A new Tamil year fast approaching, I would like to revisit some hilarious moments, entertainer none other than the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr.Karunanidhi who proposed a bill to change the day of the new year. The very next instant after hearing the news on Sun TV, I was rolling on the floor with laughter. I couldn’t control the stupidity and self assumed assurance of politicians, that they are kings, law makers, well in this case, Mathematicians challenging ancient Vedas, Vedic calculations and the mathematical mechanics of the planetary movements which were found out by our ancestors . Ancient scholars and mathematicians have arrived at this date.
Karunanidhi claimed that he had consulted various Tamil scholars and cultural experts before moving the ‘Tamil Nadu Tamil New Year (Declaration) Bill 2008′. Can I please meet those scholars and cultural experts?
One should remember not to base the English(Gregorian) Calendar and super impose other calendars and arrive at a conclusion. In other sense, Tamil year calculations or any other calendar calculations aren’t tracing paper to be used for tracing. We say April 13th or 14th, according to the calculations, as the beginning of a new year. That actually means the first day of a year, like January 1st. Getting it? People always tend to relate it with respect to the English(Gregorian) Calendar. Just like the English calendar having 28, 29 , 30 or 31 days according to the moments of the planetary rotation, revolution etc, there is a huge amount of calculation behind such calendars.
In other words, according to the English Calendar we are in 2008 A.D, the present year in Tamil is known as “Sarvajith” coming year is known as “Sarvardaari”, just like how the Chinese have it as the year of Rat. The Tamils have names for 60 years, and once this cycle is completed, the cycle repeats.
A very crude way of explaining the Tamil Calendar -The Tamil Calendar is based on the sidereal year (i.e. the time taken for one revolution of the Earth around the sun, or the mean time taken by the sun to return to the same position relative to the background of the fixed stars in the sky). It is derived from the old Hindu Solar Calendar. According to this Tamil Calendar, there are various festivals celebrated in Tamil Nadu. Most of the fairs and festivals of Tamil Nadu are related to religion and temples. Most of these festivals are now according to the Panchangam. A panchangam (Sanskrit pañcāṅgam ) is a Hindu astrological almanac (or calendar), which follows traditional Indian cosmology, and presents important astronomical data in tabulated form. It is sometimes spelled Pancanga or Panchanga. It is pronounced Panchanga.
The dessert -
“I suspect that those who endorsed the government’s renaming quest must all be DMK supporters. If this government can do this, it can also announce new names for all the 12 months after Periyar, Anna, Stalin, Azhagiri, Kanimozhi and so on,” – political commentator Cho S. Ramaswamy.
Cathrina
April 10, 2008
Very informative post.Nice
USA / Canada: April 13th.
Europe: April 13th.
Gulf Countries: April 13th.
India: April 13th.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: April 14th.
Malayasia, Fiji, China, Australia, Fiji, Japan: April 14th
Dharman
April 11, 2008
April 13 is the Tamil New Year i.e. Chitterai 1. Karunanidhi can not do away with 1,800 years of Tamil high tradition in the name of his allegedly secular Dravidian myth. He is trying to move the New Year to January 14 or Makara Sankranti/Pongal to make it closer to January 1 – the start of the church year. I suspect the matter would now be referred to court because an allegedly secular state can not legislate on the traditional calendar just as it has no right to legislate on the calendar of Islam or Christianity.
The Burmese, Cambodians, Lao, Sinhalese and Thai had adopted the April New Year due to South Indian Pallava influence. It is ironic that so-called Dravidian nationalism under Christian missionary influence now seeks to jettison this to bring the New Year closer to January 1 and the proposed new names for the days of the week and the 12 months are more in synch with Hellenic culture.
Karunanidhi should focus on infrastructure and poverty alleviation, not engage in puerile gimmicks at his senile old age. This would come to haunt the political career of his son who is expected to succeed him.
Siva
April 12, 2008
Tamil new year is one of the ancient ceremony for Tamil people or Hindu people .but some people try to change that day. that is, which day is belong to Tamil new year(January or April).
if we change the day of the Tamil new year. it will be make lost of identification. that is, we are very ancient people.
Senthil Natarajan
April 14, 2008
Hinduism came to Tamil Nadu after Jainism and Buddhism. How
can it be claimed that this is calender followed by early Tamils.
