Vikram Samvat (विक्रम संवत्), called Bikram Sambat in Nepal where it is the official calendar, is a traditional Hindu lunisolar calendar whose epoch lies 57 BCE. As a result it runs roughly 56–57 years ahead of the Gregorian (CE) calendar. This converter translates a date in either direction and tells you exactly which offset it applied.
Why Vikram Samvat runs “ahead” of the Gregorian calendar
The Vikram Samvat era counts from 57 BCE, traditionally associated with the reign of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. Because the starting point predates the Christian era by 57 years, and because the VS year begins in spring rather than January, any given CE year corresponds to a VS year that is 56 or 57 higher. This is the same structural reason that other traditional calendars (Hebrew, Persian, Buddhist) also show large numeric gaps from the Gregorian — they simply started counting from a different historical event.
How the +56 / +57 split works
The Vikram Samvat year begins at Mesha Sankranti — the solar entry into Aries — which falls around 14 April in the Gregorian calendar (1 Baisakh in the Nepali system). This creates the split:
- A Gregorian date before the spring new year (roughly 1 January to 13 April) is still in the previous VS year — so it takes the +56 offset.
- A date on or after the new year (roughly 14 April to 31 December) is in the current VS year — so it takes the +57 offset.
VS = CE + 56 or CE + 57 accordingly; the reverse conversion subtracts the same offset. Because the month and day decide the boundary, year-level accuracy is exact when you provide the full date.
Conversion table
| Gregorian date | Offset | Vikram Samvat year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January 2026 | +56 | 2082 VS |
| 13 April 2026 | +56 | 2082 VS |
| 14 April 2026 | +57 | 2083 VS |
| 1 December 2026 | +57 | 2083 VS |
| 1 January 2027 | +56 | 2083 VS |
Note that VS year 2083 contains portions of both Gregorian year 2026 and 2027, reflecting the spring-to-spring structure.
Bikram Sambat and Nepal
In Nepal, the calendar is called Bikram Sambat (BS) and is the country’s official civil calendar — used for government documents, newspapers, and public life. The Nepali New Year (Naya Barsha) falls on Baisakh 1, which corresponds to approximately 13–14 April in the Gregorian calendar (the exact day varies slightly year to year due to the lunisolar calculation). The VS and BS systems use identical year numbers and the same +56/+57 offset rule.
Limits of this converter
The year-level conversion is reliable when you provide the month and day. Vikram Samvat is lunisolar, so individual months begin and end based on the moon’s cycle rather than fixed calendar positions. The length of a given month (Baisakh, Jestha, Ashadh, etc.) in BS may be 29 or 30 days, and can vary year to year. This means that while the year number is exactly correct, converting a specific day within a month (for example, Baisakh 15 to Gregorian) requires a full panchang (almanac) calculation. For precise festival dates, auspicious-day planning, or legal document dates in Nepal, consult an authoritative panchang. Everything runs in your browser and your date is never sent anywhere.