Hindi month names in English

The Gregorian and Hindi calendars do not share the same starting points. Each English month begins on a fixed solar date — January 1st never changes. But each Hindi month begins with the new moon, which shifts by 10–11 days every solar year. This is why the table below shows every English month as spanning two Hindi months rather than one. For example, January always contains the end of Paush and the beginning of Magh. This dual-month overlap is not a mistake — it is simply two different systems of measuring time running side by side.

Month name in English	Months name in Hindi (Devanagari)	Pronunciation	Days	Zodiac Sign
January	पौष – माघ	Paush – Magh	31	Capricorn / Aquarius
February	माघ – फाल्गुन	Magh – Phalgun	28/29	Aquarius / Pisces
March	फाल्गुन – चैत्र	Phalgun – Chaitra	31	Pisces / Aries
April	चैत्र – वैशाख	Chaitra – Vaishakh	30	Aries / Taurus
May	वैशाख – ज्येष्ठ	Vaishakh – Jyeshtha	31	Taurus / Gemini
June	ज्येष्ठ – आषाढ़	Jyeshtha – Ashadh	30	Gemini / Cancer
July	आषाढ़ – श्रावण	Ashadh – Shravana	31	Cancer / Leo
August	श्रावण – भाद्रपद	Shravana – Bhadrapada	31	Leo / Virgo
September	भाद्रपद – आश्विन	Bhadrapada – Ashwin	30	Virgo / Libra
October	आश्विन – कार्तिक	Ashwin – Kartik	31	Libra / Scorpio
November	कार्तिक – मार्गशीर्ष	Kartik – Margashirsha	30	Scorpio / Sagittarius
December	मार्गशीर्ष – पौष	Margashirsha – Paush	31	Sagittarius / Capricorn

Source :Wikipedia

Notice that each row in the table shows two Hindi months for every Gregorian month. This reflects a fundamental difference: the Gregorian calendar is purely solar (fixed to Earth’s orbit around the sun), while the Hindi calendar is lunisolar — it tracks both the moon’s phases and the sun’s position. The practical result is that Hindi month boundaries almost never align with January 1st, February 1st, or any fixed English date. They move every year based on when the new moon appears.

The Core difference: 354 Days vs 365 Days

The Gregorian calendar — the one on your phone, your office desk, everywhere in America — is solar. It tracks Earth’s journey around the sun. That journey takes approximately 365.25 days. Simple. Fixed. Predictable.
The Hindi calendar — also called the Vikram Samvat or the lunar calendar — is lunisolar. It does something radically different. Instead of tracking just the sun, it tracks both the moon and the sun.
Here’s where it gets interesting: The moon orbits Earth every 29.5 days (this is called a lunar month or “mas”). Twelve lunar months? That’s only 354 days. Which means the Hindu calendar year is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar year.
This creates a problem that your ancestors solved over 5,000 years ago in a way the Gregorian calendar doesn’t:

Hindi leap year vs. Gregorian leap year

Imagine you have a festival called Holi — it’s always celebrated on the full moon (Purnima) of the month of Phalguna. In a Gregorian calendar, if you don’t fix the date, Holi will slowly “slide” backwards through the calendar year — one year it’s March 14, next year it’s March 3, the year after that it’s February 22, and eventually it would be celebrated in the middle of winter instead of spring. That would be a disaster.
So the Hindu calendar invented something brilliant: the Adhik Maas (extra month), also called Purushottam Maas. Roughly every 32-33 months, an entire extra month is added to the calendar. This “correction” ensures that Holi always falls in spring, Diwali always falls in autumn, and the harvest festivals always align with actual harvest time.
The Gregorian calendar solves this with a leap day every four years (+1 day). The Hindu calendar solves it with a leap month every three years (+30 days). Which is more elegant? Scholars have been debating this for centuries.

