Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c8.21

Language: English

c8.21

For the division of the day and night into hours, they divided the whole of the day and night into 8 Pahars (Persian, Pas), each Pahar being equal to three hours of our modern time. These 8 Pahars were subdivided into 60 Gharis, each Ghari being thus equal to 24 minutes of our reckoning. The Ghari was further divided into 60 Palas; so that a day and a night were composed of 3,600 Palas. The exact duration of a Pahar or Ghari was adjusted according to astronomical calculations, so that hardly any difficulty was experienced in finding out the exact time with the aid of a calendar. Babur and Abu’l Fazl have made detailed observations in this connection.

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