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rapada etc., and the scheme of ksaya of tithis does not conform to the scheme of the Agamas. When therefore a Laukika Panchanga is to be accepted, it must be accepted with all its details of ksaya, yrddhi, intercalary months etc. All members of the Tapagaccha including Acharya Sagarananda Suri admit the occurrence of Sravana and Bhadrapada as intercalary months, and ignore their existence for determining and calculating the date of Samvatsari, which, according to the teaching of the Shastras, should occur after one month and tewenty nights from the beginning of Chaturmasya, leaving some seventy nights for Kartika Purnima.
I was in no small measure suprised to see that Acharya Sagaranand Suri admits Sravana and Bhadrapada as intercalary months against the teaching of the Shastras, and yet refuses to admit the vrddhi of Parvatithis when it occurs in the popular Panchanga. This half-heartedness constitutes the real weakness of his case. He is therefore rightly accused as going in for the famous Ardhajaratiya nyaya, admitting a part, but not admitting the rest.
Issue No. V.
As the Siddhanta Tippana lost currency and its place was taken up by the popular Panchanga, it became neceessary to frame certain rules and lay down certain principles to meet the new conditions or features of the new Panchanga. The features of the poupular Panchanga that required the application of these rules are adjustments due to the existence of ksaya and vrddhi of tithis and occurence of intercalary months. The ksaya of tithis is mentioned in old works like Suryaprajnapti; intercalary months are also mentioned there; but in these works no mention is made how the religious rites fixed for a tithi that is ksina are to be arranged. Pausa and Asadha were the only intercalary months, but they did not much interfere with any major religious rite. Vrddhi of tithis was an altogether a new feature of the popular Panchanga.
Let us now consider what is meant by ksaya and vrddhi of Tithis. It is already said above that the duration of a tithi is governed by the movements of the moon and shows considerable variation, say, from 54 ghatikas to 66 ghatikas, while the duration of the day, i. e., day and night, is approximately constant, say, about 60 ghatikas. It therefore becomes possible that at times a tithi may not touch sun-rise on any day. It is this tithi which does not touch sun-rise on any day that is called a ksina tithi. Such a tithi begins a few moments after the sun-rise and ends some time before the sun-rise on the following day. Similarly, a vrddha tithi is that which touches sun-rise on two consecutive days. As has been mentioned above, the specific duties enjoined to be performed on a tithi cannot be dropped because the tithi is ksina, nor
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