Thai is the month of significance for many Tamils. I don’t see it
as any interference to change the new year to Thai which is
of significance for many thousands of years (even before Hinduism
came to Tamil Nadu)
Shyam Manisastry
April 14, 2008
This comment is for Senthil Natarajan who is not even aware of Indian culture and tradition by saying that HInduism came after Buddism and Jainism. Mahabharatha and Ramayana dates back to atleast 2500 BC as per one of the recent research published. Buddha by himself advocated the essence of Bhagwat Gita in his philosophy and preaching in simple terms. Hindus dont belong to any relgion. The practice of values was called Sanathana Dharma (The way of truth). it was made as religion by invaders who were practicing other religions and crossed the river Sindhu to come to Indian subcontinent. People who were living on the eastern side of Sindhu were referred to as Hindus for their way of life. The Indian calender is almost the same for different parts of India starting with the Vernal Equinox (The day in space when the center of the sun lines with the equator of the earth) and as per the north-south degree variations, the new year begins and they were universally celebrated in this time point. Originally Bharat was spread upto present day Iran (If you read the begining chapters of Bhagwatam you will know the teritory of India) and even today the Iranians celebrate their newyear around the same time as we celebrate the Hindu new year (or tamil or telugu or malayalam new year) that falls between March 21st to Apr 14th) as per the date of equinox in different calenders calculations.
Tamil
April 14, 2008
I think we should launch a court case against this or ask for a proper explanation from the experts , who gave the suggestion of changing the dates. I request Senthil Natarajan to improve the knowledge of how the new year is calculated in the region and not just supporting the claim of politics. Also please do read the history of the region and then analyze the religion & state. But we do appreciate your participation.
Suresh
April 14, 2008
Nobody is going to get benefit on this change. It creates chaos among the ppl. Deftly it is not needed one. Instead of doing the silly things like this, Govt should focus on solving people’s real life problems.
For this change, some groups had conducted a program to congratulate CM’s effort. It’s a waste of money and timing and in addition it creates confusion to the ppls.
Dharman
April 14, 2008
Pongal is a pan-Indic event celebrated as Makara Sankranti. It is as Hindu as it gets. And the Tamil New Year is in April – chitterai 1. It has been that always and would always be that. Isn’t there a saying that to ‘plough in Chitterai is to earn gold’ while ‘the rains in Thai are not even worth chaff’.
Ghayathri
April 28, 2008
What a retard!! Tamil Nadu is turning into a communist state from being democratic… the only place working backwards!!
P.S. I am a tamilian… so no flames please!
G. Sudarsan
January 12, 2009
No man can be a competent legislator who does not add to an upright intention and a sound judgment a certain degree of knowledge of the subject on which he is to legislate.
– James Madison
Karuna has faltered on all the grounds.
Kathir
January 15, 2009
Mr. Senthil Natarajan…I am sure you will go to hell for being this much ignorant about Tamil, Hinduism..and daring to post your comments as a FOOL!
And, the article itself is a great one, nicely written. The end…the Karunandhis won’t be afraid to change the month names to ‘Mahdurai Muthu’, ‘MK Stalin’ etc…
Vazgha Valamudan
Badri
March 9, 2009
I feel bad to be led by such incompetant Govt. How foolish it is to baselessly disregard the greatness of our Tamil culture. And MK still calls him a Tamil, idiocity. I will happily celebrate tamil new years day on April 14, what more i get another holiday, if my company doesnt offer i take PL.
Ganesh
March 26, 2009
I dont know what sense does it make to carry out this change, maybe nonsense!!!. This guy has time and again tought everyone how to live just by creating confusion…
Long Live Karuna, keep changing history, geography, politics etc., but never change the yellow shawl, that is good luck for you to do all bad things….
Bala
April 9, 2009
We respect That old man for his cinema stories and dialogues – of course he earned money for it too.We are in the “Shirusdiyathi Varusham” 195,588,5111th year.Even the Vikramathiththan year is 2067. So this old man who is not even passed 100 years can’t change any thing because he used Tamil language to earn money.This is called “Pothai thalaiku eari vittathu”,”Atpanukku pavisu vanthal arththa raththiriyil kudai piddippan”. Sorry,we miss M.G.R, if he is alive there is no chance for this old man to do stupid things along with his praise singers.
Vyas
April 14, 2009
Most of my Tamil friends are not celebrating new years on account of that old dotard Karunanidhi’s proposal.
SO what’s next? We al know that he is an atheist. So the next time he will cancel Divali as well. And the cowardly masses will agree with him. Its disgusting the way we must bow down to mentally sick politicians like him. It s just sad.
manjunath
April 14, 2009
karunanidhi has done this for fame. he has lost the gratitude of tamils. someone should file a case in madras high court.