Calendars & Martial Arts

• This chapter joins two distinctively Indian systems of embodied and cosmic knowledge: the calendar (Panchanga), India's ancient science of time-reckoning, and the martial arts (Shastra Vidya / Dhanurveda), its living traditions of combat, healing and movement. Both encode astronomy, philosophy and community memory in a way no single text captures.
• Indian time-reckoning is among the oldest in the world — from the Rigveda's nakshatra calendar and the Vedanga Jyotisha (c. 1400–1200 BCE) to Aryabhata's mathematical astronomy and the reformed National (Shaka) Calendar of 1957. India ran several concurrent calendars for different social purposes — a "civilizational pluralism" rather than confusion.
• Indian martial arts are termed Dhanurveda (one of the four Upavedas) and appear from the Mahabharata and Arthashastra to living regional systems — Kalaripayattu, Silambam, Thang-Ta, Gatka, Malla-Yuddha — that survived colonial suppression and are now revived under Khelo India and UNESCO recognition.

1. Foundations of the Indian Calendar

• India uses three kinds of calendar: solar (saura), lunar (chandra) and, most commonly, luni-solar — which follows the moon's months but keeps step with the sun by inserting an intercalary month (Adhika Masa) roughly every 2–3 years to absorb the ~11-day annual drift.
• The oldest framework is the 27 (or 28, with Abhijit) nakshatras — lunar mansions each of 13°20'. The Vedanga Jyotisha (c. 1400–1200 BCE, ascribed to Lagadha) is the earliest astronomical text, composed to time the Vedic yajnas; the Rigveda already knows a 360-day year with adjustment.
• The six seasons (ritus) — Vasanta, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemanta, Shishira — each of two months, and the two ayanas (Uttarayana from the winter solstice, Dakshinayana from the summer solstice) organise the year.

2. Classical Astronomy & the Siddhantas

• Classical astronomy is set out in the five Siddhantas (Surya, Pitamaha, Vasishtha, Romaka, Paulisha), synthesised by Varahamihira (c. 505 CE) in the Pancha-Siddhantika (he also wrote the Brihat Samhita).
• Aryabhata I (476 CE, the Aryabhatiya) gave a strikingly accurate sidereal year, argued that the earth rotates on its axis, and rationally explained eclipses as shadows (the moon's on the earth, the earth's on the moon) — against the mythological Rahu–Ketu account (the nodes surviving in the Panchanga only as the orbital nodes). Brahmagupta (628 CE) and Bhaskara II (1114 CE, Siddhanta Shiromani) refined the planetary theory.
• The Jantar Mantar observatories of Sawai Jai Singh II (early 18th c., at Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Varanasi, Mathura) put this into stone — the giant Samrat Yantra sundial is accurate to about two seconds; the Jaipur observatory is a UNESCO site (2010).

3. Era Systems (Samvat) & the National Calendar

• The two great eras are the Vikram Samvat (57 BCE, lunar, North India) and the Shaka Samvat (78 CE, solar); others include the Gupta Era (320 CE), the astronomical Kali Yuga (3102 BCE), the Kollam era (Kerala) and the Bengali San. The purely lunar Islamic Hijri (622 CE), with no intercalation, drifts through all seasons over ~33 years.
• The National Calendar of India, adopted on 22 March 1957 on the Calendar Reform Committee (chaired by Meghnad Saha), is based on the Shaka era; its first month is Chaitra, and Chaitra 1 = 22 March (21 March in a leap year). It runs alongside the Gregorian for administration.
• Regional variants differ in a key convention: Purnimanta (month ends at full moon, North) vs Amanta (ends at new moon, South). Solar new-years cluster in mid-April — Tamil Puthandu, Vishu (Kerala), Bohag Bihu (Assam), Baisakhi (Punjab) — while Ugadi/Gudi Padwa (Chaitra Shukla Pratipada) opens the luni-solar year.

4. Astronomy Behind Festivals

• Solar festivals fall on fixed dates: Makar Sankranti (~14 Jan) marks the sun entering Capricorn (astronomically Uttarayana begins at the December solstice — the ~24-day gap is due to precession); Baisakhi (~13–14 April) marks the sun entering Aries.
• Lunar festivals shift: Diwali (Kartik Amavasya), Holi (Phalguna Purnima), Janmashtami (Bhadrapada Krishna Ashtami), and the Islamic Eids (by the Hijri lunar date).
• The Buddhist calendar centres on Buddha Purnima (Vaisakha Purnima) — birth, enlightenment and parinirvana on one lunar date — and Vassa (the rains retreat, Ashadha to Kartik Purnima). International Yoga Day (21 June) is deliberately set at the summer solstice.

