Adhika māsa
अधिकमास
Everyday Hindi: अधिक मास (पुरुषोत्तम मास)
Intercalary lunar month inserted when no saṅkrānti falls within it.
Definition
An adhika māsa ('extra month') arises when a lunar month (new moon to new moon) contains no saṅkrānti; it takes the name of the following month with the prefix adhika. It keeps the lunar calendar in step with the solar year, occurring about once every 32 to 33 months. It is also called mala māsa or puruṣottama māsa, and almanacs treat it differently from ordinary months for observances.
Articles that use this term
- PanchangaExplainer
Why Diwali's date moves every year
Diwali is fixed by the Moon, not the Sun: by the new Moon that closes Ashwina, by the evening it covers, and by the Lakshmi Puja window inside that evening.
7 min read · 3 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Ekadashi: the eleventh lunar day
Why a lunar year has 24 Ekadashis and sometimes 26, and why smarta and vaishnava almanacs can print different dates for the same one.
7 min read · 2 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Sankranti: the Sun's twelve sign entries
Why Makar Sankranti stays near 14 January while Diwali wanders, how the twelve sankrantis are classed, and the slow drift that will move the date.
6 min read · 26 September 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Adhika masa: the leap month
Twelve lunar months fall about eleven days short of the solar year. How the calendar inserts a thirteenth month, when it does so, and what the rare lost month is.
6 min read · 25 September 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Amanta and purnimanta: the Hindu calendar's two month systems
Two ways of deciding where a lunar month ends, why they give one festival two month-names, and which regions use which.
7 min read · 24 September 2026