Nepal Calendar Systems: Bikram Sambat vs Nepal Sambat vs Saka vs AD

When people say 'Nepal is 57 years ahead', they mean its official calendar, Bikram Sambat (BS, also written Vikram Samvat), is numbered from an era that began in 57 BCE (Before the Common Era). Because the count starts 57 years earlier than the Gregorian calendar's year zero, the BS year is normally 56 to 57 higher than the AD/CE year for the same day. For most of the year the difference is 57; from about January to mid-April it is 56, because the two calendars start their years in different months. As a concrete anchor, Bikram Sambat 2082 began on 14 April 2025 (1 Baishakh 2082 BS).

But Nepal does not use just one calendar. In everyday life, almanacs (patro), newspapers and government notices routinely display several eras together. The four that matter are Bikram Sambat, Nepal Sambat, the Saka era and the Gregorian (AD) calendar. Each has a different starting point (its 'epoch'), a different structure (solar or lunisolar) and a different New Year, which is exactly why the year numbers differ so widely: the same afternoon can be 2082 BS, 1146 Nepal Sambat, 1947 Saka and 2025 AD all at once.

This page explains each of the four eras in plain terms, sets out the fixed offsets you add or subtract to move between them, and answers the questions Nepalis actually search for, such as 'nepal sambat kun saal' (what year is it in Nepal Sambat) and the difference between Bikram Sambat and Nepal Sambat. Where a system is lunisolar, remember that exact day-to-day conversion needs an astronomical almanac; the year-level offsets here are for understanding, not for fixing precise festival dates.

Bikram Sambat is the official civil calendar of Nepal, used for government dates, citizenship documents, land records, academic sessions and daily life. Its era is counted from 57 BCE and, by tradition, is linked to the legendary Indian king Vikramaditya. The version used in Nepal is a solar calendar: the year is tied to the sun's path, months vary from about 29 to 32 days, and the year always contains twelve months from Baishakh to Chaitra. The New Year falls on 1 Baishakh, which lands around 13-15 April each year.

Bikram Sambat is centuries old as a dating system, but it became Nepal's standardised state calendar relatively recently. The Rana regime made it the official calendar in 1901 CE, the year that opened as 1958 BS; this replaced Nepal Sambat in official use and gave the administration a single, consistent solar year for tax, land and revenue records. Because it is solar, Bikram Sambat does not need the frequent 'extra month' corrections that lunar calendars require, which made it convenient for bureaucracy.

To convert between Bikram Sambat and the Gregorian year, add roughly 57 (or 56 from January to mid-April) to the AD year to get BS, or subtract the same to go back. So 2025 CE is mostly 2082 BS, and 1 January 2025 was still in 2081 BS until the Nepali New Year in mid-April. For an exact day, month and date conversion you should use a proper BS-AD date converter or patro, because the months do not line up neatly with Gregorian months.

Nepal Sambat is the only calendar era that originated inside Nepal itself, which gives it strong national and cultural significance. It is a lunisolar era counted from 20 October 879 CE, and by tradition it was founded by Sankhadhar Sakhwa (also spelt Shankhadhar Sakhwa), a Newar merchant who, the chronicles say, cleared the debts of the people of Nepal and inaugurated a debt-free new era. As a lunisolar system, its months follow the moon and are split into a bright, waxing fortnight (thwa) and a dark, waning fortnight (ga).

For centuries Nepal Sambat was the state calendar, until the Ranas replaced it in official use with Bikram Sambat in 1901 CE. It survived as a living cultural calendar among the Newar community and was later given national recognition (around 2007-08). Most significantly, on 13 November 2023 the Council of Ministers under Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal decided to bring Nepal Sambat into use in all government documents and works alongside Bikram Sambat, so newspapers and official notices now commonly carry Nepal Sambat too.

The Nepal Sambat New Year, Nhu Da, does not fall on 1 January or in mid-April. It arrives in autumn, on the first day of the bright fortnight of the month of Kachhala, which coincides with the fourth day of Tihar (Swanti) and is welcomed with Mha Puja, the Newar 'worship of the self'. To estimate the year, subtract about 879-880 from the AD year: Nepal Sambat 1146 began on 22 October 2025. Because the New Year turns in autumn, the exact offset flips around that date each year.

The Saka era (Shaka Samvat) is an older South Asian era counted from 78 CE, the year now widely linked to the accession of the Indo-Scythian (Shaka) rulers of western India. Because its epoch is 78 CE, the Saka year is usually 78 years behind the Gregorian year (79 behind from about January to March). It became the era of India's official national calendar in 1957, is used by All India Radio and the Gazette of India, and still appears in traditional Nepali and Indian almanacs and in the dating of many classical inscriptions and horoscopes. Its New Year falls near the vernal equinox, on 1 Chaitra (around 22 March).

