Calendars of Egypt and India
Pyramid at Giza
Egypt
The Egyptians held fast to a complicated calendar with two different mutually shifting years and festivals. They had a 365 day calendar which included five additional feast days and a Sothis calendar of 365 1/4 days based on the helical rising of the star Sothis (Sirius). This was later called the Canicular Year ( Sirius is known as the "dog star" and dog in Latin is canis). The Egyptians knew that the two of the calendars would be out of step after 1,461 years and would make adjustments accordingly. Prior to the adoption of the solar calendar, the Egyptians followed a lunar calendar. The change-over from lunar to solar measurement is perhaps reflected in the mythic tale in which the Creator forbids Geb (father earth) and Nut (mother sky) from engaging in intercourse. They disregard his wishes and after Nut conceives, the Creator decrees that she shall bear her offspring "in no month of the year." The poor mother, heavy with child and in extreme distress, sought the help of Thoth who agreeably engaged the Moon in a dice game in which the prize was five additional days. Thoth won the game and offered them to Nut who could now bear her children by Geb "in no month of the year." The additional days bring the lunar calendar and the solar calendar into harmony.
India
Daksha Praja-pati, the Lord-of-Progeny is, in the Vedas
, the source of cosmic movement which is inextricably intertwined
with the great seasonal cycles - which lead to his identification
with the calendrical year, measured initially as 360 days and
later as 365 days. What gives the Hindu calendrical computations
great force is the concept of earlier ages measured in millions
of years. These ages are called yugas and there are four
in all. 
The first of
these is Satya Yuga the color of which is white, followed
by Treta Yuga the color of which is red, Dvapara Yuga
whose color is yellow, and the last and present age - the Kali
Yuga whose color is black. The Kali Yuga is considered
to have begun in 3102 bce. During each yuga humanity
experiences a corresponding decline in moral and civilized life
until the end of the cycle where ignorance, vice, and disease are
preponderant and the age comes to an end (Kali destroys Time) and
the cycle begins anew. To the right is the Yantra of Kali.