India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s14.15

c8.s14.15

*AHORĀTRA* (III.3.137, VI.2.33)—Night and day constitute the fundamental unit of time-reckoning. The terms *naktandivam* and *rātrindivam* (*sūtra*, V.4.77) are according to Fleet rather peculiar since in India the day has always been measured from sunrise and he suggested that the forms may be due to euphonic considerations. Dr. Keith, however, thinks that they were genuine old expressions preserved in Pāṇini from a very remote past when the day was reckoned with sunset (*J.R.A.S.*, 1916, p. 143-6).¹ It is admitted that in the Sūtra period the day was reckoned with sunrise.