fbpx
  • Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • Opinions
  • Features
  • Letters
  • Videos
  • Editorials
  • Columns
Nisha-Ramracha

This Navraatri and Ram Navami Hindus celebrate 5000 years of Civilization on the Saptarishi Samvat Calendar

April 11, 2022
Kamla Persad Bissessar

IDC CONGRATULATES HON. KAMLA PERSAD BISSESSAR ON TRINIDAD & TOBAGO ELECTIONS VICTORY

May 4, 2025
Dool Hanomansingh

Pakistan has always been a puppet nation

May 3, 2025
Dool Hanomansingh

Never too late for Dinesh to redeem himself!

May 3, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Guyana must seek USA Protection against Venezuela Threat

May 2, 2025
Albert Baldeo

ADRIANNA YOUNGE’S DEATH MANDATES COMPETENT INVESTIGATION & PROSECUTION

May 2, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Condemn Violent Protests in Guyana & Ethnic Attacks: President Ali Praised for agreeing to family’s demands

May 2, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

In Support of Guyana President in Condemning India Terror Attack

May 2, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Brief Profile of Dr. Vishnu Bisram of Guyana

May 2, 2025
UNC Sweeps to Power in Trinidad and Tobago Elections

UNC Sweeps to Power in Trinidad and Tobago Elections

May 1, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Not all rights are expressly stated in a constitution

April 27, 2025
INDO-CARIBBEAN FEDERATION TRIBUTE TO AUNTY EVELYN MORGAN.

INDO-CARIBBEAN FEDERATION TRIBUTE TO AUNTY EVELYN MORGAN.

April 27, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Up for grabs as Nine Marginal seats to decide Government in Trinidad & Tobago

April 27, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and Condition
Friday, May 9, 2025
  • Login
Indo Caribbean Diaspora News
  • Home
  • Columns
    Kamla Persad Bissessar

    IDC CONGRATULATES HON. KAMLA PERSAD BISSESSAR ON TRINIDAD & TOBAGO ELECTIONS VICTORY

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Guyana must seek USA Protection against Venezuela Threat

    Albert Baldeo

    ADRIANNA YOUNGE’S DEATH MANDATES COMPETENT INVESTIGATION & PROSECUTION

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Condemn Violent Protests in Guyana & Ethnic Attacks: President Ali Praised for agreeing to family’s demands

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    In Support of Guyana President in Condemning India Terror Attack

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Brief Profile of Dr. Vishnu Bisram of Guyana

    UNC Sweeps to Power in Trinidad and Tobago Elections

    UNC Sweeps to Power in Trinidad and Tobago Elections

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Not all rights are expressly stated in a constitution

    INDO-CARIBBEAN FEDERATION TRIBUTE TO AUNTY EVELYN MORGAN.

    INDO-CARIBBEAN FEDERATION TRIBUTE TO AUNTY EVELYN MORGAN.

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Up for grabs as Nine Marginal seats to decide Government in Trinidad & Tobago

  • Letters
    Guyana Rohee’s mocking of Illegal Guyanese & Green Card Holders in America

    Guyana Rohee’s mocking of Illegal Guyanese & Green Card Holders in America

    Charles Sugrim

    Authenticating Dr Bisram’s Poll in Guyana

    Gary Griffith

    United We Stand, Divided We Fall

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Democrats More Dangerous to Dragon Gas than Republicans

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Who Really Lost in the Junior Sammy Matter in Trinidad?

    Jai Lall

    A challenge to become the rainbow in Leonora’s cloud

    Rabindra-Moonan

    The opposition UNC led by Kamla Persad Bissessar has gone into meltdown mode.

    Jai Lall

    Residents of Leonora, Guyana are ashamed and embarrassed

    Kamla Persad Bissessar

    Trinidad & Tobago REPUBLIC DAY MESSAGE 2024 OF LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Crime has reached a high level in Trinidad and Tobago

  • Community News
    Indian-Caribbeans Observe Hanuman Birth Anniversary

    Indian-Caribbeans Observe Hanuman Birth Anniversary

    Ram Navami 2023 Observed

    Indo Caribbean Americans Observed 2025 Ram Naumi or Navami

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Gowtam Maharaj: “Phagwa is much more than gulal and abeer; it is building family love and strong communities.”

