Phases of the Moon Image on Flickr.com by David Brossard

Last week, we reviewed counting and cardinal numbers  in Hindi हिंदी गिनती. Let’s extend this to counting the days of the lunar cycle, and an introduction to ordinal numbers. The names for the days of the waxing/waning moon phase are “ordinal” in nature and are referred to by words that indicate their “position” or “order” in the lunar phase (waxing or waning).

The Hindu lunar month is called हिन्दू मास/महीना. It is comprised of two fortnights — the period of the waning moon कृष्ण पक्ष (Krishna paksh) and the period of the waxing moon शुक्ल पक्ष (Shukla paksha). कृष्ण पक्ष ends in the new moon अमावास्या (amavasya) while the शुक्ल पक्ष ends in पूर्णिमा (poornima) or full moon night. In Bollywood movies you will often hear the full moon night referred to as पूनम की रात (poonam ki raat), when lovers plan rendezvous in the moonshine.

Both, the कृष्ण पक्ष and शुक्ल पक्ष have 15 days each, or a fortnight. The days of each of these are as follows:

Learning these will not only make it easier for you to remember (and construct) ordinal numbers, it will enable you to understand references to the days in the phases in the Lunar cycle, especially during the festive months where observances are made on specific days like navami नवमी, dashami दशमी, and so forth.

For example:

Ram Navami is held on the ninth day of the Shukla paksha or waxing phase of the Hindu month Chaitra.

Durga Puja on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami. Image on Flickr.com by Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

Vijaya Dashami or Dashahara is held on the tenth day of the Shukla paksha or waxing phase of the Hindu month Ashvin.

Krishna Janmashtami falls on the eighth day of the Krishna paksha or waning phase of the Hindu month Shravana.