1.ThothFebruary.
2.PaophiMarch.
3.AthyrApril.
4.ChoiacMay.
5.TybiJune.
6.MechirJuly.
7.PhamenothAugust.
8.PharmuthiSeptember.
9.PachonOctober.
10.PayniNovember.
11.EpiphiDecember.
12.MesoriJanuary.

Each month contained thirty days, and there were five days at the end of the year which they called the Epagomene. The year began at noon on the first of Thoth.

Another Epoch used by Ptolemy, and frequently referred to by the Greeks, is that of Calippus. The Calippic Period was invented by the man whose name it bears and dates to the year 330 B.C. It is a period of 76 years, which is four times 19, and was designed to bring the new and full moons to the same date of the solar year.

The Olympiads were in use among the Greeks, and began in the year 776 B.C., on the 1st July (O.S.). Each Olympiad consists of four years, and in marking a date the number of the Olympiad and the year of that Olympiad are given. Thus the first of Calippus would fall in the third year of the 112th Olympiad. The astronomical years equivalent to these are, for the Olympiads 775 B.C., and for the Calippic Period 329 B.C.

The Kali Yuga is an Indian Epoch which began at the New Moon of February 3102 B.C.—Feb. 5th. The Epoch of Salivahana in use among the Dravidians of India is the year A.D. 78.

The Chinese Cycle of years began in the year 2696 B.C. (astronomical), at the New Moon of February, the Sun being then half-way between the Solstice and the Equinox.

But even when we have the Epochs equalized there are difficulties depending from this determination of Epoch. This is particularly the case with the Indian calendarics. They have in India a solar year divided into solar months, and a lunar year which is divided into lunar months. Thus the first of Mesham is that point of time when the Sun enters the first point of the constellation Mesham. This is about the 12th April. But the first of As’wini is the day of New Moon in the constellation As’wini, and this, of course, is a variable date, depending on the position of the New Moon in relation to the first point of Mesham.

But whatever may be the date given in terms of the Indian Calendar, before we can apply it we have to know in what relations our zodiac stand to theirs. They have a fixed point from which they make their calculations. This is Zeta Piscium, which marks the beginning of the constellations, and it corresponds with the first of Mesham, or the Sun’s ingress to the constellation Aries. We, on the other hand, count from the Vernal Equinox, the point at which the Sun crosses the Equator in the spring. This point, in relation to the fixed constellations, is continually shifting westward at the rate of about 50´´ per year, and this is what is known as the precession of the Equinoxes.

The point we have to make is the relation of the Equinox to the first point of Mesham. The difference is what is called Ayanámsha. The difficulty in the matter of calculation has been—(a) the exact rate of precession during past centuries, which has only been determined in comparatively recent years, and (b) the unsatisfactory condition of Indian astronomical data. But these latter, with the advance of more exact methods in modern centres of Indian learning, have been considerably improved, and it is now justifiably possible to attempt an equalization of the two astronomical Epochs.

Very much depends on this, for it is quite impossible to study the Indian astrological literature without being able to refer their quantities to terms of our modern Western ephemerides or astronomical tables. When, for instance, the Indian books say that a certain yoga or conjunctions of planets in Kumbha means a particular thing, or has a particular signification, they mean the constellation Aquarius, and it will depend on the relations of this constellation to our corresponding sign Aquarius, as to what we are to understand. Also in the determination of the various periods depending on the Moon’s longitude at an Epoch, such as that of birth, we have to convert the Moon’s longitude into terms of our zodiac before we can apply their interpretations, or synchronize the periods with our own calendar. I have therefore agitated for a long time past for a thorough examination of the matter, and in despair of collaboration in other directions I applied to Dr. V. V. Ramanan of Madras, one of the most distinguished pandits of Southern India, and found in him a most useful and able exponent of ancient Indian learning.