    Queens Boro President hosts 2025 Holi (Phagwah) Celebration

    Queens Boro President hosts 2025 Holi (Phagwah) Celebration

    Indian-Caribbean Americans in 2025 Phagwah (Holi) Spirit

    Indian-Caribbean Americans in 2025 Phagwah (Holi) Spirit

    Indo-Caribbeans Spellbound by the Maha Kumbh in India

    Indo-Caribbeans Spellbound by the Maha Kumbh in India

    Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers Observe Shivratri

    Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers Observe Shivratri

    Caribbean Airlines

    Caribbean Airlines Supports ECO Canada’s Day 2 Global Tourism Resilience Day Conference February 17-19, 2025 | Hanover, Jamaica

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Amarjyoth Sabha launches music class for youths

    Swami Sarvalokananda of Delhi

    Swami Sarvalokananda of Delhi, India visited Trinidad and Guyana

  • Editorials
    cliff-rajkumar

    VANISHING FOOTPRINTS

    Kamla Persad Bissessar

    Trinidad and Tobago OPPOSITION LEADER addresses TOWN HALL MEETING ON EDUCATION IN SAN FERNANDO WEST

    Jai Lall

    Guyana Leonora’s villagers are inseparable

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Indo-Caribbean to speak on India’s Soft Power in Delhi

    Jai Lall

    Empty vessels make the most noise – politics in Guyana

    Ashook-Ramsaran

    In Commemoration of the 23rd Anniversary

    Kamla Persad Bissessar

    Hope for UNC of Trinidad?

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Is there No Other Musical Instrument Indigenous to T&T?

    Guyana-map

    October 2024 Hindu Conference bring back memories of Humiliation of Indians in Guyana

    Jai Lall

    Is Kamala Harris the “Trump” card for the Democrats?

  • Opinions
    Dool Hanomansingh

    Pakistan has always been a puppet nation

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Never too late for Dinesh to redeem himself!

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Bhadase and Sat were successful in so many ways

    Dool Hanomansingh

    The UNC is a Bullet Train Today

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Why is the EU Grant for Ex-Cane Farmers Not Paid?

    Dool Hanomansingh

    PNM hates Poor Black People

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Why whites are fleeing South Africa?

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Crime and the Hindu Community

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Guyana January 2025 poll puts PPP in lead against a struggling opposition with opportunity for new parties

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Citizens must dictate how their tax dollars are spent

  • Videos
    Dool-Hanomansingh-003

    US Congress woman Tulsi Gabbard condemns the ongoing genocide of Hindus and other minorities

    Geeta-Vaahini

    Geeta Vaahini, President of the  Hindu Prachaar Kendra speaks on the social significance of Ganga Dhara Festival.

    Geeta-Vaahini

    Geeta Vaahini, President of the Hindu Prachaar Kendra speaks on the Hindu view of the environment.

    swami-brahmadeo

    Swami Brahmadeo – Hindus are top CEOs and Medics in North America and Europe

    Gowtam-Maharaj

    Gowtam Maharaj, a farmer of Barrackpore, South Trinidad, shares his challenges being a farmer.

    BAMBOO #1 Flooding – Frustrated Residents

    BAMBOO #1 Flooding – Frustrated Residents

    NATIONAL-LOTUS-THEATRE

    NATIONAL LOTUS THEATRE – Performance of Niyantran

    radica-jairam

    Story of RADICA JAIRAM from Orange Valley

    fisherman-trinidad

    Families of Orange Valley felt neglected by PNM Government

    Dr Subramanian Swamy

    Dr Subramanian Swamy – Dharma Rising London April 2015

  • Features
    ravi-ratiram

    Trinidad MP Ravi Ratiram Condemns Government’s Failures Amidst Rising Crime in Central Trinidad and Calls for Immediate Action to Protect Citizens

    Pandit Ramdular Singh

    Pandit Ramdular Singh on Guyana’s Dharmic Sabha

    Vassan Ramracha

    PNM bent on Africanizing Trinidad

    Baldeo_Chanderpaul-3

    West Indian cricketers must strive to emulate Shiv Chanderpaul of Guyana

    Jai Lall

    Who in Guyana will ever buy the PNC/AFC/APNU “honesty, integrity and decency” pitch again?

    cliff-rajkumar

    Non Indians Embracing Sanathan Dharma

    Mr. Rudranath Indarsingh

    INDARSINGH ON RELOCATION OF PRINCES TOWN FIRE OFFICERS

    Vassan Ramracha

    TRIBAL AFRICANS DO NOT CONDONE INTERRACIAL MARRIAGES

    Jai Lall

    Guyana President Ali and Cabinet Ministers Engaged West Coast Supporters

    Dr Jerry Jailall

    PPP Government responds quickly to changing “Negro” on Government forms, will they also add “Indian” to Arrival Day?

