History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.669.1

v6.c82.669.1

It has already been shown how in Vedic works the year was denoted by several synonyms such as saṁvatsara, samā, varṣa. In the Nārada-saṁhitā¹⁰¹¹ it is said that there are nine kinds of reckonings of time, viz. Brāhma (of Brahmā), Daiva (of the gods), Mānusa (human), pitrya (of the Pitrs), Saura, Sāvana, Cāndra, Nākṣatra and Bārhaspatya, but that in ordinary wordly matters only five of these are employed. The Vedāṅga-jyotiṣa appears to refer to four when it says that in a *yuga* (of five years) there are 61 *sāvana* months, 62 lunar months, 67 nākṣatra months. Hemādri (*on Kāla*, p. 9) dwells on only three of these year reckonings, viz. cāndra, saura, and sāvana, while Mādhava (in Kālanirṇaya-kārikās 11-12) speaks of two more, viz Nākṣatra and Bārhaspatya. The Viṣṇudharmottara speaks of four (not mentioning Bārhaspatya). The three mentioned by Hemādri are those most employed in religious and civil matters, and dharmaśāstra works are specially concerned with them, while the other two are rarely referred to in the latter. A cāndra month¹⁰¹² is a time period from the end of one amāvāsyā (New Moon) to the next amāvāsyā and twelve such months make the cāndra year of 354 days It is also called a lunation. The length of a cāndra month varies from 29.246 to 29.817 days owing to the eccentricity of the moon's orbit and other causes and its average period is 29.53059 days. A saura month is the time taken by the sun to move through one sign of the zodiac;