Marathi Calendar (Marathi Panchang)

The Shaka era — the calendar formally adopted by the Government of India as the Indian National Calendar on 22 March 1957 — has its mythological seat in Maharashtra. According to the Kalakacharya Kathanaka, the era was inaugurated in 78 CE at Pratishthana (Paithan), and historian D. C. Sircar argues that the era’s origin is better understood as commemorating the victory of the Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni over the Western Kshatrapa (Shaka) kings.

In contrast to Gujarat and Rajasthan, where Vikram Samvat (epoch 57 BCE) dominates almost every ritual document, Maharashtra runs on a dual track: Shaka Samvat is the religious and astronomical calendar — used for tithi tables, ayanamsha calculations, marriage muhurta-finding, and all temple panchanga work. Vikram Samvat appears in literary, devotional, and some accounting contexts, and is widely understood by Marathi householders even when the daily panchang is in Shaka.

A structural difference matters when reading old Marathi texts: Chaitra is the first month in Shaka Samvat but the last month in Vikram Samvat, and Shaka months begin with Shukla Paksha (new-moon → full-moon) while Vikram months begin with Krishna Paksha. Marathi panchang follows the Shaka / Amanta convention — months change on the new moon.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920), the Pune-based polymath who edited Kesari (founded 1881), worked extensively on calendrical reform and astronomical chronology — including arguments in Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas (1893) and The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903) that the Vedic vernal equinox once stood in Orion, placing portions of the Rig Veda c. 4500 BCE.