What's this Samvatsara :)

When I posted Indian New Year Message which went like "नवसंवत्सर मंगलमय हो", There came a reply O! Whats That ? Navsamvtsara ? Don't assume it was from an out lander, so here is what is Smavatsar i.e. संवत्सर.....

So obviously (or if not, then too) it is a means of calculating time like a Year, as we say in English. Samvatsara is a Sanskrit term for "year". The one about which we are talking is Vikram Samvatsar (विक्रम संवत्सर), By Vikram we mean Vikramaditya a great legendry king of Ujjain. You might have heard of Vikram Aur Betal (विक्रम और बेताल) and Singhasan Battisi (सिंहासन बत्तीसी). If you don't know about these serials running on Indian National TV channel no issues, I expect it in the days of Friends/ The big bang Theory/ Grey's Anatomy.Further that king, Vikramaditya defeated Shakas (शक) infiltrators and to commemorate this victory, he started this new year, the Samvatsar. Isn't it a subject of Indian pride, yes indeed it is. So this was 56 BCE....what !....Yes you read correctly it was 56 BCE. So this Samvatsar year is always ahead of christian year number by 57 years. Add 57 to any christian year and get the Vikram samvat.

Right now it is Christian year 2015, so 2015+57 = 2072, that's Samvatsar count.

Names of the Year

Now want to tell you more on the name of the samvatsar. Yes we do have years named. You see चाचा and ताऊ both are not uncle here, we have name for everything.

So there is another samvatsar.....hhmm....don't be so slothful...keep going. This new samvatsar is Gaurav Samvatsar (गुरोरिदं गौरवम्- means what is related to Guru (Jupiter) is known as Gaurav), Which is related to Jupiter in the following way. Jupiter remains in a Rashi (Zodiac) for a year i.e. it completes a rotation around Sun in 12 Years, spending 1 year in a Rashi. So the time duration of Jupiter remaining in a Rashi is known as Gaurav samvatsar.

There are 60 named Gaurav Samvatsaras, which after 60 years repeats themselves. This is something like Sexagenary cycle of Chinse The names are :

Samvatsaras
Number	Name (IAST)	Number	Name (IAST)
1.	Prabhava	31	Hemalambin
2.	Vibhava	32	Vilambin
3.	Śukla	33	Vikārin
4.	Pramodadūta	34	Śārvarin
5.	Prajāpati	35	Plava
6.	Āṅgīrasa	36	Śubhakṛt
7.	Śrīmukha	37	Śobhana
8.	Bhāva	38	Krodhin
9.	Yuva	39	Viśvāvasu
10	Dhātṛ	40	Parābhava
11	Īśvara	41	Plavaṅga
12	Bahudhānya	42	Kīlaka
13	Pramāthi	43	Saumya
14	Vikrama	44	Sādhāraṇa
15	Vṛṣa	45	Virodhakṛt
16	Chitrabhānu	46	Paridhāvin
17	Subhānu	47	Pramādin
18	Tāraṇa	48	Ānanda
19	Pārthiva	49	Rākṣasa
20	Vyaya	50	Nala/Anala
21	Sarvajit	51	Piṅgala
22	Sarvadhārin	52	Kālayukta
23	Virodhin	53	Siddhārthin
24	Vikṛti	54	Raudra
25	Khara	55	Durmati
26	Nandana	56	Dundubhi
27	Vijaya	57	Rudhirodgārin
28	Jaya	58	Raktākṣin
29	Manmatha	59	Krodhana/Manyu
30	Durmukha	60	Kṣaya

And now we have linked the Vikram samvatsar with a Gaurav Samvatsar name for it. Now comes the question how we name them. Here is how :

There is one shlok for calculate it in Bhartiya Kundli Vigyan a book written by Pt. Meethalal Himmatraam Ojha.

संवत्कालस्त्वङ्क्युतः कृत्वा शून्यरसैर्ह्रतः |

शेषः संवत्सरो ज्ञेयः प्रभवादिबुधैः क्रमात् ||

Not going through the Sanskrit part, it simply means that Add 9 (अङ्क) in Vikram Samvatsar year and divide it by 60 (शून्यरसै). Whatever is remained of this division add 1 to that and see from the table that number, that would be the name of that samvatsar.

So the formula becomes

Name of Samvatsar in the table above = ((VS+9) MOD 60)+1

*Where VS is Vikram Samvatsar number

Take current Vikram Samvatsar 2072 for example.

((2072+9) MOD 60) + 1 = 42

Now see the table above In front of number 42, the name Kīlaka (कीलक) is there. So the Vikram Samvatsar name is Kīlaka.

Now you got to know something ? We'll cover शून्यरसै: in some next post in detail, It is also very interesting.

PS : Don't give this Gyan to a South Indian Pandit :) They follow the Lunar values of samvatsar which is always 12 less then the Gaurav Samvatsar. So we have to subtract 13 from our formula and that would give us the Year name for South Indians.