Tamil date converter
Find the Tamil date, month and year name for any date, or turn a Tamil date into a Gregorian date. It follows the same method as printed Tamil Nadu calendars.
Gregorian date to Tamil date
Tamil date to Gregorian date
When each month starts
Handy for checking against a printed calendar. The second-last column shows when the other method starts each month. Months marked ⚠ begin within about half an hour of sunset, so almanacs may start them a day apart.
| Month | Starts | Days | Sun enters the sign | Sunset | Thirukanitha | Close call |
|---|
How it is worked out
- The Tamil calendar is solar. A month begins when the Sun enters the next sign of the zodiac, measured against the fixed stars. This moment is the sankranti (மாதப் பிறப்பு).
- If the sankranti comes before sunset in Chennai, the month begins that day. If it comes after sunset, the month begins the next day.
- The day number counts up from the first day of the month.
- The year name comes from the 60-year cycle, which began with Prabhava in April 1987. The year changes on Chithirai 1.
Two ways to find the sankranti
- Printed calendars (Vakya). This is the traditional arithmetic of the Vakya almanacs, which most Tamil Nadu daily calendars and temples follow. The year is fixed at 365 days 15 nazhigai 31 vinazhigai 15 tharpara, which is 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes 30 seconds. It is counted from sunrise on the first day of the Kali Yuga in 3102 BCE. The Sun moves faster or slower through the year, and that is corrected with Aryabhata's figures from the Āryabhaṭīya (499 CE): an apogee at 78° and an epicycle of 13°30′.
- Real Sun (Thirukanitha). This uses the Sun's actual position from modern astronomy, measured with the Lahiri ayanamsa. Thirukanitha almanacs and sites such as Drik Panchang use it.
The two methods start a month on different days about one time in four, and more often as the years go by. The Vakya year is about 3 minutes longer than the real one, so the gap between them slowly grows.
Why Margazhi sometimes begins on 17 December
The Vakya year is 6 hours 12½ minutes longer than 365 days. So each sankranti comes about six hours later every year, then moves back a day after each 29 February. In recent years the Margazhi sankranti has fallen around 3 am, 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm on 16 December over each four years. The 9 pm one comes in the year before a leap year, after sunset, so Margazhi begins on 17 December that year, as in 2019, 2023 and 2027. By the real Sun it begins on 16 December in all of these years.
Checked against
The Vakya method here matches all 23 month starts we found published from 2007 to 2026. They come from Tamil Nadu government holiday lists, the Dinamalar daily calendar and almanac websites. The real-Sun method matches 13 of them. The Vakya method is described in the Vākyakaraṇa, a manual from Tamil Nadu of about 1300 CE (edited by T. S. Kuppanna Sastri and K. V. Sarma, Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute, Madras, 1962).
What it does not do
- It is calculated, not official. Each almanac maker works out their own calendar, so when the sankranti falls close to sunset a printed calendar may differ by a day. Those dates are flagged ⚠.
- It does not list festivals, most of which follow the Moon, or government holidays. The Tamil Nadu government publishes its holiday list every year.
- It covers the years 1950 to 2100.
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