History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.739

v6.c82.739

One of the five angas in the Indian pañcāṅgas is the week-day. A brief discussion on days and week-days has therefore to be held. The interval between two sunrises was considered as the most important unit of time This is solar and is called the civil day But *tithi* is a lunar division of time (as described above) and begins and ends at various spaces in the solar day. The word 'day' has two meanings, viz (1) from sunrise to sunset and (2) from sunrise to sunrise ¹⁰⁶² In Ṛg. the word 'ahah' is applied to both the dark part of it (i. e 'rātri' night) and to the bright part.¹⁰⁶³ The word *rātri* is not so frequently used in the Ṛgveda as the word 'ahan' and the word 'dina' is very frequently used in compounds like 'sudinatva', 'sudina' 'madhyandina'; 'ahorātra' (day and night) occurs only once in the Ṛg. X. 190.2 The word 'pūrvāhna' (first part of the day or forenoon) occurs in the Ṛgveda X. 34 11. Three parts of the day also occur in the Ṛgveda viz prātah, *saṅgava* and madhyandina¹⁰⁶⁴ (mid-day). These are three out of the five parts of the day, the other two being aparāhna and *astamaya*, *astagamana* or *sāyāhna*, which five are mentioned in the Śatapatha Br. II. 3 29 Both 'prātah' (morning) and 'sāyam' (evening) occur in Ṛg. V. 77. 2 and 'sāyam' alone in Ṛg VIII. 2 20, X. 146. 3 and 40. The day and night were also divided into eight parts by Kauṭilya (I. 19) and by Dakṣa and Kātyāyana The division of the day and night each into 15 muhūrtas has been already dealt with at some length on pp. 537-541.