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Hindu Festivals

By Kshitij Sharma, November 4, 2006

One of my fellow bloggers, Srinivas Shastri wanted to find out if there was a way to find out the day Dussehra occurred in 1916. This is essentially a problem of calendar conversion and a lot of research has gone into this. For quick reference to find it out, I use this website – http://web.meson.org/calendars/. I would love to include this information in my panchanga applet and birth chart generation applet. However, I do not have source code of such an algorithm. If any of you can help me understand the lisp code in this paper Indian Calendrical Calculations and convert it to Java, I would really appreciate it.

As mentioned in the post about the panchanga, tithi is essentially angular distance between the Moon and Sun modulus 180 divided by 15. In Shukla paksh, i.e. the bright half of the month, the distance increases from 0



9 comments

  • Comment by Sourav on November 21, 2007 at 7:58 am

    hi
    i have developped a similar application for mobile device, as u have requested, its true that the calculation is extremely complex…. if u are interested, please email me to: sourav@gmx.ch
    i’ll help u indevelopeing the source code…

    This script brings revolution in the Hindu Almanac calculation. this is one of the most complex and feature riched Almanac Calculation script based on highest precission ‘Visidhya Siddhanta’ mode of Calculation and it produce almost complete set of reports required to predict astronomical phenomenon, festival, Zodiac signs and other Astrological Info.
    Till now no such software is developed to produce such results for mobile devices.

    features include:
    Tithi – Calculates the current moon phase called tithi (including starting and ending times) and, on which most of the hindu festivals occur. also it calculates the future Full moon and new moon dates.
    Star – it calculates the star (called Naksatra) and its starting and ending times.
    other astrolocal aspects such as ‘Gan’, ‘Yoni’, ‘Nadi’ etc.
    it calculates the zodiac (Called Rashi) sign, starting time and ending time and moon’s transit time in zodiac.
    The currentposition of sun in zodiac sign and its transit times very accurately.
    Calculates the Bangla Calendar according to Visuddha Siddhanta method.
    Calculates the sun rise/set, moon rise/set and twlight times of any places. (u have to set latitude/longitude in sunset.mm module)
    Eclipse Details- The Script also calculates the very next Solar (Annular, Partial, Total) and Lunar (Total, Partial, Pneumbral) Eclipses and times of its various phenomenon according to time zone specified.
    the script is fully compitable with mShell 2.01 version and runs on any s60/UIQ device. However, as the script contains thousands of lines of code, it may run slower in some older devices (such as Nokia 3230)..

    sample output:

    ——–Input—————–
    Date (17.11.2007): 21.09.2007
    Time (21.19): 21.19
    location: Contai
    long: (87 44)
    lat: (21 46)
    time zone: UTC+5h 30m
    ———–end of input———-

    ========Start of Report=======
    Friday

    —- Current Moon Phase —-

    Tithi: Dashami (Shukla)
    starts: 21/9/2007 11:43:44am
    ends: 22/9/2007 11:44:58am
    ——————————

    —Next Purnima (Full Moon)–

    starts: 26/9/2007 4:27:9am
    ends: 27/9/2007 1:14:52am
    ——————————

    -Next Amabasya (New Moon)

    starts: 10/10/2007 8:16:32am
    ends: 11/10/2007 10:30:21am
    ——————————

    —Other Astrological Info—-

    Naskhatra: Uttarasadha
    Starts: 21/9/2007 8:35:5pm
    Ends: 22/9/2007 8:58:40pm

    Gan: Manushya
    Yoni: Nukula
    Nadi: Antya
    Dasha: Rabi
    Lagna: Brisa

    Rashi: Dhanu
    Starts: 19/9/2007 5:35:17pm
    Ends: 22/9/2007 2:45:21am

    Next, Moon will enter in Makar Rashi

    Sun in Kanya Rashi
    Sun in Ashwin Month
    Enters: 17/9/2007 11:11:51am
    Exits: 17/10/2007 11:8:1pm