5. Indian Martial Arts — Foundations

• Martial science is Dhanurveda — one of the four Upavedas (with Ayurveda, Gandharvaveda, Sthapatyaveda), attached to the Yajurveda — covering archery, swordsmanship, mace, chariot and elephant warfare and wrestling. The Agni Purana preserves Dhanurveda sections and a weapon taxonomy.
• Literary sources are rich: the Mahabharata (Drona the teacher, Arjuna's Gandiva, Bhima's mace), the Arthashastra (Book 10 — the four-fold army chaturanga), Manusmriti and Tamil Sangam war-poetry (puram).
• Weapons are classically classed as Mukta (thrown — chakra, javelin), Amukta (held — sword, spear), Muktamukta (either) and Bahu-yuddha (unarmed — the root of Malla-Yuddha). A shared body-grammar links combat and dance: the Natyashastra's 108 karanas are the same movement units carved at the Chidambaram Nataraja temple.

6. Kalaripayattu — Kerala's Ancient System

• Kalaripayattu (kalari = arena, payattu = practice) is often called the world's oldest surviving martial art, taught by a Gurukkal; tradition credits its origin to Parashurama, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2024. It has three styles — the weapon-heavy Vadakkan (northern), the unarmed-strike Thekkan (southern) and a central synthesis.
• Training runs through four stages in order: Meippayattu (body conditioning, oil massage, animal stances) → Kolthari (wooden weapons — long staff kettukari, the S-shaped otta) → Ankathari (metal weapons — sword-and-shield, spear, and the whip-like flexible sword urumi) → Verumkai (unarmed marma-point combat).
• Its Marma Vidya (107 vital points) links directly to Ayurveda (whose masters are often Kalari physicians) through the healing massage uzhichil; and its eight vadivu animal stances mirror Kathakali dance, whose actors train in Kalari — a living synthesis of combat, medicine and performing art.

7. Regional Martial Traditions

• Malla-Yuddha (classical wrestling — four types: Hanumanti, Jambuvanti, Jarasandhim, Bhimaseni) evolved, with Persian influence, into Pehlwani/Kushti in mud akharas; its legend is Gama Pehlwan (undefeated), and its modern champions include Dara Singh and the Phogat sisters. Regional wrestling includes Mukna (Manipur) and belt-wrestling Inbuan (Mizoram, no leg attacks).
• Silambam (Tamil Nadu) is the bamboo-staff art of the Sangam age (mentioned in the Silappadikaram), spread by Tamil traders across South-East Asia. Thang-Ta (Manipur; thang=sword, ta=spear; full system Huyen Langlon) is the Meitei warrior art tied to the Lai Haraoba ritual.
• Gatka is the Sikh weapon art (from Shastar Vidya, codified under Guru Gobind Singh; practised by the Nihangs and displayed at Hola Mohalla). Others: Pari-Khanda (sword-and-shield of Bihar/Jharkhand, feeding Seraikella Chhau), Lathi Khela (Bengal) and Mushti-Yuddha (Varanasi boxing).

8. Medieval Traditions, Suppression & Modern Revival

• Medieval martial culture ran deep: the Rajput ethic of Jauhar and Saka and the talwar; the Mughal introduction of firearms (Babur's artillery at Panipat, 1526) and composite-bow horse-archery; and Maratha guerrilla warfare (Ganimi Kava), with Shivaji's Waghnakh (tiger claws) used against Afzal Khan (1659) and his fort-and-navy strategy.
• The British Arms Act (1878) and Criminal Tribes Act (1871) suppressed martial practice, which survived underground in akharas and kalaris — making the arts a form of cultural resistance.
• Revival: the Khelo India programme (2018) promotes indigenous sports (Gatka, Kalaripayattu, Thang-Ta, Silambam, Mallakhamb, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho); Mallakhamb (pole gymnastics, in the Manasollasa, state sport of MP) and Kabaddi (Pro Kabaddi League) have flourished; and UNESCO has recognised Chhau (2010), Yoga (2016) and Kalaripayattu (2024) as living heritage — part of India's cultural soft power.

Both halves are steady Prelims material — era base-years, the National Calendar, Panchanga terms, and martial-art–state matching with the classic UNESCO-date traps.

Revision tip: keep two grids — Era → base year → type, and Martial art → state → UNESCO status. Those clear most MCQs.

This is a GS-I (culture/history) topic with GS-II (policy/soft power) and Essay hooks. Examiners reward the science + culture + policy synthesis, with named specifics.