Nepal Sambat (नेपाल सम्बत)

Nepal Sambat (Nepal Bhasa: नेपाल सम्बत)

Nepal Sambat is a lunar Calendar. It was initiated by Sankhadhar Sakhwa to commemorate the pay back of all the debts of Nepalese people. Gregorian Calendar, Bikram Sambat and Nepal Sambat are three main calendars in use in Nepal, among which Nepal Sambat is the only one native to Nepal. This calendar came into being and into official use during the reign of king Raghabdev, immediately after the completion of the Saka Samvat 802 (on 20 October 879 AD). Nepal Sambat is a unique calendar in the whole world. All other calendars are named after some rulers or religious leaders.

Nepal Sambat is the only calendar which is named after a country. This calendar is said to have been introduced by a common subject Shankhadhar Sakhwa by clearing on his own all debts owing to the state by the then subjects of Nepal. This calendar was in continuous official use in Nepal for 889 years, i.e., from 879 to 1769 AD. After conquering Kathmandu in 1769 AD, Gorkha king Prithvi Narayan Shah discontinued official use of Nepal Sambat. He instead revived and brought Saka Sambat into official use. In 1903 AD, Rana prime minister Chandra Shamsher replaced the Saka Sambat with the Bikram Sambat, which is in use as the official calendar in Nepal till date.

Nepal Sambat has 354 days in a year and  nearly a month, 33 days are added every three year. This is how a month is added every three year. It sounds as if a day gets added every months according as to the movement of the Sun, Moon and the Earth. This is making some how inconvinent to use this calendar for official use as we need to distribute thriteen months salary, having one more extra months in a year every three year interval. This problem gets easily solved if we do get a new rule of giving salary twice a months say every fortnight (15 days) rather than paying at the end of the month.

Since the founder of the Nepal Sambat, Sankhadhar Sakhwa has been recognized as a national hero of Nepal, Nepalese people are also demanding to reintroduce the Nepal Sambat as Nepal's official calender. This is the only calendar which is being considered as the standard and authentic among other calendars in use which is easy to fix the daily rituals and festivals celebrated in our country. In India also they use lunar calendar for fixing the festival dates, they also do have many a number of different types of calendar in use but the authentic one is made of the lunar calendar and the official calander is Gregorian Calendar.

The months of the year in Nepal Sambat are :-

Devanagari	Roman script	Corresponding Gregorian month
कछला	Kachha lā	November
िंथंला	Thin lā	December
पोहेला	Pohe lā	January
िसल्ला	Sil lā	February
िचल्ला	Chil lā	March
चौला	Chau lā	April
बछला	Bachha lā	May
तछला	Tachha lā	June
िदल्ला	Dil lā	July
गुंला	Goon lā	August
ञंला	Yen lā	September
कौला	Kau lā	October