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Understanding Sikh Calendar Issue

A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single, specific day within such a system. The term calendar is taken from calendae, the term for the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, related to the verb calare, referring to the "calling" of the new moon when it was first seen. The Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in English as calender by the 13th century.
Sikh Nanakshahi Calendar

Indian Calendar

The Bikrami calendar has been historically used by Hindus and Sikhs. The Bikrami or Vikrami calendar is named after king Vikramaditya and starts in 57 B.C.  It is based on twelve syndicalist lunar months and 365 solar days. The lunar new year starts on the new moon in the month of Chet.
Lunar Calendar - 2018
In Bikrami Calendar, a  lunar month has two fortnights. The lunar days are called Tithis. Each month has 30 Tithis, which may vary from 20 – 27 hours.

During the waxing phases, Tithis are called Shukla or the bright phase — the auspicious fortnight, beginning with the day after the new moon called Amaavas. Tithis for the waning phases are called Krishna or the dark phase, which is regarded as the inauspicious fortnight, starting from the day after the full moon or Pooranmasi.

A day consists of 8 Pehars, every Pehar equals to 3 hours of the modern clock. These Pehars are named:

  1. Sajar vela or Sver vela = Morning/Day-break (6'o clock to 9'o clock)
  2. Dhammi vela = Pre- noon time(9'o clock to 12'o clock)
  3. Paishee vela = Noon(12'o clock to 3'o clock)
  4. Deegar vela = Afternoon(3'o clock to 6'o clock)
  5. Nimasheen/namashan vela = Sunset + Evening + Early hours of night(6'o clock to 9'o clock).
  6. Kuftain vela = Pre-midnight time (9'o clock to 12'o clock)
  7. Adh Raat vela = Midnight to 3'o clock (12'o clock to 3'o clock)
  8. Sarghee vela = Pre Dawn/Very early morning before the sunrise(3'o clock to 6'o clock). 
The word vela means "time of the day" whereas the word Adh means half. While Do Pehar denotes noon time; and Shikhar Do Pehar when the sun is right on the heads.

Problem with Bikrami Calendar

The Sikh diaspora faced a multitude of issues with Bikrami Calendar. The length of the solar year of the Bikrami Calendar (365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds) does not conform to the tropical year length (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds). This resulted in moving the dates of Sikh festivals at different days.

Most effected was the date of birth of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru. Due to the difference with tropical calendar, some years the date will fall in the end of December and other years it would be in beginning of January. This resulted in this date could potentially occurring twice in a calendar year and not at all occurring in a whole calendar year at the other years.

Julian to Gregorian Calendar

The Julian Calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman lunar calendar. The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months. A leap day is added to February every four years. 

The Gregorian Calendar is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. The motivation for the adjustment was to bring the date for the celebration of Easter to the time of year in which it was celebrated when it was introduced by the early Church. The error in the Julian calendar (its assumption that there are exactly 365.25 days in a year) had led to the date of the equinox according to the calendar drifting from the observed reality, and thus an error had been introduced into the calculation of the date of Easter. 

Nanakshahi Calendar

The Nanakshahi Calendar was developed by a Canadian Sikh, Pal Singh Purewal, a retired computer engineer. He started work on the calendar in the 1960s. Purewal believed that having a unique calendar was vital for the integrity of the Sikh religion.
Pal Singh Purewal - Founder Nanakshahi Calendar
The Nanakshahi Calendar was adopted in 2003 and made life much easier for Sikhs as their holy days no longer move about the calendar from year to year. Gurpurbs (celebrations devoted to particular Gurus) now always happen on the same date, and occur once (and once only) in every year.

