Do you remember the Doordarshan series Vikram Aur Betaal ? If yes, then you are definitely a victim of the left generated historical view of India. This series aired in 1985 and many of us accepted it as gospel truth ! Nothing wrong with that except for the fact that the Vikram mentioned in the title is the great King Vikramaditya.
Emperor Vikramaditya
King Vikramaditya isn’t right, Emperor Vikramaditya is the right thing to say because he was the first emperor in India’s recent history. Emperor Vikramaditya ruled from Ujjain and his empire spread all the way through Arabia to modern day Europe and Rome besides huge portions of Asia. India was called the “Sone ki Chidiya” or the “Golden Bird” under his rule. We were a phenomenally rich country !!
Vikramaditya was legendary. He built an amazing postal system that brought news from far flung areas to him quickly. Also a network of roads.
Why am I remembering Emperor Vikramaditya suddenly ? Well, I got a WhatsApp forward that explained the difference between the Gregorian calendar that is used the world over and the Hindu calendar.
I have always wondered about our Panchang and the Hindu/Tamil calendar. If our ancestors were as backward scientifically as some of our detractors would like us to believe, then its a miracle that our Panchang manages to predict weather events accurately ! The answer lies in the following video and it clarified the difference between San and Samvat for me. Well, the new year for Hindus starts in mid-April (14th April is the Tamil New Year). So we are about 6 months into Vikram Samvat 2078.
Did you know ? In the Hindi version of the preamble of the constitution of India, the date of its adoption (26 November 1949) is presented in Vikram Samvat as Margsheersh Shukla Saptami Samvat 2006. Source – Vikram Samvat. Am sure this information will hurt some sentiments but well, if you are truly Indian, this information should fill you with pride. Our recent ancestors had a kick-ass calendar in place that was accurate !
#IndianHistory #HinduCalendar
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