<P> Time keeping was important to Vedic rituals, and Jyotisha was the Vedic era field of tracking and predicting the movements of astronomical bodies in order to keep time, in order to fix the day and time of these rituals . This study was one of the six ancient Vedangas, or ancillary science connected with the Vedas--the scriptures of Hinduism . </P> <P> Hindu calendar, sometimes referred to as Panchanga, is a collective term for the various lunisolar calendars traditionally used in Hinduism . They adopt a similar underlying concept for timekeeping, but differ in their relative emphasis to moon cycle or the sun cycle, the names of months and when they consider the New Year to start . The ancient Hindu calendar is similar in conceptual design to the Jewish calendar, but different from the Gregorian calendar . Unlike Gregorian calendar which adds additional days to lunar month to adjust for the mismatch between twelve lunar cycles (354 lunar days) and nearly 365 solar days, the Hindu calendar maintains the integrity of the lunar month, but insert an extra full month by complex rules, every few years, to ensure that the festivals and crop related rituals fall in the appropriate season . </P> <P> The Hindu calendars have been in use in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times, and remains in use by the Hindus in India and Nepal particularly to set the Hindu festival dates . Early Buddhist and Jain communities of India adopted the ancient Hindu calendar, later Vikrami calendar and then local Buddhist calendars . Buddhist and Jain festivals continue to be scheduled according to a lunar system in the luni - solar calendar . </P> <P> The old Roman year had 304 days divided into 10 months, beginning with March . However the ancient historian Livy gave credit to the second early Roman king Numa Pompilius for devising a calendar of 12 months . The extra months Ianuarius and Februarius had been invented, supposedly by Numa Pompilius, as stop - gaps . Julius Caesar realized that the system had become inoperable, so he effected drastic changes in the year of his third consulship . The New Year in 709 AUC began on 1 January and ran over 365 days until 31 December . Further adjustments were made under Augustus, who introduced the concept of the "leap year" in 757 AUC (AD 4). The resultant Julian calendar remained in almost universal use in Europe until 1582, and in some countries until as late as the twentieth century . </P>

When were the months of the year created