History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.48

v6.c82.48

Among astronomical works the Sūryasiddhānta states⁶⁷⁵ 'Kāla is the destroyer of worlds; another (kind of time) is of the nature of calculation; Kāla is of two kinds, gross and subtile, which are also called *mūrta* (physically apprehensible) and *amūrta* (not so apprehended); (the divisions of) time called *prāṇa* (respiration) and the like are mūrta, while *truṭi* and the like are *amūrta*' The Caraka-saṃhitā⁶⁷⁶ includes Kāla among nine dravyas and holds that it is *acetana* (non-sentient) Thus it agrees with the Vaiśeṣika view. In the Suśrutasaṃhitā it is declared 'Kāla is indeed self-existent, without beginning, middle or end; the poverty or richness of substances that have (one or more of the six) flavours (rasas) and the life and death of human beings are dependent on Kāla It is called Kāla because it does not remain sticking to even the smallest division or because it heaps together (beings by leading beings to death) or drives them together. Of that adorable Kāla which assumes the character of year, the divine Sun produces by his special movements the divisions called twinkling of the eye, kāṣṭhā &c.