Indian Time Measurement System

By - Sanjay Triguni
A minute equals sixty seconds and sixty minutes equal an hour and 24 hours constitute a day.... so forth and so on,  and it is 1999 now ! Sounds ok !. It does not sound very Indian though- definitely not. How did we measure and  define time for thousands of years ?  If we got civilized earlier,  we definitely should  have evolved a time system earlier too. There is a lot of hype about the New Millenium- the Year 2000 !! We Indians too have something to celebrate today- March 18th 1999 !! today is the first day of the year 5101 of Kali Yug (Kal-yug) or ir is  referred to as Kali-Yugaabdh. Did we know that ?  And do we know why ? Do we want to know ? If yes, then this write-up may shed some light on that.

Purans and Vedas and other ancient scriptures talk of some "time systems". But this knowledge has been lost and tainted over the centuries. How/ Why ? First, because of  the antiquity of these magnificient treatise' ; Second, innumerable attempts  have been  made by foreign invaders ,  again and again-  for centuries, to wipe out this knowledge; third, Indian culture had a lot of openeness which  encouraged new ideas and information to be  added  to the  already existing  "database". Finally, a lot of  knowledge contained in these ancient texts was encrypted so that if it were to fall into "wrong" hands it could not be easily interpreted. So if today some one wishes to interpret it- they better be smart !!

Now a days  there is  concerted effort to restore and decipher this knowledge- by some Indian scholars around the world. And that is helping us in understanding our glorious past. Let us support them  (these scholars) - at least let us listen to them !  Let us give them a chance to present "our" case ! Let us encourage them !! It will go a long way in restoring our pride and it will bring to us a sense of gladness and respect about our past and heritage. We were glorious !! An understanding of the past can only help us in  doing it again !!

Lets get back to the subject. How accurate was this time system ? Was it scientific ?  Sadly, to prove that we compare it to the modern system. We will not divert too  much by comparing them both.  But to give an example, Indians in ancient times had calculated the time period for a cycle of creation of our universe  till its destruction as 8 .64 billion years. Interesting , because that is  what the modern scientists claim  too- based on their scientific calculations. Ancient Indians had defined larger time cycles too.  How?

Lets start from the beginning since we are talking about time !  But according to Indian philosophy there is no beginning (or end) !! When we say  beginning, it means beginning of "a" cycle. In the beginning there was only  Divine Energy. This energy  is referred to as  "Brahman"  ( this brahman has nothing to do with the caste system ! ).This Brahman  or the energy takes three shapes- that of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. The Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer.

There is only a sea of water and in that sea is an Egg,  and from that  Egg emerges Brahma. The Egg is referred to as "Hiranyagarbha"- the golden womb or egg. This is the first step to all creation.  During Brahma's day there is creation, at night there is destruction or  "pralaya".  What does Brahma's day  mean ?

Physically, one "God" year or day is not equal to one man year or day. Why is that?  Its not to confuse us- I hope !!  A thought here. I feel that a  year for us is defined  by our Solar system with Sun being the center of the system. But other solar systems, in the same universe, will have a different Sun's , and obviously their "day" and "year" will not be equal to ours. So the common/constant unit will be  "Gods" time scale ! Thus there is a  God time scale and there is a Man (earth) time scale. Lets crunch some numbers now.

"Nimesh" is the time it takes to blink an eye. This is the smallest unit  of time (similar to seconds). Fifteen  Nimesh add up to one "Kashth".  Thirty Kashth's  equal a "Kaal", and  thirty Kaal's make a "Muhurt". Thirty Muhurt's sum up to a  "Ahoratr". One Ahoratr constitutes a day.
 Thus there are thirty Muhurts in a day (or in one  Ahoratr) – fifteen each for day and night. A God Ahoratr (day) equals one man year. The first six man months- when Gods have their first half of a day is called "Uttar Yaan" and the  next six man months - when Gods have their night is called
"Dakshin Yaan".

Three hundred and sixty human years equal one God year.  Thus 12,000 God years equal 4,320,000  man years. This is a "Maha Yug".
There are four major Yugas or periods/eras. Satya Yug, Tret Yug, Dvapar Yug and Kali Yug.

Satya Yug lasts 1,440,000 man years; Tret Yug for 1,080,000  ; Dwapar Yug for 720, 000 and  Kali Yug for 360,000 man years. In addition ,there  are other time  periods between these four Yugas.  These periods are  referred to  as "Sandhyamsh" and they last for 720, 000 man years. Adding up the four Yugas and the Sandhyamsh we get a total of  4,320,000  man years or a  Maha Yuga.

Hold on , there is more !! But do these numbers sound too large and too vague ? Thats  what we tend to feel/ think till we realize that they can carry so much truth. Ignorance  never carries an answer. At least not the truth. One "Manvantr" equals seventy one Mahayugas. Thus there are 296,720,000  man years in a  Manvantr. One "Kalp" equals a thousand Mahayugas. Thus there are 4,320,000,000 man years in a Kalp. One Kalp corresponds to one Brahma day ! Thus there are 8,640,000,000 man years in one day/night of Brahma. Between the time he opens his eyes-  to  start all over again. Time between creation and destruction.

That is a count of 8.64 billion years !! It is the same as calculated by present day  science !! But even the present day science cannot divide  this time period as done so, poetically and scientifically, by our ancient  scriptures. Is this a coincidence ? A lucky guess by ourancestors ? ....You guess!!

How do we calculate our festivals ? It does not fall on the same date each year! Indians use Lunar calendar for these calculations. A lunar month has  28 days. But there are only 12 defined months(Maas): Chaitr, Vaishakh, Jyeshth,  Ashaad, Shravan, Bhadr-pad, Aasvij, Kartik, Maargsir, Pushya and Magha.

There is a problem here, these 12 months add up to 48 solar weeks, and an year has 52 solar weeks ! Physically- the year is after all defined by the Sun ! The  concept of "Adhik Maas" is applied here. Every year one month (four weeks) is  added to make it 52 weeks. This year the extra month is Adhik Jyeshth.  Thus there are 8 weeks of Jyeshtha Maas- Adhik and Niji (real Jyeshtha).

There are 2 weeks in a lunar month, comprising of 15 days each (equalling 14 Sun days).  They are: Poornima/Amavasya, Padyami, Vidiya, Tadiya, Chaturthi, Panchami,  Shashti,  Saptami, Ashtami, Navami, Dashami, Ekadashi, Dvadashi, Trayodagi and  Chaturthi. These name may vary depending on language and region.

By the way- why are we celebrating the year 5101 today ?
Logically- because Kali Yug began 5100 years ago !! Also, Kalyug began the day after Lord Krishna took maha-samadhi! That day was exactly 36  years after the advent of Mahabharat !

Mahabharat began in the year 3138 BC  !!! We can discuss that later !
For now lets just say "Happy New Year/Century" !!

To see the depth of  knowledge possesed by our ancestors, as early as
4000 years ago,  following are quotes from Atharva Veda:
 
 

This observation was not within the fold of modern knowledge till even a few hundred years ago !!!

A special thanks to my frined K. Ravi, Dallas, for indulging with me for countless hours calculating and debating the "yugas" and their time periods. Also to  Sunil Fotedar, Dallas,  for providing me with much needed material for research  and reference ! Everlasting (at least a few Kalpas !! )  thanks to my father  Dr. J.N. Sharma for providing me with original Atharv Veda quotes for a lifetime ! And finally thanks to Shri Milind Jalwadi for inviting me to write this !!