Art & Culture · Topic 15 of 16
Indian calendar systems, the history of coinage, and apex cultural institutions
The Basics
A calendar is simply a system for organising days into weeks, months and years, used for religious, agricultural, commercial and administrative purposes. In India, local communities needed calendars mainly to fix the right time for sowing and harvesting, and to calculate festival dates, so brahmans and astronomers worked out detailed systems based on the movement of the sun, the moon and the stars.
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By 1947, India had no single official calendar for civil and government use. Nearly thirty different calendars were in everyday use across regions and communities, alongside the Gregorian calendar inherited from British rule. This caused confusion in government notifications, broadcasts and records, so the Government of India sought one uniform national calendar.
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Vikram Samvat is a luni-solar calendar starting 56 BCE, used across most of India except Bengal.
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By the sixth century BCE, northern India was undergoing what historians call the second urbanisation. Expanding agriculture produced food surpluses, which supported craftsmen, merchants and growing towns such as Pataliputra, Rajagriha, Shravasti, Varanasi, Vaishali, Champa, Kaushambi and Ujjaini. More than sixty such towns had developed between 600 and 300 BCE. This growth in trade and craft production created a need for a reliable medium of exchange, since barter could no longer handle large-scale transactions. This need set in motion India's earliest coinage.
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After the Mauryas declined, Greek rulers from Bactria in north Afghanistan pushed into northwestern India. This Indo-Greek rule lasted roughly from 180 BCE to around 10 CE. Unlike earlier Indian coins, which carried only symbols, these rulers put their own names, images and dates on their money.
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The Gupta dynasty ruled north India from the 4th century CE. It inherited named, image-bearing coinage from the Kushanas but took it to a new level of craftsmanship. Gold was mined in Karnataka and panned from streams in the far north. The Guptas issued the largest number of gold coins of any ancient Indian dynasty. These gold coins are called dinara. Each one is so finely designed that it has been described as a miniature piece of sculpture.
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Iltutmish issued silver tankas during the Delhi Sultanate.
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By the 19th century, India had many ruined stupas, temples and mounds. No one was systematically studying or protecting these sites.
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Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lalit Kala Akademi and Sahitya Akademi are apex national bodies for culture.
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Before the Constitution, colonial-era laws tried to protect heritage. These included the Indian Treasure Trove Act and the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act. After independence, these laws needed a stronger constitutional foundation.
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