the year in the Puranaanooru, the Tolkaapiyam is the oldest surviving Tamil grammar that divides the year into six seasons where Chitterai marks the start of the Ilavenil season or summer. The 8th century Silappadikaaram mentions the 12 Raasis or zodiac signs starting with Mesha/Chitterai, the Manimekalai alludes to the Hindu solar calendar as we know it today. Adiyaarkunalaar, an early medieval commentator or Urai-asiriyar, mentions the 12 months of the Tamil Hindu calendar with particular reference to Chitterai. The days of the Tamil calendar relate to the bodies in the solar system, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. This list compiles the days of the week in the Tamil calendar, For Tamils, the number of days in a month varies between 29 and 32. The following list compiles the months of the Tamil Calendar and its earliest reference is to be found in Surya Siddhanta, which Varahamihirar believed to be the most accurate of the then current theories of astronomy. However, in the Surya Siddhantic list, the first year was Vijaya, there are some parallels in this sexagenary cycle with the Chinese calendar. The Surya Siddhanta and other Indian classical texts on astronomy had some influence on the Chinese calendar although it merits attention that the cycle in China is itself very old. After the completion of sixty years, the calendar starts a new with the first year and this corresponds to the Hindu century
38.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
39.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
40.
Flag of India
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The National Flag of India is a horizontal rectangular tricolour of India saffron, white and India green, with the Ashoka Chakra, a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on 22 July 1947, the flag was subsequently retained as that of the Republic of India. In India, the term tricolour almost always refers to the Indian national flag, the flag is based on the Swaraj flag, a flag of the Indian National Congress designed by Pingali Venkayya. By law, the flag is to be made of khadi, the manufacturing process and specifications for the flag are laid out by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The right to manufacture the flag is held by the Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission, as of 2009, the Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha has been the sole manufacturer of the flag. Usage of the flag is governed by the Flag Code of India, the original code prohibited use of the flag by private citizens except on national days such as the Independence day and the Republic Day. In 2002, on hearing an appeal from a citizen, Naveen Jindal. Subsequently, the Union Cabinet of India amended the code to allow limited usage, the code was amended once more in 2005 to allow some additional use including adaptations on certain forms of clothing. The flag code also governs the protocol of flying the flag, according to the Flag code of India, the Indian flag has a ratio of two by three. All three stripes of the flag are to be equal in width and length, the size of the Ashoka Chakra is not specified in the Flag code, but it has twenty-four spokes that are evenly spaced. In section 4.3.1 of IS1, Manufacturing standards for the Indian Flag, in both the Flag code and IS1, they call for the Ashoka Chakra to be printed or painted on both sides of the flag in navy blue. The navy blue colour can be found in the standard IS, note that the values given in the table correspond to CIE1931 color space. Approximate RGB values for use may be taken to be, India saffron #FF9933, white #FFFFFF, India green #138808, pantone values closest to this are 130 U, White,2258 C and 2735 C. Gandhi first proposed a flag to the Indian National Congress in 1921. The flag was designed by Pingali Venkayya, in the centre was a traditional spinning wheel, symbolising Gandhis goal of making Indians self-reliant by fabricating their own clothing. The design was modified to include a white stripe in the centre for other religious communities. A few days before India became independent on 15 August 1947, a modified version of the Swaraj flag was chosen, the tricolour remained the same saffron, white and green. However, the charkha was replaced by the Ashoka Chakra representing the wheel of law. To address the question of how the star conveyed Indianness, Queen Victoria created the Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India to honour services to the empire by her Indian subjects
