Assam adds ‘Bhaskarabda’ as Official Assam Calendar

• The Assam government has decided to include 'Bhaskarabda' in addition to 'Saka' and 'Gregorian' in the official calendar.
• The local calendar begins with the ascension of Bhaskaravarman, the 7th-century ruler of Kamrup.
• Bhaskarabda began with the coronation of Bhaskaravarman as ruler of the Kamrupa kingdom. He was a contemporary and political ally of Harshavardhana, the ruler of northern India.
• Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which begins at midnight and finishes at sunrise throughout a 24-hour period, the Assamese calendar begins and ends at sunrise.
• The Saka and Bhaskarabda use a lunisolar system based on both the phases of the moon and the solar year, whereas the Gregorian uses the solar cycle.
• The time difference between Bhaskarabda and Gregorian is 593 years.

Important Facts 

About Gregorian calendar 

• The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world. Pope Gregory XIII introduced it in October 1582 as a minor modification to the Julian calendar, reducing the average year from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days and adjusting for the drift in the 'tropical' or'solar' year caused by the inaccuracy over the centuries.