Why Your Family Celebrates on “Different” Dates

This is the part that confuses NRIs the most.
In 2025, Holi falls on March 14. But your Maharashtrian friend will say “Gudi Padwa” is March 30. Your Punjabi neighbor is marking March 14 for Hola Mohalla. Your Tamil relatives are celebrating Pongal on January 14. Are they all celebrating different festivals?
No. They’re celebrating the same moment in the lunar calendar — but their families have different names for it because they follow different regional traditions.
The lunisolar system has two main regional variants:
Purnimanta (Full Moon End): Used in Northern India. The month ends on the full moon (Purnima). This is what your grandmother probably follows.
Amanta (New Moon End): Used in South India, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. The month ends on the new moon (Amavasya). This is the official government calendar of India.
Same festival. Same lunar moment. Different month names depending on where in India your family is from.
For NRIs, this is crucial: When your mom calls and says “Aaj Phalguna hai” (Today is Phalguna), she’s not talking about a date on a calendar. She’s describing a specific phase of the moon — a time when the moon is in a certain position relative to the sun.

The 57-Year Difference That Surprises Everyone

Here’s a fact that shocks most NRIs when they learn it: The Hindu calendar is not running “behind” the Gregorian calendar. It’s running ahead.
The Vikram Samvat calendar started in 57 BCE (according to legend, commemorating King Vikramaditya’s victory). This means:
Current year + 57 = Vikram Samvat year
So in 2025, you’re actually living in Vikram Samvat 2082.
(Note: From January to mid-March, it’s still VS 2081. The Hindu New Year happens in late March / early April, not January 1.)
This is why, if your grandmother’s old documents are dated in the “Samvat era,” you add 57 to convert them to the Gregorian date. It’s not a mistake in the document. It’s a completely legitimate calendar system that predates the Gregorian calendar by over 1,600 years.

The Six Seasons Hidden in the Twelve Months

Here’s something most NRIs don’t realize: while the Western world divides the year into four seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter), India’s ancient calendar recognizes six seasons, each with its own Hindi name.
These six “Ritus” (seasons) are woven into the Hindu month calendar:
Vasant Ritu (Spring) — Chaitra & Vaisakha (Mar–May) — flowers bloom, new harvests begin
Grishma Ritu (Summer) — Jyeshtha & Ashadha (May–Jul) — the heat intensifies
Varsha Ritu (Monsoon) — Shravana & Bhadrapada (Jul–Sep) — the rains arrive, crops grow
Sharad Ritu (Autumn) — Ashwin & Kartika (Sep–Nov) — harvest season, festivals
Hemanta Ritu (Early Winter) — Margashirsha & Pausha (Nov–Jan) — cool, clear skies
Shishir Ritu (Late Winter) — Magha & Phalguna (Jan–Mar) — frost and cold
This is why Holi (in Phalguna, late winter) celebrates the end of cold and the arrival of spring. It’s why Diwali (in Kartika, autumn) marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of the festive season. The festivals aren’t random — they’re tied to what’s actually happening in nature.

The Tithi Mystery: Why Festivals “Span Two Days”

If you’ve ever noticed that Hindu festivals seem to last from evening one day to evening the next, you’ve encountered the concept of Tithi.
A Tithi is not a “day” in the way you think of it. It’s a specific lunar phase — the time it takes for the moon to move exactly 12 degrees away from the sun. Because the moon’s orbit isn’t perfectly circular, some Tithis last 19 hours and others last 26 hours.
This is why your family might say “Holi is March 13 evening to March 14 evening” or why your astrologer says “the Diwali muhurat (auspicious time) is 6:15 PM to 7:45 PM IST on October 20.” They’re describing the exact moment when the moon reaches a specific position — not just a calendar date.
For NRIs in the US, this means the main puja moment for most festivals happens in the afternoon EST, even though it’s midnight in India. Your family might celebrate at sunset your time, but the “official” moment (the one your astrologer cites) is calculated in IST.

Quick Reference: The 11-Day Shift Explained

Gregorian Calendar Year365 days (solar)

Hindu Calendar Year354 days (lunar)

Difference11 days per year

How It’s FixedAdhik Maas (extra month) added every 32-33 months

Vikram Samvat YearAlways 57 years ahead of Gregorian year (56 years Jan–Mar)

Festival DatesShift by ~11 days backward each year on Gregorian calendar

Why the difference ?

The Hindu calendar doesn’t map neatly onto the Gregorian calendar because it was never designed to. It was designed to track something deeper: the rhythm of the moon, the position of the sun, the seasons of agriculture, and the spiritual significance of time itself.
When you understand this, you’re not learning a “different” calendar. You’re learning a completely different way of thinking about time — one that your ancestors perfected thousands of years ago and one that’s still running accurately today.
Your grandmother was never wrong. She was just speaking a language your American calendar can’t quite translate.