WSN presents the revolutionary Mool Nanakshahi Calendar App which plugs all Bikrami gaps and does away with clutter and calendar errors. Readers are invited to download the app, lead their personal, social and religious lives accordingly.

Putting to rest all controversies, problems of ever-changing dates as per the Bikrami calendars, the all-new Mool Nanakshahi Calendar app, provides without any anomalies whatsoever, the Sikh Almanac right up to the year 9999 CE. The app is a culmination of the process of the Sikhs having their own calendar with universal application started by Pal Singh Purewal in 1999, the accuracy of which is beyond every shade of doubt provided one sees it with reason, logic and an open mind. This new technology tool provides the platform for Sikhs to override the wrong and baseless decisions of their community religious leaders.

There is only one Sikh Calendar that is accurate, maintains annual consistency of Gurbani’s both Bareh Maha, and Rutti-Sloks.  For those interested to read more about this, there are many good articles¹. It is important to familiarise with the summary of primary differences²  between the [Mool] Nanakshahi Calendar and Bikrami Calendars.

The “Mool” prefix, literally meaning “original”, strictly defines that in The Mool Nanakshahi Calendar 100% of the dates are synchronized with the Tropical calendar, and none follow Bikrami (solar or lunar) methodology to calculate varying dates over short and long periods. The closest calendar adhering to this definition that was ever released by SGPC, was the one that commemorated 300th year of Khalsa’s Saajna in 1999. Gurpurab dates from which are reproduced below:

Thus, 1999 is considered the adoption year for the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar.  

Any later modifications to the original purity or intent of this calendar can today be considered ungrounded, shallow, and pretty much non-academic and non-conforming to the principles of the Gurbani. Upon adoption, each and every day in a year (from first of Chet to the last day of Phaggan) was essentially adopted in this new Sikh Tropical calendar. All historical Bikrami solar event dates are therefore directly preserved under the original solar date name, yet synchronized with the Tropical calendar. This monumental output after long research by Pal Singh Purewal will only be more appreciated as time goes by.

Next, we’ll see how, without a handy calendar reference, it is difficult to determine correct dates for a common person. For instance, if this article is being read on Monday, January 1st 2018 (CE), then we also know that the same physical Monday can also be referenced as December 19th 2017 in the Julian calendar. It just happens that CE, or Gregorian, calendar is more commonly used today. However, Julian calendar is still used in some eastern orthodox sections of Christianity. Consequently, adherents of Julian calendar today celebrate Christmas on Julian December 25th (January 7th in the Common Era calendar, which will shift to January 8th in year 2101 CE).

A similar, and even more profound, recent issue can be illustrated in the context of Shaheedi (martyrdom) of elder and younger Sahibzadas, along with Mata Gujri ji. Their respective Shaheedi days are commonly accepted to be 8-Poh and 13-Poh. Now let’s examine when they actually occurred in 2017 under relevant calendar variations. See the table below

In-depth examination of how varying Bikrami Sangraands produce above results is beyond the scope of this article, but a treatise in Gurmukhi can be read here³. Also, high-level astronomical constants that are the underpinnings of these variations can be compared with a tropical year length to verify the results. Nature’s Tropical year length⁴, T, is 365.24219 days per year.

Any year length not matching with T above will drift away from seasons at the lag rate given by equation:

Lag = 1/(x-T)

Where x is any reference calendar length value A through E below:

Just as how scientific community has been adjusting our time keeping with leap-seconds⁵, it is not a question of if, but when, in future centuries a leap-day adjustment would be made to correct for Tropical calendar’s 1/2 – day drift. Thus, a tropical calendar is expected to be always in sync with the seasons. Which in turn means that the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar would always be in sync with seasons as well during the entire future of humanity – on earth or in colonized space!Example, for Bikrami (Drik Ganit) the Lag = 1/(365.2563 – 365.24219) = 70.87 (years to drift by a day).

For immediate purpose, though, the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar App (for Android⁶ and i-OS⁷ mobile platforms) thus is indispensable to cut through the clutter of information. Much of the confusion with dates can thus be avoided with all the information available on finger tips.

This multilingual app (English, Gurmukhi, Devnagri, with Shahmukhi in-development) goes up to year 9,999 CE. The purpose to be able explore several human life-spans in future is to demonstrate how this calendar is always in sync with seasons over thousands of years. A Bikrami calendar covering this much time-span will immediately highlight the problem of drifting seasons.

With the illustration of the default home-screen below, various features and navigational tips are listed as follows:

1) Menu -> Language, selects desired language

2) Menu -> Home, returns to today’s date

3) Menu -> Events, lists all events by month

4) Other Menu selections are self-explanatory

5) Search event with a keyword in the selected language. Example, when the language is English then “Parkaash” search will list all birthday Gurpurabs.

6) Play button plays Bareh-maha audio of the selected (highlighted date’s) month

7) Color coded dates for shared desi months in corresponding CE month

8) Advance, and reverse, by century or 1000-year arrows

9) Click on year to select a year within a century. Dates and months are selectable as indicated

10) Stars on dates indicate presence of corresponding historical event

11) Any displayed date can be clicked to select to be able to see quick conversion

A description of the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar would not be complete without highlighting the examples of in-depth historical research by Pal Singh Purewal, namely:

1. Guru Nanak Sahib’s Gurpurab⁸ date⁹ of 1-Vaisaakh (April-14th)
2. Bandhee Shorrd Divas¹⁰ date of 1-Phaggan (February-12th)
3. Hola-Muhalla date¹¹ of 1-Chet (March-14th)

The list of Gurdwaras and organizations, world over, continues to grow¹² that have adopted resolutions for complete adoption of the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar including above listed important dates.

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Footnotes

1. 1. Articles on Gurbani and Nanakshahi Calendar
   2. Comparison between Nanakshahi and Bikrami Calendars 
   3. Sangraand
   4. Tropical year
   5. Leap second
   6. Google Play: Mool Nanakshahi Calendar
   7. iTunes: Mool Nanakshahi Calendar App
   8. Prakash Date Guru Nanak Sahib
   9. Guru Nanak Sahib prakash date
   10. Bandhee Shorrd Divas
   11. SGPC Jantri 1999-2000
   12. List of Gurdwaras for 5 Jan Gurpurab