    Next, Sun will enter in Tula Rashi and in Kartik Month
    ——————————–

    —–Bangla Calendar——–

    Shukrabar, 4 Ashwin
    1414 Bangabda

    —–Recent Festivals——-

    Durga Puja (Saptami) on
    18/10/2007

    Durga Puja (Astami) on
    19/10/2007

    Durga Puja (Nabami) on
    20/10/2007

    Durga Puja (Dashami) on
    21/10/2007

    Kojagori Laxmi Puja on
    25/10/2007

    Kali Puja / Dipawali on
    9/11/2007

    Jagaddhatri Puja on
    19/11/2007

    Kartik / Itu Puja on
    16/11/2007

    ——————————–

    Current Day—Rise—–Set—
    Moon: 1:42pm ——-
    Sun: 5:28am 5:37pm
    Twilight: 5:5am 5:59pm

    ———Next Eclipse——–

    Annular Solar Eclipse
    on: 7/2/2008

    Magnitude: 1.049

    Moon Position: Ascending node, below the Earth-Sun Axis

    Eclipse Begins:
    7:5:45am

    Central Eclipse Begins:
    8:48:28am

    Max Eclipse:
    9:25:31am

    Central Eclipse Ends:
    10:2:34am

    Eclipse Ends:
    11:45:17am

    ========End of Report=======

  • Comment by Sourav on November 21, 2007 at 8:01 am

    i forgot to say, the above program also calculate almost all imdian festival dates also..

  • Comment by Neeru Khanna on July 21, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    Hi Sourav
    I have been searching desperately for a moon phase calculator for my mobile phone.Kindly help.
    Thank You
    Neeru Khanna

  • Comment by deepshika salian on October 11, 2008 at 11:39 am

    pls provide with th detailed method and pachali of kojagari lakshmi puja

  • Comment by sunil on February 24, 2009 at 12:05 am

    Dear Kshitij/Saurav
    I would love to learn a simple method of calculating (manually) the tithi and paksha, the hindu month and the position of the moon/sun/both for any given date. I have seen many people do this and have been fascinated by them. I have a strong foundation in Maths, good working knowledge of astronomy. I would like to be able to compute these things directly without resorting to any computing devices.

    Can you be of help ??? If you can, you might be pleasantly surprised…

  • Comment by Vineeta Maheshwar on September 15, 2009 at 5:24 pm

    When did the following astronomical combination occur? Saturday on SHRAVAN SHUKLA SAPTAMI

  • Comment by Uttam Singha on June 9, 2010 at 7:22 am

    -:Dussehra occurred in 1916:-
    Gregorian: 6 October 1916, Friday | Bengal: 20 Ashwin 1323 San |Padmonava Month, 1838 Sakabda /1973 Vikram Sambot |Bangladesh: 21 Ashwin 1323 San |Indian Civil: 14 Asvina 1838 Saka|Sukla Paksha |Tithi: Dashami |Nakshtara: Shravana|Karan: Taitila |Yog: Sukarma

    Dussehra observed on Asvina (Lunar Month) Sukla Dasami

  • Comment by Uttam Singha on June 9, 2010 at 8:13 am

    For Vineeta Maheshwar:
    Saturday on SHRAVAN SHUKLA SAPTAMI Will occur:

    Saka 1933 Vikrama 2068 | AD 2011 August 6, Saturday| Bengal: 20 Shravan 1418 San |21 Sreedhar Month| Bangladesh: 22 Sharaban 1418 San | Indian Civil: 15 Sravana 1933 | Sukla Paksha |Tithi: Saptami | Nakshtra Swati|Karan: Vanij | Yog: Suvana

  • Comment by sourav chatterjee on June 26, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    Hi my Birth time and date is given there (19/02/1981) Birth Time is 1.42 pm Noon. Thursday . So tell me my Astor logical sighn and its nature according my Birth Death or Zodiac sign please. I birth Place at Central Calcutta.

    All the information is true from my side .

The comments are closed.