Adhik Maas
Adhik Maas is the extra lunar month added roughly every 32½ months to keep the lunar year aligned with the solar year. It is devoted to Vishnu and not used for auspicious beginnings.
આગામી
- 2026 જેઠ 2026-05-17 → 2026-06-15
- 2029 ચૈત્ર 2029-03-15 → 2029-04-14
- 2031 ભાદરવો 2031-08-18 → 2031-09-17
દિલ્હી માટે ગણતરી. બીજું શહેર
Why an extra month is needed
Twelve lunar months are about eleven days shorter than the solar year. Without correction, festivals would drift through the seasons. The rule is astronomical: a lunar month in which the Sun enters no new sign, that is a month with no sankranti, is declared adhik (extra) and takes the name of the following month with the prefix adhik. The adhik month comes first, then the nija (regular) month of the same name.
The intervals between adhik months range from about 28 to 36 lunar months. Very rarely a month contains two sankrantis and is a kshaya (lost) month; that happened in 1963, 1982 and will again in 2124, and such a year has two adhik months as well.
What is observed
Adhik Maas is also called Purushottam Maas, dedicated to Vishnu. Reading the Bhagavata, fasting on its two Ekadashis, lamp offerings and charity are its practices. Marriages, griha pravesh, mundan and other samskaras are not performed in it; festivals that would fall in it are kept in the nija month.
Hastro names adhik months on the calendar and treats them as an exclusion in the muhurat rules that ask for it.
FAQ
When is the next Adhik Maas?
Computed above from the sankranti rule for the coming years.
Does the extra month change festival dates?
Festivals are kept in the regular month of the same name, so in an adhik year they fall about a month later in the civil calendar than the year before.