Asom to celebrate Janmasthami tomorrow

Guwahati, Sep 13 (UNI) Asom will be celebrating Janmasthami, marking the birth of Lord Krishna, tomorrow, even though the rest of country celebrated it almost a month back.

While the layman had been puzzled with the contradiction for years that how could a person be born on two dates, a gemologist-astrologer duo in the city explains the reason.

''It is as simple as that. West Bengal and Asom follow a different calendar from the rest of the country,'' gemologist Amar Sharma said.

These two states follow the Saka calendar and the rest of the country follows the Bikramasamad calendar.

Accordingly, the year in the Saka calendar is 1928 and that in the Bikramasamad is 2063, while the Gregorian calendar, the English one in general terms, is 2006.

If these three calendars were not enough to confuse the people, the new year's day also varies in each.

" If we consider the month according to the Gregorian calendar, it has its new year on January 1, the Bikramasamad calendar in late March and Saka calendar in mid-April." City-based astrologer Hitesh Deka explains that there is a gap of 15 days in the two calendars followed in the country. ''This leads to the varying dates in case of Krishan's birth anniversary,'' he added.

This year, Janmasthami was observed across India on August 16 (Bharopod 8 as per the Bikramasamad calendar). However, the Saka calendar was still in the Sawan month.

''According to the Saka calendar, Janmasthami would be celebrated tomorrow on Bharopod 28 (September 14),'' Mr Sharma said.

UNI SG KK AB 1536