Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Alberuni's India (v. 2)

(London :  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,  1910.)

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GHAPTEE  LI.

AN EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS "ADHIMASA," " UNA-
EATEA," AND THE "AHARGANAS," AS EEPEESENTING
DIFFEEENT   SUMS   OF  DAYS.

On the leap The moiiths of the Hiudus are lunar, their years solar ;
therefore their new year's day must in each solar year
fall by so much earlier as the lunar year is shorter than
the solar (roughly speaking, by eleven days). If this
precession makes up one complete month, they act in
the same way as the Jews, who make the year a leap
year of thirteen months by reckoning the month Adar
twice, and in a similar way to the heathen Arabs, who
in a so-called annus procrastinationis postponed the
new year's day, thereby extending the preceding year
to the duration of thirteen months.

The Hindus call the year in which a month is
repeated in the common language malamdsa. Mala
means the dirt that clings to the hand. As such dirt
is thrown away, thus the leap month is thrown away
out of the calculation, and the number of the months
of a year remains twelve. However, in the literature
the leap month is called adhimdsa.

That month is repeated within which (it being con¬
sidered as a solar month) two lunar months finish. If
the end of the lunar month coincides with the beginning
of the solar month, if, in fact, the former ends before
any part of the latter has elapsed, this month is re¬
peated, because the end of the lunar month, although
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