No Result
View All Result
Indo Caribbean Diaspora News
No Result
View All Result

This Navraatri and Ram Navami Hindus celebrate 5000 years of Civilization on the Saptarishi Samvat Calendar

by Nisha Ramracha
April 11, 2022
in Opinions, Uncategorized
0
Nisha-Ramracha

Photo : Nisha Ramracha

3
SHARES
32
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

This year 2022 on the western Gregorian Christian Calendar, Hindus celebrate over 5000 years of Hindu civilization according to the Hindu Saptarishi Samvat Calendar which has its origins in ancient Kashmir. Kashmir is the land of Rishi Kashyap and the ancient Martand Sun temple and the Datta mandir beloeved to have built by the Pandavas. It was in Kashmir that many of our scriptures were composed. The Saptarishi Samvat Calendar this year dates Hindu civilization back to 5098 years, going back to the year 3076 B.C.E which is believed to correspond to the date of the Mahabharata War with Lord Krishna and the great Aryan warrior Arjuna in the age of Dwapar Yuga. Another theory exists that it might go even further back to the year 6676 B.C.E.

The Hindu New Year like all things Hindu is vast, diverse in nature and even has different names for the same festival within the Bhava-Sagar (vast ocean) of the Hindu religion. It is known by a myriad of names such as Chaitra Pratipada, Ugadi or Yugadi (Karantaka/Telangana/Andhra), Gudi Padwa (Maharastra), Nava-Varsha/ Navreh-Poshte or Navreh/ Nav Roz (in Kashmir), Puthandu (Tamil Nadu), Vishu (Kerala), Bihu (Assam), Baisakhi (Punjab), Pohela Boishakh/ Nav-Barsha (Bengal) and Cheiraoba (Northeast India). You may have heard of Nowruz (like Nav-Roz) for the Zoroastrians of Persia. It’s similar linguistically because it’s all Indo-European. The Gujuratis tend to celebrate their New Year the day after Divali in October/ Kartik. In the Caribbean you may have also heard the New Year referred to as Vaisakhi, this is the Hindu Solar New Year ( which falls around the middle of April) while the Chaitra New Year uses both a lunar and solar calendar. This Vaisakhi (known as Mesa Sankranti) is the name where we Indo-Caribbean Hindus hail from in Uttar Pradesh and also used much further North in Jammu, Himachal and Uttarkhand. The Hindu New Year typically begins in the month of Chaitra hence Chaitra Pratipada and marks the first day of Chaitra Navraatri or Spring Navraatri in which three Goddesses are worshipped for nine nights with the festival culminating in Ram Navmi or the birth of the seventh Avatar Lord/ Shri Ram on the ninth day of Chaitra.

In the Caribbean or West Indies region, Hindus typically use the Chaitradi Vikram Samvat Calendar or simply Vikram Samvat Calendar. Other calendars exist as well including the Shalivahan Shaka Samvat Calendar and other kaal (times) used to date dharmic civilization such as Buddha Nirvana, Mahavira Nirvana, Brahma Siddhanta, Mayasura’s Surya Siddhanta, Yudhisthira Samvat and Shri Rama’s Coronation in Ayodhya. However, for Hindus their oldest functioning calendar in existence today is the Saptarishi Calendar which gives us a date of 5098 years. The Samvat or Samvatsara means a “year” in Sanskrit. Ugadi/Yugadi originate from two words yug and adi. It is the joining of the root word yug as in Yuga or “an age” as we see in concepts like Kali Yuga/ Dwapar Yuga/ Treta Yuga etc. while adi equates to the beginning of an era.

The Vikram Samvat is up to year 2079 founded in approximately 57 B.C.E while the Shaka Samvat used as India’s national calendar started in 78 C.E. Both use the phases of the moon to calculate time. All the months are the same and only the way in which the Pratipada (first day) is calculated is different. The new month in Vikram Samvat starts on the Krishna Paksha after the full moon while Shaka starts with the Shukla Paksha after the new moon. The first day of Shukla Paksha of Chaitra in the Shaka Samvat corresponds to the first day of the month while in the Vikram it starts on the sixteenth date of the month approximately. Therefore, the Hindu New Year typically begins around the Gregorian Calendar month of March.

The Vikram Samvat calendar in use by Caribbean Hindus is a lunisolar calendar and only places us at a mere 2079 years old! This means if we minus the 2022 we have now, it would appear our civilization began only 57 years before the start of the Christian Era. This makes us younger than Judaism when in fact even the modern history texts avow Hinduism as older than every major religion on the planet. So why is our calendar so young? Hindus must think critically about this and question what we learn. The King whose name is carried in the calendar, Vikramaditya of Ujjain, started this calendar after a victory over the Saka King in 56 B.C.E. He was the son of King Ghandharvasena of Ujjain of the Paramara Dynasty. The earliest mention of this calendar comes from an inscription of King Jaikadeva from Gujarat which mentions the year 794 Vikram Samvat corresponding to the year 737 C.E. However, this date always confused me when I heard it mentioned in the mandirs. I wondered how could Hindu civilization be so young and yet the Indus Valley be so much older? History was not adding up. Vikram Samvat is one of many calendars that have been used throughout the entire duration of Hindu civilization which is a very long lambe-lambe time. The Saptarishi calendar is simply older but it may not have been the oldest one and certainly was not the only one ever used. It’s just the oldest one we still have and it comes from the Kashmir region.

