Calenders

A calender is just a way to keep track of time. The 'Gregorian' calender is most used these days. In Indian history, we have used different types of calenders. For business and government purposes we use the 'Gregorian' calender but, when its time to celebrate holidays like Pongal and Eid other calenders are used.

The Islamic calender is a lunar calender. The lunar month is roughly the time moon takes to go around the earth. The Islamic Lunar calender is shorter than the 'Gregorian' calender by 11 days. This means that the month of Ramzan will be observed around 11 days earlier every 'Gregorian' calender.

Emperor Akbar used a combination of the Hindu and Muslim Calender. This calender counts dates begining with the birth of Christ as A.D and counts dates before the birth of Christ as B.C. These days, many modern historians use the letters C.E (common era) instead of A.D and letters B.C.E instead of B.C.