Features of the Nanakshahi Calendar:
  1. Uses Bikrami calendar Solar Calendar as Base
  2. Uses the accurate Tropical year (365 Days, 5 Hours, 48 Minutes, 45 Seconds) rather than the Sidereal year
  3. Year 1 is the Year of Guru Nanak's Birth (1469 C.E.). As an example, January 2018 CE is Nanakshahi 550.
  4. Is Based on Gurbani - Month Names are taken from Guru Granth Sahib
  5. First Month is Chet, as stated in Gurbani (Ex. Barah Maha Baani)
  6. Contains 5 Months of 31 days followed by 7 Months of 30 days
  7. Leap year every 4 Years in which the last month (Phagun) has an extra day

The months in the Nanakshahi Calendar are:

Sikh Festivals and Events

The dates for the following festivals and events are fixed in Nanakshahi Calendar:

The modified Nanakshahi Calendar didn't fix the date of all Sikh festivals. Those Sikh festivals that are celebrated commonly by Hindus and Sikhs, such as Diwali, Hola Mohalla, and Birthday of Guru Nanak still have their dates set by the Bikrami calendar. 

Movable dates for Sikh Festivals (These change every year in line with the Lunar Phase):

Adoption of Nanakshahi Calendar

A committee, under the aegis of the Institute of Sikh Studies Chandigarh, was formed to study this problem. This committee held meetings at Chandigarh and formulated proposals. These were formally accepted, in principle, in a larger meeting in which about 40 eminent scholars, from universities and other institutions, participated.
Akal Takht Jathedar releasing Nanakshahi Calender - March 2017
There seems to be no end to confusion within the Sikh community over observing days with religious importance despite adoption of Nanakshahi Calendar since 2003 to fix dates of Gurpurabs and other religious festivals.

Its founder Purewal believes that having a unique calendar is vital for the integrity of the Sikh religion. The arguments about the calendar were concerned not only with its accuracy but also the identity and status of Sikhism and the Sikh community within Hindu-majority India.

Traditional Sikhs opposed the change because it broke with the past, but Sikh diaspora supported it because it gave Sikhs their own calendar and emphasized their separate identity from Hindus. Sikh Organizations in India including Damdami Taksal, Sant Samaj, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) prefer to celebrate festivals on traditional Bikrami Calendar. Hindu organizations such as RSS also support this argument.
Traditionalist Sant Samaj support Bikrami Calendar
The Sikh diaspora including British Sikh Federation, American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (AGPC), Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC), Panthak Talmel Committee, SAD (Amritsar), and Dal Khalsa support the original Nanakshahi calendar based on solar system.

In the meantime, a common Sikh is left on his own to figure out the dates of Gurpurabs among confusions between Gurdwaraa and Sikh institutions ...

Comments

  1. I agree with Nanakshahi Calander as it gives a unique identity to Sikhs at the same time we avoid the duplicate celebrations of important dates falling at the change of the year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 99.9% of the world probably uses the Gregorian calendar. Did Purewal go back and figure out the corresponding dates in the Gregorian calendar for Gurpurabs, religious events, etc? It’s great having a Sikh Calendar but, first and foremost, we need to fix these dates according to the Gregorian calendar which is in use everywhere.

    Also, it’s intersting that Purewal uses Guru Nanak’s birth as year 1 while Banada Singh Bahadur dated a Hukamnama as Samvat 1; he started the calendar with the first year of Khalsa Raj.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Purewal scientifically calculated the dates and converted it to a solar calendar like the Gregarian. However there are practical problem with it as some of the festivals now come up on different day as compared to Hindus. For example Diwali, Holi and Guru Nanak Birthday. All three are widely celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs in India. It becomes a practical issue I Holidays if you work for government or a corporation. For businessmen it’s a problem too as they want to shut their business when everyone is.

      They reached a compromise with Purewal on fixing the months and most festivals but leaving the rest as per Bikram calendar. So confusing ....

      Delete
    2. First of all thanks for writing on a burning issue in Sikhism to make all aware of the difficulties faced by common sikh.But to most extent Purewal himself has to take blame of creating the confusion. The calander is not as important that we cannot run proceedings of the Panth without it.
      Issues with the calendar and the views that originate with it.

      1.It has made fixed dates for observing Sangrands even when change in constellations is not on that day i.e neither follows existing rules of India for observing Sankranti nor it’s according to the astronomical change in constellations.

      2.Started following English Calendar just to delink themselves from existing Calendar which he think is a Hindu calendar.

