மிதிலா நாட்காட்டி (மைதிலி பஞ்சாங்கம்)

The Mithila Panchang tradition is one of the oldest continuously transmitted calendrical systems in South Asia, rooted in the literary and astronomical culture of medieval Mithila — straddling north Bihar (Darbhanga, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Saharsa) and the Janakpur-Mithila plains of southern Nepal. Unlike many Indian regional panchangs that converge on either the Vikram or Shaka era, the Mithila tradition retains a distinct era of its own: the Lakshmana Era (also called Lakshmana Sena Samvat or La Sam), established around 1118–1119 CE in honour of Lakshmana Sena, the Sena dynasty ruler of eastern India.

Most events in medieval Mithila were dated using this era, which saw extensive application throughout medieval Bengal and Bihar for roughly 400 years. For 2026 CE the corresponding Lakshmana Era year falls around 908 LE. Scholars reconstructed the era’s start date primarily from Maithili and Bengali manuscripts plus copper-plate inscriptions, cross-referenced against Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama. The towering figure of the medieval Maithili calendar tradition is Vidyapati (c. 1352–1448 CE), whose dated colophons cite both the Lakshmana Era and the Shaka Era simultaneously — giving modern scholars one of the few solid anchors for dating medieval Mithila manuscripts.

Beneath the era system, the Maithili calendar proper follows the Tirhuta tradition — a tropical solar Hindu calendar in which the year begins on Mesh Sankranti (mid-April), the day the Sun enters sidereal Aries. The twelve months — Baishakh, Jyeshtha, Asharha, Shrabana, Bhadra, Ashvina, Kartika, Margashirsha, Pausha, Magha, Falguna, Chaitra — are grouped into six seasons. By tradition, panchang authors in Mithila compute longitudes for Sitamarhi (the latitude/longitude reference Maithili almanac publishers — including the Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University almanac — have used for generations).

The Sarvatobhadra Chakra is the predictive instrument most closely associated with Maithil jyotish. It is a 9×9 grid of 81 cells integrating 28 nakshatras (including Abhijit), 12 rashis, 30 tithis from both pakshas, 7 weekdays and 50 Sanskrit aksharas. Because Abhijit nakshatra figures in it — a feature now absent from most predictive techniques — the chakra is considered an ancient transmission preserved through regional jyotish lineages. Source: Brahmayamala Tantra. Madhubani astrologers continue to draw the chakra by hand on aripan-style grids during important muhurta selections.

The Mithila calendar traces its roots to the Vedic period. Mithilanchal – also known as the Videha Kingdom – was the realm of King Janak described in the Upanishads, renowned for philosophical discourse and Vedantic wisdom. Sages like Yajnavalkya, Gargi, and Maitreyi hailed from this region. This intellectual tradition endowed the Mithila Panchang with particular rigour and classical purity. Mithila's astronomers relied on classical treatises such as the Surya Siddhanta and Siddhanta Shiromani for their panchang computations, maintaining an unbroken tradition of astronomical observation in the region.

A distinctive feature of the Mithila Panchang is its unwavering retention of the Purnimant system. While Gujarat and Maharashtra adopted the Amant system and Bengal and Tamil Nadu reformed their calendars into solar systems, Mithila preserved the classical lunisolar framework. The panchang computes tithi (lunar day), nakshatra (lunar mansion), yoga (Sun-Moon angular relationship), karana (half-tithi), and vara (weekday) for each day – these five elements (panch-anga) give the almanac its name. Mithila's pandits traditionally prepared handwritten panchangs (patra/patri), and even today many families rely on printed patris alongside digital tools for determining auspicious timings for weddings, Upanayana, and other samskaras.

The marriage tradition of Mithilanchal is entirely dependent on the panchang. The "Paini" (Panji Prabandh) system – a genealogical record dating from the 14th century – determines marriage eligibility, and the muhurta is derived from the panchang. This system is one of the oldest social record-keeping systems in the world, predating European parish registers by centuries. Madhubani painting, which is inseparable from the calendar cycle, received its GI (Geographical Indication) tag in 2003 and has gained international recognition through exhibitions at the Smithsonian, the British Museum, and museums across Europe and Japan.

The Mithila calendar and culture are inseparable from Sita (Janaki). According to the Ramayana, Sita was the daughter of King Janak of Mithila, and her marriage to Prince Rama of Ayodhya took place at Janakpur – an event commemorated annually on Vivah Panchami (Margashirsha Shukla Panchami). Sita Navami (Vaishakh Shukla Navami) celebrates Sita's appearance day – a festival observed almost exclusively in Mithila. The grand Janaki Temple at Janakpur (Nepal) is a living symbol of this connection. Mithila's identity as Sita's homeland gives the region a unique place in Hindu cultural geography and infuses the calendar with festivals and observances that foreground feminine divinity.