India's new years follow two different clocks. Solar new years -- Tamil Puthandu, Vishu in Kerala, Baisakhi in Punjab, Bohag Bihu in Assam, Pohela Boishakh in Bengal and Pana Sankranti in Odisha -- begin when the Sun enters Mesha (sidereal Aries), around 13 to 15 April. Lunar new years -- Ugadi in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra -- begin on the first day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, the day after the new moon that opens that month. Because the lunar month of Chaitra is the one in which the Sun enters Mesha, Ugadi always comes first, up to about a month before Puthandu. Gujarat's new year, Bestu Varas, follows a third rule: the day after Diwali.
☕ Two clocks in the same sky
Think of the Sun as the hour hand of a very slow clock and the Moon as its minute hand. The Sun takes a year to go once around the twelve rasis; the Moon laps the Sun about every 29.5 days. A calendar has to choose which hand it counts by.
Solar (sauramana) regions count the hour hand. Each month begins when the Sun crosses into a new rasi (a sankranti), and the year begins when it crosses into Mesha. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Punjab keep solar months, so their new years land within a day or two of 14 April every year -- which is why Puthandu looks like a fixed date on the Gregorian calendar.
Lunar (chandramana) regions count the minute hand. Each month runs from one new moon to the next (the amanta reckoning used in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat). A lunar month is named after the rasi the Sun enters during it, so Chaitra is the lunar month in which the Sun enters Mesha. The year begins on its first day, Shukla Pratipada -- necessarily before the Sun reaches Mesha, somewhere between late March and mid-April.
Neither is more correct. They are two coordinate systems for the same sky, and each region's festivals are defined inside its own system -- which is why the same week can hold Ugadi in Bengaluru and an ordinary Panguni day in Chennai.
Region by region: which new year, and which rule
- Solar (Sun enters Mesha): Puthandu -- Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Tamils of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore
- Solar: Vishu -- Kerala (the Malayalam era's own year number changes on 1 Chingam, in August or September)
- Solar: Baisakhi / Vaisakhi -- Punjab and Haryana; Bohag Bihu -- Assam; Pana (Maha Vishuba) Sankranti -- Odisha
- Solar: Pohela Boishakh -- West Bengal and Tripura (Bangladesh fixes it on 14 April)
- Solar: the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in Sri Lanka
- Lunar (Chaitra Shukla Pratipada): Ugadi / Yugadi -- Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
- Lunar: Gudi Padwa -- Maharashtra and Goa; Navreh -- Kashmiri Pandits
- Lunar: Hindu Nav Varsh and the start of Chaitra Navratri -- much of North India (Vikram Samvat)
- Lunar, one day later: Cheti Chand -- the Sindhi new year, on Chaitra Shukla Dwitiya
- Lunar, in autumn: Bestu Varas -- the Gujarati new year, on Kartika Shukla Pratipada, the day after Diwali
Frequently asked questions
Are Ugadi and Gudi Padwa the same day?
Yes. Both are the lunar new year on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada -- the first day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra -- so they fall on the same day. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana call it Ugadi; Maharashtra and Goa call it Gudi Padwa.
Why is Tamil New Year always around 14 April?
Because it is a solar new year. Puthandu begins when the Sun enters sidereal Mesha, and the Sun reaches that point on nearly the same Gregorian date every year, so the date moves only between about 13 and 15 April depending on the exact moment of the crossing and the local day.
Why does Ugadi come before Tamil New Year?
A lunar month is named after the rasi the Sun enters during it, so the lunar month of Chaitra is the one in which the Sun enters Mesha. Ugadi is Chaitra's first day, so it always falls before that crossing -- up to about a month before Puthandu, Vishu and Baisakhi.
Are Vishu and Puthandu the same?
They are both celebrated at the Sun's entry into Mesha, so they usually fall on the same day. Vishu is Kerala's festival; the Malayalam (Kollam) era's year number changes on 1 Chingam, in August or September.
Why is the Gujarati new year after Diwali?
Gujarat's lunar year, the Vikram Samvat as reckoned there, begins with the month of Kartika. Its first day, Kartika Shukla Pratipada, is the day after the Diwali new moon, and is celebrated as Bestu Varas.
Which new-year date does Nava Panchangam show?
Nava computes both: the Sun's entry into Mesha, which turns the Tamil year, and the Ugadi day on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, for your own city. It does not yet show the lunar-month (chandramana) date used day to day in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra; that calendar is in development.
Deep dives: naming the month and the year
Why the lunar month is named after a solar event, and why the 60-year name changes on different days.
🌑 The rule that ties Chaitra to Mesha
A lunar month has no name of its own; it borrows one from the Sun. The month in which the Sun enters Mesha is Chaitra, the month in which it enters Vrishabha is Vaishakha, and so on round the year.
Ugadi = Shukla Pratipada of Chaitra → always before that entry
About once every 32 to 33 months a lunar month passes with no solar entry at all. It takes the name of the month that follows and is called adhika (extra). When that happens to Chaitra, calendars have to decide which Pratipada carries the new year -- one of the places regional almanacs can genuinely disagree.
🔁 The 60-year name changes on each calendar's own new year
Both calendars name years from the same cycle of sixty (Prabhava, Vibhava, ... Akshaya). But the name turns on each calendar's own new year: at Ugadi for the lunar calendars of the Deccan, and at Mesha sankranti for the Tamil solar year. For the few weeks between the two, a Bengaluru calendar and a Chennai calendar can print different year names on the same day. Neither is a mistake.