Nepal Sambat

Coin issued in the name of
King Ranjit Malla dated Nepal Sambat 842 (1722 AD)

Nepal Sambat (Devanagari: नेपाल सम्बत) is the national lunar calendar of Nepal.The era started on 20 October 879 AD and was in widespread use for all daily purposes until the beginning of the 20th century. It appeared on coins, stone and copper plate inscriptions, royal decrees, chronicles, Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts, legal documents and correspondence.

The name Nepal Sambat was used for the calendar for the first time in Nepal Sambat 148 (1028 AD).The year 2013 AD corresponds to 1133 in Nepal Sambat and 2069 in the Bikram Sambat calendar.

National era

Following a period of official neglect, Nepal Sambat has been revived as a symbol of Nepal's glory and national unity. In 2008, the government named it a national era. On 25 October 2011, the government decided to bring Nepal Sambat into use as the country's national calendar, and formed a taskforce to make recommendations on its implementation. However, no action has been taken after that to bring the era into practice

During the celebrations marking New Year's Day of Nepal Sambat 1133 on 14 November 2012, the organizing committee demanded that Nepal Sambat too be printed on banknotes and coins while the prime minister pledged to give a public holiday on New Year's Day from 2013.

The Nepal Sambat movement achieved its first success on 18 November 1999 when the government declared the founder of the calendar, a trader of Kathmandu named Sankhadhar Sakhwa (संखधर साख्वा), a national hero. On 26 October 2003, the Department of Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp depicting his portrait.A statue of Sankhadhar was erected in Tansen, Palpa in western Nepal on 28 January 2012.

Statue of Sankhadhar Sakhwa
at Pulchok, Lalitpur.

History

Nepal Sambat was started in 879 AD during the reign of King Raghav Dev to commemorate the payment of all the debts of the Nepalese people by a Nepalese trader named Sankhadhar Sakhwa.According to the legend, the astrologer of the king of Bhaktapur calculated the auspicious time and date when sand dug at the confluence of the Bhacha Khusi and Bishnumati rivers in Kathmandu would contain gold.

So the king sent a team of porters to Kathmandu to collect sand at the special hour. A local merchant, Sankhadhar Sakhwa, saw them resting with their baskets of sand at a traveler's shelter at Maru. He thought it strange that people should come all this distance to get sand. So he talked the porters into dumping their load at his home, convincing them that they could always get more. Later, Sankhadhar found gold in his sand, while the king of Bhaktapur was left with a pile of ordinary sand. Sankhadhar used the windfall to repay everybody's debts and cancel their IOUs and start a new calendar.

The government has decided to set up Sankhadhar Sakhwa National Academy in the name of the founder of the era.