Telugu years

In India, the Telugu year is the calendar year of the Telugu speaking people of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and the enclave Yanam.

Each Yuga (era) has a cycle of 60 years. Each year of Ugadi year has a specific name in Panchangam (astronomical calendar) based on astrological influences and the name of the year; this denotes the overall character of that year. The calendar includes 60 year names. Every 60 years, one name cycle completes, repeat in the next omnibus cycle. For example, the Telugu name for 1954 is "Jaya", and it first repeated in 2014. Ugadi is the Telugu new year festival in spring (usually March or April). These years always change on Ugadi.

In Telugu mythology, the names of the years are those of Maharshi Narada's children's names. To teach a lesson to Naradha, Lord Vishnu presented an illusion to Naradha of a lady, who eventually gave birth birth to 60 children – all of whom were to die in a war. After this denouement, and Narada having learned his lesson, Vishnu offered boon to Naradha that his children's names would be the names of the cyclic, and that their specific characteristics would carry over to those that years. E.g., 2024 is a Krodhi year.