      3. Sikh Sanagat in rural Punjab has been visiting Gurdwaras on Sangrand, Amavasya and Poornima since the life time of all the Guru themselves. Considering sangat’s humble request , Guru's themselves recited prayers referencing these lunar days, months and even each day of the week. Now as the new urban Sikh population hardly visit Gurdwaras on these days in these English countries and have been misled by the new missionaries , they don't want to give importance to these days.

      4.Just as earlier they went to Pundit for Calendar calculation , now they will have to come to English Pundit to decide their own Calendar's date. Whenever a change is introduced in the Gregorian calendar , a change in Sikh calendar will also get introduced for which they will never be consulted by Christians just like Hindu pundit never used to do earlier.

      5. Insist on following Solar calendar but Christians themselves follow Easter according to Lunar days.

      6. Ready to add leap days and okay with deletion of 10 days in the Gregorian calendar but feels uncomfortable when interclay month is added in the existing Bikrami Calendar.

      7. Ready to accept the change in the length of the year if made by Englishmen to correct it's Gregorian calendar but feels uncomfortable if same kind of change is made by the Indian calendar makers to correct the calendar.

      8. Tried to change the dates of the first Guru's Nanak Birthday from the Katak to Vishak ie. from November to April but gave up on making the change considering the huge backlash he may receive from sikh population.

      Delete
  3. Well written and an informative post! I have a keen interest in this topic and have written several blogs on Hindu calender and zodiac sign, as well. You can check them at mPhanchang.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the post .. I will read your blogs on the link provided.

      Delete
  4. Pal Singh Purewal was accurate and his calculations if accepted in right earnest would have meant that the various gurupurabs would have been observed on the same day as it happened for the next 3300 years. Now the thorn in the flesh for Sikhs is BJP supported RSS who is in the habit of interfering in the affairs of all minorities. The badals have been a blot in the sikh chapter who for personal gains have always sided the BJP. Even when they were in full majority in the last tenure they did nothing for the community. So with the enemy within the Sikhs are on a porous ground Shame

    ReplyDelete
  5. do not dilute by fixing the date according to julian Tithis have great significant value

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honestly speaking, this is not a political issue or a Hindu-Sikh issue. The issue has emerged as we celebrate our festivals on the Bikrami calendar but live our life on Julian calendar. As our jobs, businesses, and school vacations are determined on the Julian calendar, its natural for people to ask for a single calendar where the dates are fixed. Pal Singh Purewal provided a well-researched Nanakshahi calendar to meet this need. Bu tits not perfect and causes conflict for Sikhs living in India where the festival like Diwali are celebrated by Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and jains.

      Delete
  6. Unknown July 30, 2018 at 6:03 AM you can not even write your name coward when did BJP interfered , minority concept is foreign to us if that so why there is highest number of PARSI in gujarat

    ReplyDelete
  7. Not sure about Purewal ji's intention but rationale of changing Calendar to fix the dates is not at all right.

    He tried to align Gurpurabs to Gregorian based dates than Bikrami dates, so just a shift from one system to another and only because majority of the world follows Gregorian?

    If Guru ji's followed Bikrami system, so were they Hindus? Simply rubbish arguments.

    No calendar system is 100% accurate because of days are in whole numbers and so every Calendar system need some adjustment.

    Why dont we say that as per Bikrami Guru Gobind Singh Ji's date is fixed as Poh Sudi 7th? Why we need to fix it as per Gregorian? Just not to fall in same year?
    We just need to provide easy calendar reading system for people to relate these dates and not to get confused.

    ReplyDelete
  8. We have solar calendars for administrative/business purposes and lunar calendars for religious calendars. Religions like chritianity, Islam, Hindus, Budhist all follow lunar calendar for their festvals like Easter, Good Friday, bakrid (all muslim festivals), All Hindu festivals, Budha Poornima etc. Since lunar months are 29/30 days and year of 354 days and solar months are 28/29/30/31 days and year if 365/366 days so the lunar dates and solar dates will always vary. No religion has experienced any difficulty. Purewal has only tried to confuse the issue and fixed wrong solar dates which means altering history.

    ReplyDelete

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