![]() “Astronomy the first of all sciences,” Saha wrote in India’s Calendar Confusions, a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in June 1953. Saha realised at once the enormity of the task at hand: To untangle the Gordian Knot of different Indian calendars was - both literally and figuratively - an astronomical challenge. ![]() To bring uniformity and accuracy to time-reckoning, in 1952, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research constituted a calendar reform committee under astrophysicist Meghnad Saha. This led to the state of calendars in India to become confused. Thanks to India’s tryst with the British, however, the Gregorian calendar retained primacy, despite being an unscientific instrument that is not completely in sync with the solar year. These almanacs were uniquely crafted for each locality, and there were about 30 of them. While Muslims followed the Hijri calendar for observing Islamic festivals, the majority of the country’s Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains followed a Hindu calendar, or panchangam. ![]()
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