Eras

  • Saka (National), Sayana Solar, year 1 = 78 AD, 1942 year begins 21 Mar. 2020
  • Saka (shAlivAhana), Nirayana Lunar (Chaitra Sukla Pratipad), 1942 year begins 25 Mar. 2020
  • Saka (Traditional), Nirayana Solar (Meshadi, True Sun), 1942 year begins 14 Apr. 2020
  • Kali / national nirayaNa, Nirayana Solar (Meshadi, True Sun), 5121 year begins 14 Apr. 2020
  • Buddha Nirvana, Nirayana Luni-solar (Buddha Purnima), 2564 year begins 07 May 2020
  • Mahavira Nirvana, Nirayana Luni-solar (Kartikadi), 2547 year begins 16 Nov. 2020
  • Vikram Samvat (chaitrAdi), 2077 begins 25 Mar. 2020
  • Vikram Samvat (kArtikAdi), 2077 begins 16 Nov. 2020
  • Bengali San, Nirayana Solar (Meshadi) Bengal, 1427 begins 14 Apr. 2020
  • Hejira, Lunar, 1442 begins 21 Aug. 2020
  • Kollam / malayALam, Nirayana Solar (Simhadi), 1196 begins 17 Aug. 2020
  • Tipu assumed that Muhammad was born in 572 A.D. His ‘Maulud-i-Muhammad’ calendar started then.

kali start

  • “The current Kaliyuga began on Friday 18, 3102 BC at Sunrise at Lanka (a hypothetical place on the equator where the meridian of Ujjain intersects it, which synchronised with the beginning of the light half of Luna (synodic) month of Chaitra. … The current Kalpa, according to Aryabhata I, started on Thursday 1,98,28,80,000 years or 7,24,26,41,32,500 days before the beginning of the current yuga; and 1,98,61,20,000 years or 7,25,447,570,625 days before the beginning of the current Kaliyuga.” -KS Shukla
  • Not accounting for sunrise: “The Chaitra Shukla Pratipada on the Kali yuga -3101 (3102 BC) happened on 22nd January at 7:04:07 IST. The date is based on “Proleptic Gregorian Calendar” The Date as per Julian Calendar is February 17th.”

Caveats

  • “The follower of Surya Siddhanta Ayanamsa may note that, the conjunction of the luminaries happened on 20th February instead of 22nd January, which is different from the Conventional wisdom.”
  • Closest great conjugation between Jupiter and Saturn happened on 3104-12-1.

Gregorian and julian year numbering

  • The conventional BC/AD (or BCE/CE) scheme has no year 0 because at the time of it’s creation, Europeans were widely ignorant of the concept of the number zero, thus the year before 1 AD is 1 BC. This makes arithmetic awkward.

Astronomical numbering

  • Astronomers often use a different scheme, referring to AD dates as a positive integer, and re-designating 1 BC/BCE as the year 0. (Stellarium uses this.)
  • Astronomers use the Julian calendar for years before 1582.