MalMas - The 13th Month

Every 2.7 years, the lunar and solar months of the Vikram Samvat calendar fall out of step. To realign the rhythms of sun and moon, an extra month is added - MalMas, sometimes called Adhik Mah.

Unlike the other twelve months, MalMas has no fixed place. It belongs to no single season. It slips into the year whenever the lunar and solar cycles misalign. When the sun does not move into a new zodiac during a lunar month, that month repeats itself - creating a silent thirteenth stretch of time.

Note: The Punjabi year follows the Vikram Samvat calendar, which is a lunisolar system that measures time by both the moon’s phases and the sun’s movement through the zodiac. Each lunar month begins with the new moon and lasts about 29.5 days. Twelve lunar months together form a year of about 354 days, which is about 11 days shorter than the solar year of 365 days. Over time, this gap grows, and if left uncorrected, the months would drift away from the seasons.

To keep the calendar in balance, an extra month is added roughly every 2 years and 8 months. This is known as MalMas or Adhik Mah. Unlike the regular twelve, it does not have a fixed place in the year, it appears whenever the lunar and solar cycles fall out of alignment.

In Punjab, MalMas is a pause. Weddings, engagements, and new ventures are delayed until it passes, as people believe it is a month for reflection, not beginnings. Villages turn towards charity, community service, and prayer. Farmers, too, rest - the sowing and harvesting cycles are disrupted by the misalignment, so they tend to tools, care for animals, and gather strength. The pause is not wasted; it is part of the rhythm, a reminder that even time itself needs rest.

History, too, echoes this stillness. Rulers and armies often delayed campaigns until MalMas ended, waiting for the calendar to reset before resuming movement.

MalMas has no certain name, no regular place. It appears as repetition: a year may hold two Pohs, two Maghs, two Phagans. Its arrival stretches the year, making space for the lunisolar pattern to find balance once again.

Where the other months mark change - sowing, harvesting, preparing - MalMas marks stillness. It is the calendar’s quiet reset, a rare moment when the year catches up with itself. A reminder that pauses are as necessary as movement, and reflection as vital as celebration.

A depiction of two moons over a village in the month of Phagan - showing that it is MalMas.

May the thirteenth month remind us that balance is found not only in beginnings and endings, but in the spaces in between.

With reflection,
Trish Saab