Chatramonth

Chaitra is the spring month that the translator’s commentary associates with Ráma’s birth and the vernal equinox. In the notes, it provides a calendar setting for the birth’s astrological description, while another annotation connects the month’s name to a star in Virgo.

Calendar and Season

The commentary describes Chaitra as the first of the two months assigned to spring, corresponding in its reckoning to the latter half of March and the first half of April. It suggests that the poet intended Ráma’s nativity to coincide with the vernal equinox. These statements belong to the translator’s explanatory notes: they present an interpretation of the poem’s seasonal and astronomical details, rather than an independently established date.

Astronomical Associations

The birth-note links the lunar mansion Punarvasu with Aditi and lists planetary positions associated with the nativity, inviting astronomers to consider whether the described positions agree and what date might follow. The discussion places the birth in the boundary between the Treta and Dvapara ages in Indian tradition, while cautioning that this may be allegorical. A separate note identifies a star in Virgo as the source of the month’s name, written there as Chaitra or Chait.