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Saka Year 1946 – the Indian National Calendar 2024 - Hindu Calendar followed by Government of India

The Saka Calendar or the Sakh era is the Indian National Calendar and is largely ignored by most Hindu communities in India. The Hindu Saka calendar began in 78 AD with the Saka Era. In 2024, the date of the New Year according to the official Indian Calendar is March 21 - this is shown in government calendars. It is also the first day of the Chaitra month in Saka Calendar and the year is 1946. This calendar is mostly ignored by Hindus as they follow traditional regional lunar or solar calendars.


A different Saka Calendar is followed in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka and in this calendar the year 1946 begins on March 21, 2024.

In North India, the traditional Hindu New Year begins on the Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the day after the Amavasya in Chaitra Month (March – April) and the calendar is known as Vikram Samvat in 2024 it is the year 2081 as per Vikram Samvat.

In Gujarat, the New Year begins the day after Diwali (September – October). Other states too have their own versions of regional calendars.

The Saka Calendar is basically confined to a corner in government gazette notifications and is mentioned by the All India Radio in its daily morning broadcast.

The Saka calendar that is followed today by the Government of India was adopted in 1957. The aim was to have a uniform calendar which avoids the Adhik Masa which is added to the lunar calendars. The dates of important solar events in the lunar calendars are also pushed ahead or backward due to an error in calculations. To avoid this an extra month is added once is 3 years to the lunar calendars.

But Hindus never accepted the government calendar. Even government of India does not follow the calendar it is merely published for the sake of publishing. For all official purposes Government of India follows the Gregorian calendar.

You can read more about the importance of Saka calendar and are current Hindu calendars faulty here in this article.

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