Observed on April 14, 1998, marking the transition of the Sun into the sign of Aries (Mesha Rashi).
Hindu years are named in a 60-year cycle. The Tamil year corresponding to most of the Gregorian year 1998 was (starting mid-April 1998), preceded by Iswara (1997-1998). Vakya Panchangam 1998
“That’s the ancestral moon,” Sastrigal said softly. “The Drik system cannot see it because it’s not a physical body. It’s a vakya — a sentence in the grammar of time. Some eclipses, some conjunctions, some tithis exist only in memory and meaning. Your great-grandfather didn’t compute them. He heard them.” Observed on April 14, 1998, marking the transition