The Sanathanic / Hindu system of measurement of time for a day
starts with a wink of the eye.
The wink makes us, the humans, differ from devas who do not wink.
(That is why they are known as 'Imaiyavar' in Tamil – those who don't wink)
That means there is no time for them.
Time is applicable for us in the created world.
18 winks = 1 kashtam
30 kashtam = 1 kala
30 kala = 1 vinadi
60 vinadi = 1 naazhigai / ghati = 24 minutes
2 naazhigai / ghati = 1 muhurtha
30 muhurtha = 1 day = 24 hours
or
60 naazhigai / ghati = 1 day.
Another way is to take 'truti' as the basic unit.
Truti is the time taken for a needle to prick a lotus leaf.
60 truti = 1 prana (1 inhale + 1 exhale = 1 prana)
6 pranas = 1 vinadi
60 vinadi = 1 naazhigai
(and the rest continues as before.)
Another way of calculation is like this.
1 day = 10 jaamam.
10 jaamam = 30 muhurthas = 60 ghatis.
1 jaamam = 3 muhurthas = 6 ghatis
1 jaamam = 6 x 24 = 144 minutes = 2 hours, 24 minutes.
The further division of time until the basic unit is like this.
1 ghati / naazhigai = 60 vinadi / vighati = 24 minutes
1 vinadi = 60 lipta
1 lipta = 60 viliptas
1 vilipta = 60 para
1 para = 60 tatapras.
So a day was divisible into
60 x 60 x 60 x 60 x 60 x 60 basal units of tatapara
according to Hindu system!!
9 comments:
Hi,
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Works speak for a person.
My works are my profile:)
hello,
u ve done a gr8 job. can u pls tell me when is the first jaamam starts in a day?
Thanks,
Ganesh
Jaamam starts at sun rise at a place. Jaamams are calculated for Day and night. (sun rise to sun set and from sunset to sunrise) There are 5 jaamams in day and 5 in night. Depending on sun rise and sun set timings, the duration of jammam will change for different places.
Divide the day / night into 5 equal parts. Each will be a jaamam. It is basically calculated in nazhigai basis only. If we assume that the day / night has 30 naazhigai, each jaamam will have 6 naazhigai = 6 x 24 minutes = 2 hrs and 24 minutes.
Nowadays we just divide the time of day / night duration into 5 and count the hrs & minutes from sun rise at a place.
Today Jaamam times are used in Pancha pakshi sastra.
Excellent insight as usual _/\_
The information is very useful, while reading the ithikasas this time calculation will be very helpful. Keep going
60x60x60x60x60x60=36000000
This calculation I didn't understand as multiplication is ???
Please explain 🙏
@ Unknown,
Thanks for pointing out.
Corrected it.
Thanks much for this delineation of the structure of time in our system.
As I think about this, I am left with many a questions...
1. For example, we divide the day in to 60 equal units of 60 naazhigais (equivelent to 24 minutes); whereas the current system divides the day in to 24 parts of 60 minutes each. So, is there a significance to our way of dividing, in comparison to the current system? What could possibly be the disadvantages of 24 part division?
2. Assuming, there is a significance, and a disadvantage, I am so used to the 60 minutes, 12+12 hours clock system... Using this way to adapt to our system looks a little complicated to me, as I need to work with the multiples of 24, 48 etc. How can I bring our system of time in to my daily usage?
3. Do we have any literature that defines how the structure of time itself came in to existence? I guess this might be from an observation of the periodicity of the sun rise to sun set, and from sun set to sun rise...
4. How did 60 as a number get prominance in our system of time measurement? (I gather that, we have 60 years that goes in rotation in to one cycle)
Would be grateful for a discussion on these.
Warm Regards
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