Chinese Calendar and Vedas

In this article I would be discussing how the Chinese luni-solar calendar is related to the Vedic inputs. Just as Diwali is celebrated in India as a major festival, Spring Festival is celebrated in China that marks the beginning of Chinese New Year and spring season.

Since the calendar they follow comprises lunar months, there has to be an intercalary month (the adhik masa) to align it to the solar year and turn it into a luni-solar year. Chinese tradition exactly does that and tracks the tropical solar year around winter solstice.

They follow amanta months i.e. Shukla Pratipada is the start of a lunar month. The lunar month that falls at the winter solstice is the 11th month of the year and the spring festival, the Chinese New Year, commences at the end of the twelfth month.

An intercalary month, the adhik masa, is inserted whenever there is an additional lunar month within a tropical solar year, reckoned from the 11th month, i.e. referring to the winter solstice.

Comparatively, let us see what the relevant Kaushitaki Brhamana verses suggest, the right interpretation of which is available in detail in the book ‘Resolving the Indian Calendar Anomalies’.

The said verses from the Rigveda shakha also suggest following the lunar month at winter solstice but since it is recommended there that the consecration should begin from the end of the Chaitra month, it means it treats the lunar month at the winter solstice as the tenth month from the consecration point of view, and not eleventh. However, the way it is written there and the exact moment of winter solstice is specified, anyone can mistakenly consider it the eleventh month.

Interestingly, adhik masa (the 13th month) in the early traditions of China was also inserted the way it is prescribed in the Kaushitaki Brhaman, which later was changed and they started following solar terms, i.e. the tropical solar rashi ingress.

Can we say that the Chinese people took a cue from the Vedas?

Well, I would not like to fall into this, although the timing when the Chinese New Year tradition began and about which the said Rigveda Brahaman describe can be correlated easily. But yes, I would like to make two comments:

1. The way Vedas prescribe about following the seasons and inserting adhik masa is not just based on the tropical setup, although it appears so.

2. Be it anywhere in the world, if people wanted to follow lunar months and seasons together, basic observational astronomy would have led anybody to understand the importance of adhik masa, the thirteenth month, in a lunar calendar and referring to solstices. Therefore, it could even be a coincidence that the Chinese Calendar is somewhat like the Vaidic guidelines.

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