Adhik Maas: the extra month
Twelve lunar months are about 11 days shorter than a solar year. To keep festivals in their seasons, a thirteenth lunar month — Adhik Maas — is added every two to three years.
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How it works
The engine's rule: if the Sun does not enter a new sidereal rashi between the two new moons that bound a lunar month — no Sankranti falls in it — that month is Adhik. It takes the name of the month that follows, which is then called Nija (regular).
The opposite case, a lunar month in which the Sun enters two rashis, is a Kshaya (lost) month, and one month name is skipped. It is rare.
Festivals are normally kept in the Nija month rather than the Adhik month. Many families use the Adhik month, also called Purushottam Maas, for extra devotion.
In this site's engine
For each lunation the engine finds the bounding new moons and compares the Sun's sidereal rashi at both: the same rashi means Adhik, two steps means Kshaya. The search below scans up to 40 lunations each way.
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