In Nepal, the Saka era is not an everyday civil calendar the way Bikram Sambat is, but it remains important for scholars and astrologers: countless Lichhavi and Malla-era stone inscriptions and manuscripts are dated in Saka, so reading Nepal's medieval history means converting Saka dates. The mid-2025 Saka year is 1947, which is why you may see 1947 Saka printed alongside 2082 BS and 2025 CE in a detailed patro. The roughly 135-year gap between Bikram Sambat and Saka simply reflects that BS starts 57 BCE while Saka starts 78 CE, a difference of 135 years.

The Gregorian calendar, referred to in Nepal as the AD (Anno Domini) or English (Angreji) calendar, is the international standard used for foreign affairs, aviation, trade, banking dates and global communication. It is a purely solar calendar with a fixed New Year on 1 January and the familiar January-to-December months. Nepal keeps the Gregorian calendar as its bridge to the rest of the world while using Bikram Sambat for internal official business, which is why passports, visas and international contracts appear in AD dates.

The simplest way to think about conversion is to fix everything to the Gregorian (AD) year and then apply each era's offset. For the solar calendars (Bikram Sambat, Saka, Gregorian) the offset is almost constant, changing only by one around each calendar's New Year. For the lunisolar Nepal Sambat, the year-level offset (about 879-880) flips around its autumn New Year. The table below gives the practical rules of thumb; for an exact day and month you still need an almanac or a date converter.

Worked example for a date in mid-2025 CE: add 57 to get Bikram Sambat 2082; subtract 78 to get Saka 1947; subtract 879 to get Nepal Sambat 1146. All four then describe the same period: 2025 CE = 2082 BS = 1947 Saka = 1146 Nepal Sambat. The reason the Bikram Sambat and Nepal Sambat numbers look so different (2082 versus 1146) is not a contradiction; it is simply that Bikram Sambat's era began over nine centuries before Nepal Sambat's, so BS carries a much bigger count.

Two cautions keep conversions honest. First, near each New Year the offset changes by one: for example, from 1 January to mid-April a Gregorian date is still in the previous Bikram Sambat year, so you add 56 rather than 57. Second, the year-level rules here answer 'what year is it in each era', not 'what is the exact date'; because Nepal Sambat and Saka month structures differ from Gregorian months, a full date conversion of a specific day should always be checked against a published patro.

The deepest difference between these calendars is solar versus lunisolar. Bikram Sambat (in its Nepali civil form), the Saka national calendar and the Gregorian calendar are solar: they track the sun, so their New Year lands on nearly the same Gregorian date every year (mid-April for BS, around 22 March for Saka, 1 January for Gregorian). This stability is why solar calendars are convenient for administration and why Nepal chose the solar Bikram Sambat for official records.

Nepal Sambat is lunisolar, meaning it counts lunar months but keeps them roughly aligned to the solar seasons. Twelve lunar months add up to about 354 days, roughly eleven days short of a solar year, so a lunisolar calendar would drift through the seasons if left alone. To correct this, an extra 'intercalary' or leap month is periodically inserted, called adhik mas or analmasa. In Nepal Sambat an intercalary month is added roughly every three years so festivals stay in their proper season; the same principle governs the lunar reckoning used to fix Hindu festivals.

The differing New Years are the visible result of these structures. Bikram Sambat opens on 1 Baishakh in mid-April; the Saka national calendar opens on 1 Chaitra near the spring equinox in late March; the Gregorian year opens on 1 January; and Nepal Sambat opens in autumn at Tihar with Nhu Da and Mha Puja. Knowing which New Year you are near also tells you which offset to use, since it is precisely at each New Year that an era's number ticks up and its gap to the others changes by one.

In practice, Bikram Sambat governs official and daily civilian life: government letters, the fiscal year, school and university calendars, public holidays, court dates, and the dates on citizenship and land documents are all in BS. When a Nepali asks someone's date of birth or a festival date locally, the answer usually comes in Bikram Sambat. This is the calendar that makes Nepal 'run 57 years ahead' on paper.

The Gregorian calendar operates in parallel for anything international: passports, visas, airline schedules, banking and trade documentation, and academic transcripts intended for use abroad. Nepal Sambat, now printed in government documents alongside Bikram Sambat since 2023, carries the cultural and civic weight of an indigenous era and dates many Newar festivals, jatras and community anniversaries. The Saka era survives chiefly in scholarship, astrology and traditional almanacs, and is essential for reading the inscriptions of Nepal's Lichhavi and Malla past.

For a Nepali audience, the useful takeaway is that these calendars are not competitors but layers: a single detailed patro can show all four at once, each answering a different need. If you only need to know 'what year is it', apply the offsets in this guide; if you need the precise day of a birthday, an inscription date or a moving festival, use a published almanac or a proper date-conversion tool, because lunisolar months and shifting New Years make exact conversion an astronomical calculation rather than simple arithmetic.