Ashtami Rohini Day in Kerala

 മലയാളി സുഹൃത്തുക്കൾക്ക് അഷ്ടമി രോഹിണി ആശംസകൾ !!

Ashtami Rohini wishes !!

In Kerala Ashtami Rohini day is celebrated as the Jayanti (birthday) of Krishna. In most of the year it comes at a different day than the Janmashtami celebrated in the northern states of India. Most people in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh celebrate Sri Krishna Jayanthi on September 10, however in the northern states of India, Janmashtami was celebrated on August 11 this year.

Ashtami Rohini in Kerala is calculated by first fixing the day of the Rohini Nakshatra in the solar month Chingam,  of the Malayalam calander,  coinciding with a lunar Tithi of Krishna Paksha Ashtami.

Malayalam calender (Kolla varsham) starting with the month Chingam is a solar calander. Year 2020 CE is recorded in this calender as Malayalam Era (ME) 1195-1196. The month of September is spanned by the halves of Chingam (Simha) and Kanni (Kanya) months of this calender.

Janmashtami celebrated in northern Indian states is based on the luni solar Shalivahana Shaka Calander.  Year 2020 is 1941-1942 in this  Shaka Calendar. Srikrishna Jayanti was celebrated on August 11 by fixing the start of the lunar tithi Ashtami in the month of Sravana in this calendar. This calendar starts with the Chaitra month by around March 22. August is spanned by its Sravana and Bhadra months and September is spanned by Bhadra and Ashvina. 

The adhimasa (extra months) in the luni-solar calenders also affect the festival dates which can shift it by a month. These shifts can affect other festivals like the Mahalaya Amavasya and Navaratri, Vinayaka Chaturthi,  Shivaratri and so on. 

During the time of the Pandavas and Krishna, one revolution of Moon was aproximated as 29 days, since the Moon transits through the nakshatras in the sky of Earth in around 29 days. Hence a lunar calander contains 29 x 12 = 348. Sky was divided into 12 divisions (later known as tge rashis in jyotisha) and the sun takes 30 days to cross one division as seen in the earthen sky. Hence they calculated a solar calander to be 30 x 12 = 360 days. After 5 years,  the gap between lunar and solar calendar becomes 60 days and then two adhimasas of 30 days are added to the lunar calendar on the fifth year. This has confused Duryodhana in properly counting the 12 years forest life and 1 year incognito of the Pandavas, but he was corrected by Bhishma. 

The extra 5.25.. days of a year (making it 365.25... ) was also known to our ancient generations. One of the reason for the origin of the concept of Yugas and its subseqent increase from 5 to 20,  40, 60,  120, 1200, 12000 to 4320000 was to account for this fraction or the residues in the calculation of a year.

The modern adapted Shaka calendar as the national calendar,  is an adaptation of this ancient  lunisolar calendar and the various other traditional calanders that were active in the last two millenia.

The differents in the day when each festivals are celebrated in the different regions of Bharata adds richness to the cultural diversiry of our Samskrti.