The Rashtrakutas and their Times c20.72

c20.72

The number of prayers, *sandhyās*, was also tending to increase at about our period. As the etymology of the term *sandhyā* shows, the *sandhyā* times could obviously not have been more than two in the beginning. A third *sandhyā*, however, began to be advocated by some of the Smriti writers of our age. Atri lays down that a twiceborn should recite *sandhyā* thrice; (53) Vyāsa concurs and supplies three different names to the three different *sandhyās* as Gāyatrī, Sarasvatī, and Sāvitrī respectively. (54) The Nibandha writers accept this theory and prescribe three *sandhyās* universally.