Here’s the real moral of this calendar article. After all the research, the history and archaeology I’ve poured over for so many years, this is what I really want Hindus to contemplate. I would mostly like Hindus to understand and consider how old our civilization is. Our ancestors have been Hindus for over 5000 years already. For those of us who are still Hindu in Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, India, America, Canada and Britain contemplate your existence dearly. For some it’s so easy to give up Hindu Dharma for a rice bowl, a job, a paycheck and a position. These days it’s mostly for show and position because we are no longer indentured. No one is forcing you out of your religion only shame, ignorance and illiteracy can do that. Your ancestors feared worse through wars, forceful conversion, torture, genocide (still happening today for Hindus but no one will talk about that) and more. Contemplate what you are giving up because most civilizations around the world have already lost their native identity, Europe is no longer pagan, and the few native pagan religions out there are struggling. We are still here, one billion strong and 5000 years for the very least. I say least because the Saptarishi Calendar is the oldest operational calendar for Hindus and possibly the oldest functioning in the world and it’s still existing but it was most likely not the first calendar for Hindus. When we contemplate facts we must also contemplate possibilities. Indus Valley Civilization which I have studied for a long time is Hindu in my best academic opinion and it’s much older than even the Saptarishi Calendar. I’m sure they also used calendars since archaeological sites in Rakhigiri and Birrhana are over 8000 years old, they must have had a calendar too but Indus Valley Script remains undecipherable. Who knows how old we truly are? How far back do other Hindu calendars go once we can decipher them? What calendar did Bharat use, the ancient King whom India takes its namesake? What calendar did Lord Rama use? Shri Rama is older than Krishna and dates to a different Yuga. Rama came to us in Treta Yuga and Krishna in Dwapar Yuga almost 2000 years after Lord Rama. Keep in mind, I just mentioned the Saptarishi calendar goes back to the time of Krishna in the Mahabharata. This, Hindus, the possibilities of our history and religion, are what we must enrich our minds with.

Shubh Chaitra Navraatri/ Ram Navmi and Hindu New Year
Jai Shri Ram
Nisha Ramracha.

Facebook Comments Box
Tags: GuyanaGuyaneseindo-caribbeanIndo-GuyaneseNisha RamrachaTrinidadTrinidad and Tobago
Share1Tweet1Share
ADVERTISEMENT
Nisha Ramracha

Nisha Ramracha

Nisha Ramracha is a Trinidadian-American historian and classical archaeologist with who has completed her graduate education in Classical Archaeology of Greece and Rome/Religion/Late Antiquity/ Ancient Languages and Islamic Studies. Her research concentrates on Alexander the Great, ancient monuments, military strategy and ancient Greek coinage. She focuses as well on Indology, Indo-Caribbean history and Hinduism. Nisha has done excavations and conferences internationally. She is also a writer, singer and adventurer.

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Dool Hanomansingh

Never too late for Dinesh to redeem himself!

May 3, 2025
Dool Hanomansingh

Pakistan has always been a puppet nation

May 3, 2025
High Commission of India in Guyana extends Indian Arrival Greetings

High Commission of India in Guyana extends Indian Arrival Greetings

May 5, 2023
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

In Support of Guyana President in Condemning India Terror Attack

May 2, 2025
Kamla Persad Bissessar

IDC CONGRATULATES HON. KAMLA PERSAD BISSESSAR ON TRINIDAD & TOBAGO ELECTIONS VICTORY

May 4, 2025
Dool Hanomansingh

Pakistan has always been a puppet nation

May 3, 2025
Dool Hanomansingh

Never too late for Dinesh to redeem himself!

May 3, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Guyana must seek USA Protection against Venezuela Threat

May 2, 2025

The most important world news and events of the day.

Get ICDN daily newsletter on your inbox.

ADVERTISEMENT
Indo Caribbean Diaspora News

© 2024 Indo-Caribbean Diaspora News. All rights Reserved

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and Condition

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Columns
  • Letters
  • Community News
  • Opinions
  • Videos
  • Features
  • Editorials

© 2024 Indo-Caribbean Diaspora News. All rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In