History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.750

v6.c82.750

On the origin and development of the seven-day cycle the leading work is F. H. Colson’s ‘the week’ (Cambridge University Press, 1926). Some of his arguments may be briefly indicated Dion Cassius (first quarter of 3rd century A.D.) in his 37th book says that Jerusalem was captured1067a by Pompey in 63 B C. owing to the reverence of the Jews for Saturday (their Sabbath day) and he further makes the statements that planetary week originated in Egypt, that it was of recent growth and that it was in general use in his day; vide Dio’s ‘Roman History’ vol. III pp 129, 131 where two traditional explanations are given as to how the week days were named after planets, the 2nd of which is based on the 24 hours of the day and night What must be emphasized is that Dio is positive that week days did not originate in Greece, but in Egypt and their introduction was recent Dio was a Roman and wrote his History between 200 to 222 A. D Therefore, the introduction of week days in Greece could not have been earlier than the first century of the Gupta year¹⁰⁷⁰ 165 (i e. A. D. 484), which mentions Thursday and the 12th tithi of the bright half of Āṣāḍha. Supposing for argument that weekdays were originally borrowed from some foreign country, at least a few hundred years would be necessary before such a borrowed system could become general and could be utilized even in Indian proclamations by a great Indian imperial dynasty like the Guptas.