India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s14.17

c8.s14.17

The division of the day into *muhūrtas* was also known, the expiry of a *muhūrta* period being quoted as a factor to determine tenses (III.3.9; III.3.164). Patañjali on *sūtra*, II.¹.28 refers to a variable period of six *muhūrtas* (*shaṇ-muhūrtāś charācharāḥ*, I.384). This may be understood in the light of Kauṭilya who states that the day consisted of 30 *muhūrtas* and that the equinoctial day and night of 15 *muhūrtas* each fell in the month of Chaitra and Aśvayuj; the solstitial points, however, caused night and day to increase and diminish by three *muhūrtas* each (*Artha.* II.20, p. 108). These six *muhūrtas* representing the maximum increase of day in summer and of night in winter must have been called *charāchara*.