Pancanga (version 3.14)
--- Perl version --- March, 2014: by M. YANO and M. FUSHIMI
You can download the source script pancanga3.14 written in Perl language at
the
pancanga directory of Yano's ftp server (pancanga3.13a is a slightly
improved last version).
(We have fixed a bag on the Julian date of the leap year
between 1584 and 1752.)
(We have fixed a bag on the SaMkrAnti)
(We have deleted the position of the five planets so that we do not
give misunderstandings)
This program offers a traditional Indian calendar based mainly on
the Suuryasiddhaanta.
The Suuryasiddhaanta has a long history.
The `original' version is quoted in Varaahamihira's Pancasiddhaantikaa
in the mid-6th century. (See Neugebaur-Pingree's translation, Kopenhagen 1970.)
The so-called `modern' Suuryasiddhaanta was most popular and influential all over
India after about the 10th century. This text, together with the English translation
by E. Burgess in 1860 (Journal of the American Oriental Society), has been a good
starting point for the students of Indian astronomy. The astronomical constants
in the two texts are slightly different. The default set is those of the so-called
`modern Suuryasiddhaanta'. You can choose a set of the old constants used
in the Pancaiddhaantikaa as an option.
For the time after AD 1000, the default set will fit better.
In traditional Indian calendar civil days in a half month are named by
the current tithi at sunrise. We have given the fraction of tithi
at sunrise in the verbose menu so that we can guess the possibility of
different dates.
The default time of this program is set to the local time in
Ujjain, the ancient center of astronomy, which played the role of Greenwich
in the history of Indian calendar. The latitude of Ujjian is 23.2 degrees
north and its longitude is 75.8 degrees east from Greenwich.
In order to get the sunrise time of any intended locality, you need the
latitude and longitude of the place. The difference in latitude can not
be neglected, especially near the two solstices. The local latitude can be
entered with the optional menu L in the first setting mode.
The difference in longitude can slightly affect the time of conjunction
and thus it can be one of the causes of one day difference of the date.
From this version we added the option O , where the geographical longitude
can be entered. Since, however, we do not know to what extent the longitudinal
difference of the places (dezaantara) was taken into account in ancient
calendar, we can proceed with the default longitude.
In this version we offer the following three menus.
T: to find the modern date from the given Indian date.
You can choose Saka samvat or Vikrama samvat. Sometimes you should take
care whether a given year is expired (atiita) or current (vartamaana).
Expired years are more common. Note that in the Indian Calendar
Sewell-Dikshit used current years.
You should also take care whether the naming system is amaanta or
puurNimaanta (see below).
The result of this menu is not always correct.
(Sometimes difference is one month because of the occurrence of adhimaasa
(intercalary month) and, very rarely, kSayamaasa (omitted month). Thus
the date can be shifted forward or backward by one month depending on the
constant numbers which were used by calendar makers. You should confirm the
result of this menu by the next menu L.
L:
to find the Indian date (in amaanta) from the given modern date in
a tabular form. The result is considerably reliable:
the occurrences of intercalary months almost always agree with those listed
in Sewell-Dikshit's Indian Calendar;
only the difference of 1 day (or tithi) is to be admitted because of the
different distribution of kSayadina (`omitted day') and/or adhidina
(`additional day').
V: to get the further items of the pancanga (`five elements') day by day.
We have added the date in the traditional solar calendar. There are
regional varieties concerning the beginning of a solar month. Our
method is this: When a saMkraanti (sun's entry in a new nirayaNa zodiacal
sign) takes place before the midnight of a day, the first day of the
solar month is on that day. When it takes place after the midnight, the
first day of the solar month falls on the next day.
For the sake of convenience we have shown the date and time of saMkraanti.
The ayanaamsa (difference of nir-ayaNa longitude and sa-ayana longitude
due to the precession of equinoxes) is shown in this menu.
According to the Suuryasiddhaanta the rate of precession is 54 seconds
per year and the difference of the two longitudes was zero in A.D. 499.
The modern value is about 50.29 seconds per year.
This means that the ayanaamsa of this program is slightly different from
that computed by the modern method.
We are not always consistent in Romanizing Sanskrit words.
The Sanskrit names of Jovian year, yoga and karaNa are expressed in the
Kyoto-Harvard transliteration system for network communication.
Those who are not familiar with this sytem is adviced to see the table of the
Kyoto-Harvard System.
NOTICE:
Remember that there are two different systems of naming the month, i.e.
amaanta (`new moon ending') and puurNimaanta (`full moon ending').
In the bright half month (zukla-pakSa) nothing is different, but in
the dark half month (kRSNa-pakSa), the puurNimanta month name is ahead
of the amaanta month name by one.
In this program the beginning of the Indian year is set for
Caitra month zukla-pakSa 1.
One can use this program for the B.C. years with negative numbers,
for example, -57 = B.C. 58. But do not forget that the text on which
this program is based belongs to the time after about A.D. 500.
From this version we have added the Julian date for the period
from October 15, 1582 to September 13, 1752 in the menus list and
verbose.
The copyright of this program belongs to the two authors. One can
use this for the purpose of dating manuscripts, inscriptions etc.
easily with a certain degrees of reliability. But we are not
responsibile for any incovenience which might be caused by using
this program.
Suggestions for improvements are welcome.
If you have any questions, please contact:
M.YANO (for Indian astronomy): yanom_at_cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp
M.FUSHIMI (for programming): fushimi_at_fas.harvard.edu
This version was made possible by the Grant in Aid of the
Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of the
Japanese Government.