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A lunisolar calendar is always a calendar that is based on the moon's celestial motion, which in a way keeps itself close to a solar calendar based on the sun's apparent celestial motion. That is, the lunisolar calendar's new year is to kept always close, within certain limits, to a solar calendar's new year. Since the Hindu lunar month names are based on solar transits, and the month of Chaitra will always be close to the solar month of Mesha, the Hindu lunisolar calendar will always keep in track with the Hindu solar calendar. The Hindu solar calendar by contrast starts on April fourteenth or fifteenth each year. This signifies the sun's entry into Mesha rasi and is celebrated as the New Year in Assam, Bengal, Orissa, Manipur, Nepal, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Tripura. The first month of the year is called Chitterai in Tamil, Medam in Malayalam, and Baisakh in Bengali and Punjabi. This solar new year is now celebrated on the same day in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand due to Hindu influence on those countries. The epoch, which is the starting point or the first day of the zeroth year, of the current era of Hindu calendar in both the solar and the lunisolar is February the eighteenth 3102 BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar or January the twenty third 3102 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. Both the solar and lunisolar calendars started on this date. Then after that, each year is labeled by the number of years elapsed since the epoch. This is a unique feature of the Hindu calendar. All other systems use the current ordinal number of the year as the year label. However, just as a person's true age is measured by the number of years that have elapsed starting from the date of the person's birth, the Hindu calendar measures the number of years elapsed. As of May 18, 2005, 5106 years had elapsed in the Hindu calendar. However, the lunisolar calendar year usually starts earlier than the solar calendar year, so the exact year will not begin on the same day every year. Apart from the numbering system, there is also a cycle of sixty calendar year names, called the Samvatsaras, which started at the first year, at elapsed years zero, and runs continuously. Hinduism has of four eras or ages, of which we are currently in the last. These four eras are known as Krita Yuga or Satya Yuga, TretYuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. They are often translated into English as the golden, silver, bronze, and Iron Ages. Yuga means era or age. The ages see a gradual decline of dharma, wisdom, knowledge, intellectual capability, life span. and emotional and physical strength. The Kali Yuga is 432,000 years long. The Dvapara, Treta and Krita Yugas are two, three, and four times the length of the Kali Yuga, respectively. Thus they together constitute 4,320,000 years, which is called a Chaturyuga. Chaturyugas are said to be one day and night of the creator Brahma.
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